Sony could be cribbing Xbox's playbook for PS6 and the future of PlayStation

PlayStation Portal review image — (Image credit: Rik Henderson / Future)

Quick Summary

Sony could look to Xbox Cloud Gaming as the yard stick for its own cloud gaming technologies.

There are claims that it could look to improve the storage speeds across its servers, to offer a next-generation cloud service when the PS6 rolls around.

It is largely believed that, in the grander console wars, Sony won this generation. The PS5 sold considerably more units than Xbox Series X and Series S combined. And its mid-range refresh – the PS5 Pro – is undoubtedly the most-powerful games console we've had to date.

It is claimed that when a next-generation PlayStation arrives, it will be accompanied by a next-gen cloud gaming service.

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While PS Plus Premium members have access to games via Sony's own cloud gaming platform, on both PS5 and the PlayStation Portal, the technology and scope is seen as inferior to Xbox Cloud Gaming.

Sony reportedly has plans to address that.

According to MP1st, upgrades could be coming to make the service more competitive – to improve its infrastructure and, potentially, lower latency. It is claimed that it will enhance the technology at server level, with once change touted being the adoption of PCIe Gen5 NVMe storage that's considerably faster than what's currently employed.

By reducing load and access times, this could have an impact on play for the consumer. At the very least, it should dramatically reduce the queuing time it takes for a game to start up.

PCIe Gen5 NVMe storage almost doubles the speed of access over Gen4. It's also suggested that this will be found in the PS6 console too – with the built-in SSD potentially capable of up to 14,900 MB/s read speeds.

Developers could have a field day with their games if they could live load assets at those speeds.

This is just a rumour for now, of course, but it wouldn't be a far stretch to believe that Sony would want to improve its cloud gaming service. After all, it's become the heart of the PlayStation Portal and with regularly leaked plans to bring a PS6 handheld to market, it could be important to that device too.

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Rik is T3’s news editor, which means he looks after the news team and the up-to-the-minute coverage of all the hottest gadgets and products you’ll definitely want to read about. And, with more than 35 years of experience in tech and entertainment journalism, including editing and writing for numerous websites, magazines, and newspapers, he’s always got an eye on the next big thing.

Rik also has extensive knowledge of AV, TV streaming and smart home kit, plus just about everything to do with games since the late 80s. Prior to T3, he spent 13 years at Pocket-lint heading up its news team, and was a TV producer and presenter on such shows as Channel 4's GamesMaster, plus Sky's Games World, Game Over, and Virtual World of Sport.