What Microsoft and Sony’s streaming partnership means for gaming’s future

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In a rare move, console rivals Microsoft and Sony announced a major collaboration on Thursday to join forces on a potentially huge new gaming sector: the cloud. The companies announced today that they have entered into a “memorandum of understanding” to “explore joint development of future cloud solutions in Microsoft Azure to support their respective game and content-streaming services.”

The surprise move is the closest sign of collaboration between two fierce competitors in the console-gaming space, but it is probably not a sign that they will stop being competitors any time soon.

As part of the agreement, Sony will still use Microsoft’s Azure servers and data centers for its own game and content-streaming services. That presumably includes PlayStation Now—the Sony game-streaming service launched in 2014 after Sony’s 2012 acquisition of streaming company Gaikai—and PlayStation Vue, the company’s Internet-based cable TV alternative.