Sony's Jim Ryan discusses cloud gaming, Call of Duty and Starfield in court
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Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan believes that cloud gaming will not begin to become a significant part of the games industry for at least a few more years, perhaps not for another decade.
He also said he did not believe Microsoft's decision to make Starfield exclusive to Xbox was anticompetitive (although he "[doesn't] like it"), that Activision's current agreement only keeps Call of Duty on PlayStation consoles until the end of 2025, and that he believes Microsoft will use the best-selling shooter series to "disadvantage PlayStation."
Ryan's comments on cloud gaming came during his time on the witness stand as part of this week's hearing between the Federal Trade Commission and Microsoft.
The legal clash is centred around determining whether the FTC should be granted a block against Microsoft completing its acquisition of Activision Blizzard before the August hearing with the Commission's administrative judge.
On the subject of cloud gaming – which has become a sticking point for Microsoft's proposed acquisition, causing the UK's competition regulator to block the deal (pending Microsoft and Activision's appeal) – Ryan agreed when asked whether it was difficult to create a robust cloud platform and clarified how PlayStation views this technology.
"Cloud technology will become a meaningful component of how gamers access games between 2025 and 2035"
"We consider this a service component of PlayStation Plus," he said, adding that the current PlayStation Plus component of cloud gaming has "been in existence since last year."
When pressed about how long Sony has operated a cloud gaming service – with the lawyer referring to the
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