The main news of the weekend was ironically to kill any expectations and hope that Project Q, or the newest Playstation handheld announced by Sony at the Playstation Showcase 2023, would have been a PSP & PS Vita follow-up.

Japanese Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Kenichiro Yoshida pretty much did this by downplaying the current state of Cloud Gaming and why we might not see further improvement of the Ps Plus Premium offering that includes PS3 games via Cloud Gaming.

This is what he said to Financial Times:

“I think cloud itself is an amazing business model, but when it comes to games, the technical difficulties are high.

So there will be challenges to cloud gaming, but we want to take on those challenges.

The dark time for cloud gaming had been an issue for Microsoft as well as Google, but it was meaningful that we were able to use those [quieter] hours for AI learning.”

Evidently, this is quite a contrast when his American counterpart, America’s SIE CEO Jim Ryan claimed that there are aggressive plans on Playstation and its Cloud Gaming future, based on the trends of the last years regarding gaming.

I am surprised that while it is true that neither Google or Microsoft have perfectly nailed (technologically speaking, Google Stadia is STILL the superior but so mismanaged…) and added to the mix GeForce Cloud, BlackNut and Boosteroid, there is some plausibility.

But there you have it, if you were considering the product of Playstation Project Q for Cloud Gaming specific, you might at least have your hopes VEEEEERRRRYYYYY LOW!

This ruins whatever chances Playstation had against nailing the failure of Activision Blizzard acquisition

Of course, not only the failure of Playstation lobby against Microsoft getting the legal “ok” to buy Activision Blizzard (and actually backfire as members of the Congress did not welcomed the narrative of Playstation against the buyout accusing them of being the monopolistic), but, Sony indirectly have ruined the chances the CMA, virtually the only big stone in the way of Microsoft on winning the appeal that enforced on the transaction in the UK.

CMA focused on how “detrimental” it will be for Cloud Gaming marketer, Microsoft already responded to this, inking 10 year agreements to major Cloud Gaming services that acknowledged that it was very convenient for them.

The EU Commission on their part already stated that CMA miscalculated or overstated to have a dire narrative and even local politicians and government agencies that are interested in the “UK is Open For Business' ' have raised concerns that the CMA has overreached their position for partial reasons.

By Sony accepting that Cloud Gaming is not viable yet, this hurts CMA’s standing because of the above already explained and also, main competitor next to Sony is Nintendo and they are already abroad with Microsoft as they also have a 10 year agreement on Nintendo platform receiving a Call Of Duty port guaranteed.