Report: Sony employees caught off guard by Microsoft cloud partnership

Enlarge / The kinds of Azure server racks that could soon play host to Sony content, under a recent cooperation deal.

Following on Microsoft and Sony’s surprising announcement of a cloud gaming partnership last week, Bloomberg has a bit of behind-the-scenes analysis that uses unnamed insider sources to discuss how the deal came about.

Though Sony confirmed to Bloomberg that talks between the two console giants had been going on since last year, the announcement still caught rank-and-file employees at the company off guard, according to Bloomberg’s sources. “Managers had to calm workers and assure them that plans for the company’s next-generation console weren’t affected,” as Bloomberg summarizes the view from inside the company.

Sony has already spun its 2012 purchase of streaming gaming company Gaikai into over 700,000 subscribers for its cloud-based PlayStation Now service, which launched in 2015. But Sony’s server and network infrastructure has proven insufficient to provide the “as good as local” experience promised (but yet to be proven) by major competitors like Google’s recently announced Stadia service. That led Sony to reach out to other companies with more established cloud infrastructure to expand its streaming gaming footprint.