Gaikai - New video game streaming service

[Blue-K]

The market is hard, and now OnLive, which even isn't released, got already a new competitor, called Gaikai. It comes from David Perry, developer of Earthworm Jim, Messiah and Enter the Matrix. Basicly it's the same as OnLive, Users can log in via the Internet browser, and stream games. No need to install something, no need for expensive hardware. But there are some differences from OnLive. First, it don't needs a Plug-In for the Browser (so you could play games at work without any problems), and it looks like that it will also play old games from Emulators. Also, (maybe just for fun) it can run applications like Photoshop.

This is just a simple demo of our Gaikai video game streaming technology working in a Firefox browser with no installs, no plug-ins. These retail games (selected because we think they are cool) are all being played on a remote server with a 800 mile round trip to my PC.

The games are unmodified and are completely virtualized so we can run multiple different games on the same server at the same time. One of the reasons the iPhone has over a billion downloads now, is because they made access really easy (click to download, click to play), we have managed to get our technology down to just the single "click to play" so you can play anywhere on the web (home, work, school, on the road), and the games can come to you (on a Facebook canvas page, Myspace, Flash sites etc.)

We will start buying bulk servers soon and after that, we will begin closed beta in California, so make sure to sign up at: gaikai.com if you want to help us out. My blog is at: dperry.com

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[da_head]

cool. that means onlive won't have a monopoly on the market

though i still have my doubts that this concept can even work in the first place. only time will tell

 

[XtremeCore]

I'm not surprise. At the rate where technology is advancing, sending and receiving big size files, especially multimedia distribution, is made possible.

Sony has already patent it's PS Cloud straight after they saw the OnLive at GDC 2009. Now with this, it makes supposedly 3 companies are already on cloud distribution.

Perhaps 10 years down the road, GameStop won't be selling DVD discs, but rather, coupon codes where you activate it online to receive the game.

 

[raulpica]

Waitabit. Games are directly streamed to you in form of video, and you can directly control their input remotely using your keyboard and mouse.

This means you could actually play games which require a powerful rig on low-power machines. Awesome. I can see a future for this.

But the server load raises my doubts. Each virtualized server how many different games by different players can supply? For something like CoD4, a powerful machine can run at most 2 games on it. So they'll something like servers. If they'll have something like 16000 users, they'll need 8000 servers. Woah. Quite an electrical bill there.
And won't their bandwidth expenses be astronomical?

I have the fear this will be highly anti-economical in the short run, unless I'm missing something, like more powerful virtualization techniques I'm not aware of.

 

[Pizzaroo]

Fuck yes closed beta in california

EDIT: It seems the only thing you need to prove you're in California is your zipcode. Meh.

 

[Placeholder]

I can't wait for this. I never liked the look of OnLive, I didn't like the fancy rubbish or "we're so awesome" attitude. This however looks wonderful, I would happily use this!

A nice idea would be pay x a month to use the service and have everything open for use. E.g. I pay $15 to Gaikai, then I get to use ALL the applications they have on there for the month, with no added costs (excluding WoW and other subscriptions). I hope this happens.

Gaikai is win!

 

[shakirmoledina]

this is a good competition but we have to see how famous it gets bcz onLive is actually more known and as raul said, its gonna be expensive

 

[Placeholder]

OnLive stinks though, its famous simply because it was the first of the idea, and made to look even better with their crappy advertising style "we're sooooo awesome". GaiKai should own it!

 

[Jiggah]

It sounds like a VNC client.

 

[Ryufushichou]

It sound like a great idea, im just afraid of.........................Slow server speeds

i do live in tasmania and our net sucks

- Karaku32

 

[Elritha]

Am I the only one who doesn't like the idea of this?

I just like the idea of physically owning the game disc and not worrying about what will happen to all the games I've purchased if company X goes bust. There is also the issue of latency and lag between server and client, nevermind bandwidth.

I also assume that this would be the end of PC game modding if this became mainstream.

 

[raulpica]

Am I the only one who doesn't like the idea of this?

I just like the idea of physically owning the game disc and not worrying about what will happen to all the games I've purchased if company X goes bust. There is also the issue of latency and lag between server and client, nevermind bandwidth.

I also assume that this would be the end of PC game modding if this became mainstream.

You actually rent the game. A lot of people just sell their games after finishing them, so not actually owning the disc will not pose as a problem for most players.

Sure, but nowadays most DSLs are more than enough to manage a VNC connection.

 

[shadow1w2]

Looks interesting. I signed up for the beta.
I wonder if it'll really work ok on slow non gaming machines but we'll see.
Its bounf to have its issues but it'll be cool to see it work.