Xbox and PlayStation ‘teaming up to fight Google’ with Netflix for games
GAMES consoles will be here for "years and years", according to Sony, after the firm teamed up with Microsoft to counter the threat from Google.
Google Stadia and other game-streaming services could mean the PS5 and Xbox 2 are the last consoles you ever own according to some - but not if Sony has anything to do with it.
Talking to , new PlayStation boss Jim Ryan revealed they were "at grave risk of having events around us overtake us" before taking action and signing an unprecedented peace treaty with Microsoft, putting an end to at least one front of the console wars in a direct effort to counter Google.
"When you've got these big, very large companies coming into your space, I think simply viewing the world in the terms you viewed it in the past 25 years, with the competition you've had over the past 25 years, is probably not a very sensible approach to take," he said in an interview with the tech site.
It would be "years and years and years" before cloud gaming was ready for prime time across the world, he said, noting that many countries were Sony makes a lot of its money just don't have the infrastructure to support it.
Microsoft hit back at Google Stadia days after the announcement, promising to "go big" in a reassuring email sent to shellshocked staff.
While some parts of countries like the UK are ready, along with places such as Japan and South Korea, huge swathes of the world just don't have access to the high-speed low-latency connections needed to make game streaming a fun experience.
Are we ready for game streaming?
THE UK's cities seem to be well-served for game streaming.
Ofcom says 95 percent of the United Kingdom has access to 'superfast' broadband, defined as over 24Mbps.
This is higher than the 20Mbps Google recommends for Stadia streaming in HD, and while it's not quite enough for 4K streaming, average speeds are rising very quickly.
However, outside of major cities the average speed in the UK is still under 20Mbps, with high-speed connections in urban areas skewing the numbers.
Speed isn't just about how fast you can download movies, but also about how fast the server your computer is talking to responds when you ask it to do something.
Called 'latency', this can be a problem for games - and while Google has released minimum speeds for Stadia, it hasn't said how low your latency should be.
Even with a super-speedy connection, if the server is a long way away or the messages to it need to take a complicated route, that 'travel time' for your messages can have a serious impact on gaming.
It might not matter if your 30-minute movie download doesn't start for a second after you ask for it - but when playing a game if the on-screen character doesn't appear to respond immediately to you pressing a button on your controller the experience is ruined.
Average broadband speeds in both the US are below the minimum recommended by Google for Stadia for even HD-quality gaming, and significantly below the 4K-quality top-notch consoles provide.
More than a quarter of Americans outside major cities say that getting ANY high-speed Internet is a "major problem", .
How to check your internet speed
Doing a speed test is easy – simply head to the hugely popular SpeedTest website:
You can also download the app on both iOS and Android:
- iOS test –
- Android test –
SpeedTest will give you a download speed read-out in Mbps (megabits per second).
So as long as you're consistently hitting 25-30Mbps, your internet is probably good enough to play using Google Stadia.
Google hasn't said how low your latency needs to be - but if it's over 30ms that's an indicator something might be awry.
PlayStation Now, a subscription service PlayStation offer that lets you stream games from Sony's back catalogue to your PS4 or PC, will be taken "to the next level later this year and then in the years to come," he said.
He admitted he "didn't know" if the PlayStation 5 would be Sony's last console, suggesting that a console and cloud-gaming hybrid model – perhaps like the All-Digital Xbox One S – could be the way forward.
Microsoft showed off its own streaming platform xCloud in a recent demo showing a top-tier console-exclusive racing game running on a mobile phone, but these sorts of services will only supplement consoles rather than replacing them.
It also compared streaming services like Stadia being to gaming what listening to Spotify on bad speakers is to music - an alternative that's useful when you just want some tunes, but hardly a replacement for a decent hi-fi.
Google has promised to reveal more information about Stadia, including how much it will cost and what games you can play, in on June 6 at 5p.m. UK time.
The E3 festivities kick off in Los Angeles on Saturday, with Microsoft's briefing on Sunday expected to bring news of the Xbox 2 and their latest in cloud gaming technology.
Sony aren't attending this year, however, so don't hold your breath for PS5 updates.
Sun Gaming will be at the show, to stay tuned for more news as it breaks.
Video game streaming – how does it work?
We explain it all...
- When you watch a movie, the images you see are already prepared
- That's why very unsophisticated computers inside your TV, DVD player, or computer can playback film footage
- But video games render the visuals in real-time, because a game never knows what you'll do next
- That means you need much more computing heft to produce game visuals, compared to a standard movie
- So if you want amazing 4K PC-style graphics, you'll need to fork out for an expensive computer
- Alternatively, you could use game streaming technology
- The idea is that a company like Microsoft or Sony would handle the generation of the visuals on powerful computers at its own HQ
- Then it would send what's effectively a video of that game to your smartphone
- You tap and play, and those commands get sent back to Microsoft or Sony, which then inputs them into the game, and sends you the visuals again
- Because modern internet connections are so fast, this all happens in milliseconds
- The resulting effect is 4K PC-style graphics on a smartphone – which is only possible because it's not the phone itself rendering the graphics
- It also means that you could potentially be playing an Xbox or PlayStation game on your console, and then leave the house and carry on playing using your iPhone
- This sort of technology could eventually kill off gaming consoles for good, because all you'd need is a TV with game-streaming tech built in, and a controller to play with
- But game streaming hasn't had any great successes thus far
- Sony bought a game-streaming called OnLive, but shut it down in 2015
- And Nvidia has its own game-streaming service, but laggy performance has prevented it from becoming a mainstream choice
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