Cloud-gaming service Gaikai has officially launched in 12 countries. Similar to the war between say Netflix and GameFly, Gaikai will be directly competing with OnLive, although in a much different form.
Like with OnLive, Gaikai is a cloud-gaming technology that allows you to play fully-fledged PC games on meager computer hardware without having to download the games, install them or upgrade your machine.
Unlike OnLive, which works through a powerful and unique client and is a subscription based “Games On Demand”-style service, Gaikai is a technology for video game publishers, developers, retailers, and affiliates that gives gamers the ability to play specific games, fully-fledged, directly in their PC browser! In fact, you can play Mass Effect 2 right now for free to see how it works at the official Gaikai web-site. Pretty sick eh!
Other games that are playable RIGHT NOW via your browser using Gaikai include Dead Space 2, The Sims 3, Spore and Second Life. Currently Gaikai is in closed-beta, you can sign up at the official web-site.
Here is a video of Gaikai in action.
Another major difference between OnLive and Gaikai, is that Gaikai is an all-new GAMING PLATFORM that promises to offer their service all-over the Internet instead of directly to the consumer via a portal… allowing any web-site to give their readers the capability to play major AAA videogames instantly, with no plug-ins or downloads, FOR FREE. The revenue is then shared with these web-sites 50/50! This is exciting stuff folks!
“Our thinking is somewhat like YouTube, as instead of just building a portal to go and watch videos, they decided to focus on putting videos everywhere on the web. We are doing the same with games” – David Perry, Gaikai founder
Using Gaikai, game developers will be able to change the way they offer their content to players. For example, instead of offering just a demo, they could offer the full game or parts of it fully playable on any PC for free on a plethora of web-sites. As you can imagine the advertising potential is huge. They wouldn’t even have to develop a demo! Not only that, but ads can also run alongside the games to create additional revenue for all parties involved. Gaikai also plans to target social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace hard, in order to get Gaikai service running and visible all over the net.
Gaikai is headed by David Perry, whom you may recognize (or remember if you’re a 90’s gamer) as the creator of Earthworm Jim and Shiny Entertainment, who made a name for themselves in the 90’s with cult favorites like MDK. Perry says that Gaikai could be the biggest change in the gaming industry of all time. If it picks up, you could say, play a full version of a game on a web-site right after reading a review.
To quote:
“Our main focus is our Advertising strategy, where we can put any game anywhere on the web. Our objective has been to empower publishers and retailers to give gamers what they keep asking for… ‘Let me try the game!’ Nobody else in the world has achieved this kind of streaming performance directly into browsers, it’s technically the most advanced interactive advertising unit in existence. Our thinking is somewhat like YouTube, as instead of just building a portal to go and watch videos, they decided to focus on putting videos everywhere on the web. We are doing the same with games, so when you read a review on a game, you can try playing it right there on the same page as the review.”
Gaikai actually isn’t the first service to offer full games in browsers (there was one before called InstantAction, no longer in existence), but this time the pedigree and, more importantly, the games, are there in full force. If this service succeeds, it could fundamentally change how games are accessed, tried and ultimately bought. However you will need to have a fast enough Internet connection to play the game with good speed; And you may have to deal with ads. Not only that, but trying is not the same as OWNING, so this won’t replace having to actually buy the game (don’t expect to be able to keep a save file).
Either way, does this technology and cloud-gaming service excite you?