Sony’s CEO has warned that cloud gaming is “very tricky”, with costly inefficiencies and latency acting as roadblocks for wider adoption.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Kenichiro Yoshida said it wasn’t planning to dive into the nascent cloud gaming industry with the same gusto as Microsoft has, although it is eyeing artificial intelligence options to enhance the current experience..

“I think cloud itself is an amazing business model, but when it comes to games, the technical difficulties are high,” said Yoshida, noting that latency is the biggest issue.

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

Sony first launched its cloud gaming subscription service in 2014, which is now folded into the PS Plus Premium offering. It made a A$575 million bet on the sector even earlier, when it acquired cloud gaming company Gaikai for that amount in 2012.

Yoshida believes many inefficiencies around player load need to be addressed, where servers sit idle for most of the day, only to be flooded by demand during the evening.

“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 hours for AI learning,” said Yoshida.

Sony’s recently announced PlayStation handheld, known only as Project Q, bypasses cloud streaming altogether, instead requiring the device to be connected to a PlayStation 5 console in order to play it.

This speaks volumes about Sony’s current belief in cloud gaming as a viable option for players.