The gaming industry was shocked to its core when it was announced that Microsoft and Sony would be partnering on cloud gaming and streaming, with Microsoft Azure in part powering Sony's future game streaming plans. Despite Xbox and PlayStation being each other's chief competitor, it seems that the gaming giants are putting their differences aside for mutual benefit, though it's unclear how the individuals at the companies feel about the deal.

Head of Xbox Phil Spencer, who has done a ton of work to repair the Xbox brand after the botched reveal of the Xbox One, recently spoke about the partnership on Twitter. Spencer said that he is "excited" about future opportunities to work with Sony on "mutual gaming ambitions."

It seems Spencer thinks highly of the Xbox and PlayStation partnership, which isn't surprising. After all, with the gaming industry edging ever-closer to an all-digital, streaming future, it's easy to see how the two could benefit by working together during such a significant transition.

While it seems likely that physical game media will eventually disappear in favor of an all-digital future, it's worth pointing out that the next-gen consoles will still have disc drives. Despite this, though, both the PS5 and the next Xbox are expected to make game streaming one of their biggest features. With Google Stadia also throwing its hat in the ring when it comes to video game streaming, it makes sense that Microsoft and Sony want to team up to ensure that they can deliver the best game streaming experience possible.

Whether or not they succeed in that goal remains to be seen, but it's worth noting that important groundwork has already been done when it comes to game streaming for both Xbox and PlayStation. Xbox is already offering a subscription service that customers have shown they want to sign up for in Game Pass, and it's not a stretch to say that future iterations of Game Pass could very well offer game streaming on top of traditional downloads. PlayStation Now, meanwhile, is already offering game streaming and downloads, and it's expected to evolve even further on the PS5.

At this point, it's not entirely clear how the Xbox and PlayStation partnership will change up the dynamic when it comes to the next-generation consoles, but it will be interesting to see how it all plays out, to say the least.