Nah... people who have experience in aws shouldn't have a huge problem changing the cloud provider.
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Bloomberg: Sony's Deal With Microsoft Blindsided Its Own PlayStation Team
- Thread starter vivftp
- Start date
do we have any reason to believe that they would struggle to switch? and it's not like this is a transition expected to happen overnight, people have time to adapt.
Yeah, it's practically nothing. Probably just makes for a good story and that's why we even hear about this. MS gets
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I'd imagine the worry would be about switching to a new service provider just before a new gen could set them off track more than possible layoffs or whatever. (I should say we don't know how the Sony x MS partnership will affect PSN btw).
Yeah, I don't get that, these teams will simply divert thier expertise to become Azure operations, happens in our business, these guys are generalist and will go in the direction the business feels is best, not sure why anyone would feel they're jobs is at risk, especially the domain knowledge of the inner workings of their current system is absolutely fundamental in migrating over to a new platform, and in particular, make improvements to current pain points . They will be needed for maintaining and improving thier new stack thereafter.
There will always be concern with big changes.
Partner, not just customer.
https://news.microsoft.com/2019/05/16/sony-and-microsoft-to-explore-strategic-partnership/
MS needs Sony's tech for their AI solution.
sure.
Partners... except Sony will use Microsoft's own cloud platform, and not that they'll make a co-owned cloud infrastructure.
So they're partners like Asus is partner of Microsoft in the sense that they preinstall Windows on their PC and Laptops.
Sony's tech is not that big of a deal, Microsoft is already ahead of them, and i mean look at their resources, do you really think they need Sony? this deal is obviously extremely beneficial to Microsoft because Sony will use their data centers as explained in the memorandum of understanding.
Nah, I think people working in one environment will be perfectly capable of working with another.
I also think there's quite a good chance Sony will be keeping many business support functions on AWS. Of course it's still early days, and things could change as plans become more concrete beyond a memorandum of understanding, but as of right now, they're still hiring for projects around migrations of certain functions to AWS.
By the sounds of it, it was more like people were wondering if this was going to affect next gen console plans. I mean if you heard generalised rumours about a tie-up between your employer and a rival, it doesn't take much for the imagination to start worrying about possible overlaps or redundancies or whatever. It's not hard to imagine the need for management to step in and clarify and relax matters.
Any change in an organisation can be a point of anxiety.
No, but they may own, co-own, technology IP that comes out of any technical collaboration with MS on other parts of the stack. Sony is highly unlikely to collaborate on a streaming stack with MS without some intellectual property interest in whatever things are developed in joint work between their employees, and I've no doubt MS is interested in licensing patents Sony has already acquired over the last years in streaming. We'll see also about how hardware is going to work within the data centers, if and where custom hardware is required for Sony.
Of course but maybe you're not aware that Sony is the world leader in image sensors and this Sony's cutting edge tech will be used
You don't make a statement like they did with both CEO of MS and Sony just to say Sony will be a simple customer, it's a full partnership across different segments including gaming
That was my point, they are just worried of big changes, but i dont think its related to any fanboy console warriors that some people are trying to push lol.
And MS will get supplied presumably with Sony's top of the line image sensors, which they are comfortably the market leader in last I checked (like 40%-50% I think it was). Whereas MS aren't involved with that at all. There's a reason both are talking about a (hopefully) mutually beneficial partnership and not just each supplying the other with what they want.
I thought it doesnt matter which cloud service PS uses, if it's cloud computing from Amazon or Microsoft or their own. At the end it's just a server standing someplace and what's running on it should be beveloped by the company running resources on a server?
If it's more cost efficient to rent MS server capacity then from Amazon or your own - good call I guess.
If it's more cost efficient to rent MS server capacity then from Amazon or your own - good call I guess.
How the fuck do you make a decision like this without involving probably one of the biggest stakeholder groups affected? Doesn't sound right or bode well. While I see no technical issues with switching to Azure, I hope this wasn't some meat-headed decision by non-Playstation exec types. If they don't get buy in from the teams most affected it could have pretty adverse effects.
We don't know which components they will use for PSNow - but saying azure means, at least to me, more than just co-location.
Exactly, this is generally how things work most of the times. And people at SIE weren't blindsided, at least not the main people/higher ups.
They will also become a major customer similar to other MS customers using Azure i.e Exxon Mobil.
As long as they keep paying MS a fee to use their cloud tech they will remain customers.
Oh yes i'm aware, at least for the consumer part, the sensors sold for consumer tech products.
To me that just feels a compromise to make it not sound like Sony is the customer here, because they'd have never accepted it otherwise, but we all know Microsoft is very focused on finding partners for their platforms, Sony will pay and use Microsoft data centers.
I remember reading somewhere that the xCloud hardware was going to be used for other azure tasks when not in use
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This post smell of stealth fanboyish statement. If MS was that ahead to Sony tech why submit a deal with them to reach a common achievement in the AI/cloud front? Come on now.
Of course they charge themselves. I mean, it's all still MS internally shifting money but they do have to count the money spent on Azure by Xbox to have the data internally for financial reviews and to have insight.
Like i said, Sony would have probably never accepted to be just a customer, so this is shaped like a partnership.
Microsoft wants companies to use their platforms, it's really their core business.
No it's very much clarifying that if this was a joint venture for a cloud infrastructure, that would be co-owned, instead it is Sony joining Microsoft Azure and in order to do that Microsoft will collaborate with Sony on AI and use their image sensors.
That deal is not even about game streaming. It's just PR.
One of biggest client for MS is US government.
"integrating Sony's cutting-edge image sensors with Microsoft's Azure AI technology"
+
https://www.vox.com/2019/2/22/18236290/microsoft-military-contract-augmented-reality-ar-vr
https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2018/10/26/technology-and-the-us-military/
https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2018/12/06/facial-recognition-its-time-for-action/
It's pretty simple, really :)
and why it's important
One of biggest client for MS is US government.
"integrating Sony's cutting-edge image sensors with Microsoft's Azure AI technology"
+
https://www.vox.com/2019/2/22/18236290/microsoft-military-contract-augmented-reality-ar-vr
https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2018/10/26/technology-and-the-us-military/
https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2018/12/06/facial-recognition-its-time-for-action/
It's pretty simple, really :)
and why it's important
In addition to smartphones business (Apple/Samsung/Huawei, etc...), Sony also provides its image sensors to different segments like security (camera for example) or line production (for QA) for companies or autonomus/intelligent cars and in the near future for robotics if it's not already the case. It's a big segment and will grow a lot in the future, that's why Sony invest more than $5 billions in their Semiconductors segment through 2020
Maybe you're right about "to make it not sound like Sony is the customer" but we don't know
Personal conjectures aren't exactly the most reliable source in such matter especially for spit out hyperbolic statement, with all respect.
They would have, the guy who runs PSN division and was head of SIE when talks allegedly happened, is on the Sony Senior Management team. No real point in changing the network if the high up people running the network have no knowledge or input on them changing or who they are changing over to. The article doesn't mention anything about who it was that didn't know, pretty unlikely it was the entire SIE organisation though. If's probably something Sony uppermanagement wanted to keep close to their chest too, given they had already went to Amazon and couldn't come to to an agreement according to the article.
Then it is all just normal business, people in the low end are that last to know about this kind of stuff.
The Nikkei has some additional details in its reporting:
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Bu...t-set-rivalry-aside-for-cloud-gaming-alliance
That indeed, Microsoft is interested in purchasing sensors from Sony primarily for self driving cars.
That Sony will look to embed Cortana in speakers, televisions etc.
There'll be joint development of cloud gaming tech, Sony will obviously be an azure customer to scale out its cloud streaming business.
That article also notes that Yoshida signed the deal last week on a trip to the US.
They are both consumers and suppliers to each other, but on the gaming and computer vision fronts there'll also be some joint intellectual property development, so when you combine the scale of these supplier/customer relationships with joint r&d work, I think it's understandable why they would talk in terms of a strategic partnership.
Yeah so like they said in the statement, it's a full partnership. Thanks for the link
Yeah, most probably the case. Still shitty communication on Sony's side if even just most of the lower-mid network and services people were completely in the dark until after the announcement, but I really doubt it took the SIE management by surprise, as that'd just be stupid on Sony's part, especially so given those teams are probably deep in planning and designing PS5 stuff and I'd assume being in the loop with who is or will be the cloud services provider would be pretty important knowledge and a surprise transfer everything over to Azure command would probably fuck with a lot of the planning.
btw, tomorrow is Sony IR day – https://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/library/presen/irday/
You will be able to listen audio stream.
You will be able to listen audio stream.
I obviously don't know any better than Sony's management but...I can't help but wonder why they couldn't (1) continue to lease Ms servers but (2) collaborate with Google instead for computer vision.
Cortana is next to worthless and Google has far more interesting applications (consumer-facing too, which suits Sony) for AI-driven imaging tech.
I suppose, barring any exclusivity deals, they could partner with Google (or others) on other semiconductor/AI projects also. They mention in the press release that part of the collab on semiconductors/sensors/ai will be on development of solutions for enterprise customers, and for that MS might be a more attractive partner.
It's possible that in order to grant Sony a collaborative role in cloud gaming tech, Microsoft wanted a collaboration on sensors/ai. It's also possible they were talking with Google around cloud gaming - and like with Amazon they couldn't come to commercial terms.
My concern falls as far as Sony switching it's plans and following Microsoft's Xbox ethos which as a fan of narrative titles , anti drm , physical media and digital over streaming I would fall prey to fanboy stipulations and panic
Then I realise it's not going to happen
Then I realise it's not going to happen
Possibly just part of the overall deal they came to? Which is probably really good if Amazon and Sony couldn't come to an agreement. We really don't know enough to know for sure though. Just seems it's a deal both will benefit from.
In a vacuum with nothing else to worry about, it wouldn't be panic inducing. But there's a next-gen launch coming up and undoubtedly timelines they had set up for implementing x, y and z. Except now they have the additional stress of migrating and re configuring how the stuff they had thought was already done (a - w) works. It'd be additional unexpected amount of work on top of the already existing work you needed to do, that needs to be handled within the same amount of time, and nobody likes that. They may have been barely meeting deadlines as it is.
But anyways, even from the article it seems that they either won't be migrating whatever services those folks are responsible for, before next gen, (or they're bringing on another team to handle the migration) and that is exactly the key point used to calm those employees down it seems.
Sony, Microsoft and everyone else are just following the market. MS has just bought a load of SP focussed studios. Its not as simple as "doing X or Y". Companies have to follow trends.
To think in 20 years it will make sense for physical disc games and for standard big budget AAAs to be plentiful is naive. Everything is changing and will continue to do so. To pretend otherwise means you will fail.
Lol, who actually wants this or believes it is possible? There will most likely always be competition, and consoles are not exempt. I think Nintendo would be the holdout and require someone aggressively taking over their company. The one-console future actually sounds pretty bleak. At that point, just publish everything on PC. What's the point of dedicated hardware if it's all the same?
Already exists, announced at the HoloLens 2 event, explicitly hooks up with Azure services including AI. VERY likely to be involved in this deal.
In case you didn't know, some pretty bad/racist connotations with that abbreviation stemming from WW2, at least in the US.
MS shouldn't buy Sony. But, no, the government would not step in. There are few or no legal or regulatory barriers to foreign acquisitions of domestic companies. (Here's a recent thread where I asked exactly this question. I should link it.) The shareholders and Sony's board would most likely have to approve it, so it can't be a hostile takeover, but I doubt MS would try that anyway. If MS and Sony both agreed to an acquisition deal, the government couldn't/wouldn't stop it.
Yea.. this doesn't make sense. As diehard of a MS fanboy as I can be, I can realize that Cortana isn't a business Sony wants to get into. Self-driving isn't a business Microsoft wants to get into, they got rid of their mapping service years ago and haven't even really pursued partnerships with car manufacturers in any capacity in years. This reporting seems odd. The link up with building up AI in computer vision applications makes MUCH more sense in terms of what both companies are investing in broadly at the moment.