Sony Buys a Cloud Gaming Service - Gaikai

By fmanchu
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Sony announced today that on Friday, while everybody else was winding down for the weekend, it went out and bought Gaikai, an online cloud gaming service similar to OnLive. For $380 million.

"By combining Gaikai's resources including its technological strength and engineering talent with SCE's extensive game platform knowledge and experience, SCE will provide users with unparalleled cloud entertainment experiences," Andrew House, President and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, said in a statement.

"SCE will deliver a world-class cloud-streaming service that allows users to instantly enjoy a broad array of content ranging from immersive core games with rich graphics to casual content anytime, anywhere on a variety of internetconnected devices."

Gaikai's CEO is David Perry, of Earthworm Jim and Aladdin fame.

Sony plans to "establish a cloud service and expand its network business by taking full advantage of Gaikai's revolutionary technology and infrastructure including data centers servicing dozens of countries and key partners around the world."

Gaikai's service allows users to play a game on a TV on the "cloud". In other words, an off-site computer actually plays the game, while your actions are streamed to a screen.

While no specific applications for the technology were named by Sony, it certainly opens up some interesting possibilities for the company's PlayStation Network, online PC games catalogue and even the upcoming PS4/Orbis.

Source: http://kotaku.com/5922775/sony-buys-a-cloud-gaming-service

Grand Master

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Yeah, interested is basically an understatement. This could be great. But I just do not believe it based on other streaming services I have seen, while not all that many, they all left me terribly unimpressed. So I will believe the whole core games with rich graphical content claim when I see it. Until then, highly skeptical.

Grand Master

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Well, I just read the streaming requirements it demands. I'll be damned. I do not meet them. :cry:

Gaikai won't make console hardware obsolete, because Gaikai doesn't run everywhere. It requires a stable and fast Internet connection. The company's FAQ asks for "5+ megabits [downstream], but many demos will still work around 3 megabits". That's fine, except it doesn't work in my house in Brooklyn, not if I'm using my Internet connection for other things.

I could subscribe to faster speeds but it also means another $10-$15 a month. If they somehow pull off what I believe they cannot pull off, then I would consider it I suppose, but again, I am skeptical. And now also not crazy to have to spend more money per month.

Grand Master

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Well, I just read the streaming requirements it demands. I'll be damned. I do not meet them. :cry:

I could subscribe to faster speeds but it also means another $10-$15 a month. If they somehow pull off what I believe they cannot pull off, then I would consider it I suppose, but again, I am skeptical. And now also not crazy to have to spend more money per month.

I thought most of you Americans were on 20mb+ and what not? :p

Grand Master

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The potential this has for the Playstation Plus full games is phenomenal. Imagine being able to play full games instantly, rather than a 10GB download first!

I'd rather do 10+GB downloads than have any and all single player games nearly or completely ruined by latency. Also, if that demo on the gaikai site is anything to go by, the hideous amount of compression artifacts would ruin the game even further.

Well, I just read the streaming requirements it demands. I'll be damned. I do not meet them. :cry:

I could subscribe to faster speeds but it also means another $10-$15 a month. If they somehow pull off what I believe they cannot pull off, then I would consider it I suppose, but again, I am skeptical. And now also not crazy to have to spend more money per month.

You seriously don't have a mere 5mbit/sec down? Wow. I think my connection was atleast that like 6.5-7 years ago and i'm stuck in one of the most deadend cities in ohio..

Grand Master

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This, could have sworn you had crazy speeds before?

I've just had BT Infinity installed and now have 21mb so good to go I guess.

Yeah I'm thinking Larry might of gotten confused? He used to talk about being the only one who got fast speeds on PSN :laugh:

I'm guessing he thinks it means 5Mbyte / sec, instead what it means is roughly 625KBps, which is 5MB internet.

Grand Master

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Yeah I'm thinking Larry might of gotten confused? He used to talk about being the only one who got fast speeds on PSN :laugh:

I'm guessing he thinks it means 5Mbyte / sec, instead what it means is roughly 625KBps, which is 5MB internet.

Yeah, stupid Kotaku author got me real confused, then I looked up Megabit vs megabyte, which got me even more confused. :laugh:

I get these speeds (Wireless, hardwired gets up to 28 ish)

2043066204.png

So yeah, I always thought that was okay speeds.

As far as what AT said, I did used to get much more faster speeds though. Then I had to renew my 2 year contract with Verizon FIOS (which is why at the end of the day I hate Verizon), and to keep my cable and phone the same price, I am now on the lowest speeds internet wise FIOS offers, which kind of bums me out, but I guess it is still better then most.

So yeah, stupid Kotaku editor got me confused. Showing 19 down on his speeds and saying he does not have enough, I though we needed 50 down to equal 5. I guess also because I am skeptical I thought it as well. :laugh:

Grand Master

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Yeah, stupid Kotaku author got me real confused, then I looked up Megabit vs megabyte, which got me even more confused. :laugh:

I get these speeds (Wireless, hardwired gets up to 28 ish)

2043066204.png

So yeah, I always thought that was okay speeds.

As far as what AT said, I did used to get much more faster speeds though. Then I had to renew my 2 year contract with Verizon FIOS (which is why at the end of the day I hate Verizon), and to keep my cable and phone the same price, I am now on the lowest speeds internet wise FIOS offers, which kind of bums me out, but I guess it is still better then most.

So yeah, stupid Kotaku editor got me confused. Showing 19 down on his speeds and saying he does not have enough, I though we needed 50 down to equal 5. I guess also because I am skeptical I thought it as well. :laugh:

Yeah those speeds are blistering, 5-7x what I get :laugh: I'm just under the minimum needed for Gaikai at 4MB.

Grand Master

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Don't forget that it's not about your bandwidth, it's about your usage caps. Most people with broadband can supply 3 - 5 megabits of bandwidth to their console, but don't forget that this kind of technology works by using this bandwidth continuously... how long is it going to take to use up all your usage cap downloading at 5 megabits per second constantly? This kind of technology isn't really feasible for those people with bandwidth caps.

Then there's the issue of video resolution... OnLive's resolution is fairly poor, games appear fairly low res when you play them, certainly not crisp 720p/1080p quality like we're used to with games on disc. Can't comment on GaiKai though.

Grand Master

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Don't forget that it's not about your bandwidth, it's about your usage caps. Most people with broadband can supply 3 - 5 megabits of bandwidth to their console, but don't forget that this kind of technology works by using this bandwidth continuously... how long is it going to take to use up all your usage cap downloading at 5 megabits per second constantly? This kind of technology isn't really feasible for those people with bandwidth caps.

Then there's the issue of video resolution... OnLive's resolution is fairly poor, games appear fairly low res when you play them, certainly not crisp 720p/1080p quality like we're used to with games on disc. Can't comment on GaiKai though.

Gaikai comes out on top for quality - http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-face-off-gaikai-vs-onlive

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