In most cases, the rise of a bigger contender is what triggers potential partnerships and the same happened in the gaming industry as well.

According to the latest reports, Microsoft and Sony are partnering up for the combined use of technology in the world of gaming and cloud services. It should be noted that both of these companies have their own gaming devices, namely Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

“Under the memorandum of understanding signed by the parties, the two companies will explore joint development of future cloud solutions in Microsoft Azure to support their respective game and content-streaming services,” reads the official press report.

“In addition, the two companies will explore the use of current Microsoft Azure datacenter-based solutions for Sony’s game and content-streaming services.”

It should be noted, however, that the press release does not make any specific reference to PlayStation or Xbox.

That being said, both companies have used the terms ‘consumer entertainment’ and ‘gaming’ and it’s very unlikely that these two products and services are not included in the list.

However, there could be a notable difference in how this partnership works in real industry scenario.

“Sony has always been a leader in both entertainment and technology, and the collaboration we announced today builds on this history of innovation,” added Satya Nadella, who has been pushing towards partnerships and compatibility improvements since he started at his position.

“Our partnership brings the power of Azure and Azure AI to Sony to deliver new gaming and entertainment experiences for customers.”

Regardless of whether these companies admit it, it’s clear that the partnership is actually being motivated by the announcement of Google Stadia, which the Alphabet-company believes would revolutionise the gaming industry.

And, by the time Google Stadia makes it to the end-user, Sony and Microsoft can do something to enhance the reach of their established services.