Sony to Acquire Cloud Gaming Company Gaikai

[Cristian_25H]

Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) today announced that it entered into a definitive agreement on June 30, 2012 (Japan Time) to acquire Gaikai Inc., the world's leading interactive cloud-based gaming company, for approximately USD 380 million. Through the acquisition, SCE will establish a new cloud service, ensuring that it continues to provide users with truly innovative and immersive interactive entertainment experiences.

"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," said Andrew House, President and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. "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 internet-connected devices."





"SCE has built an incredible brand with PlayStation and has earned the respect of countless millions of gamers worldwide," said David Perry, CEO of Gaikai Inc. "We're honored to be able to help SCE rapidly harness the power of the interactive cloud and to continue to grow their ecosystem, to empower developers with new capabilities, to dramatically improve the reach of exciting content and to bring breathtaking new experiences to users worldwide."

Established in 2008 and headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California, Gaikai has developed the highest quality, fastest interactive cloud-streaming platform in the world that enables the streaming of quality games to a wide variety of devices via the internet. With this acquisition, SCE will 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.

The transaction is subject to certain regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

SCE will continue to aggressively expand a new world of entertainment through the introduction of innovative technologies and the delivery of amazing experiences.

[james888]

Sony will not build a console with the only nice thing being gigabit Ethernet

[NC37]

Sigh...getting tired of this move towards cloud gaming. It's the ultimate DRM. The consumer never owns the game, they play it across the net for a fee. Devs can get by with relatively cheap hardware because all it needs to do is connect to the server and display the images. One advantage being games can scale with hardware faster since end users don't need to upgrade.

Still, don't like it. Likely because I know how it will be advertised. "Secure, easy, and worry free." Those words to me mean..."hackable, because we know consumers are idiots, and reassure the morons so they don't ask what happens when the net goes down."

[Zakin]

Just for those who don't know, supposedly why Sony bought Gaikai was so they could do PS3 backwards compatibility on PS4s so they didn't have to put the expensive cell processors in the PS4s. In other words to chop hundred dollars off of the new console.

[jeffz6]

Cloud gaming will take all the fun and "hobby" from pc gaming.

[hardcore_gamer]

Cloud gaming is a huge waste of bandwidth. I can't stand it's latency, bastardized resolution and graphics.

[Kenshai]

With the way bandwidth is increasing every day, I don't see cloud gaming as an issue now or in the future. Assuming you have a fast enough internet connection I doubt the standard consumer won't know the difference.

Not sure how it will take the fun and/or hobby out of pc gaming. I feel it'll make it an easier transition, try games before you buy them. I imagine demos will kind of be revolutionized through streaming services.

[Mr McC]

Originally Posted by Kenshai

With the way bandwidth is increasing every day, I don't see cloud gaming as an issue now or in the future. Assuming you have a fast enough internet connection I doubt the standard consumer won't know the difference.

That is a pretty big assumption.

[Kenshai]

Originally Posted by Mr McC

That is a pretty big assumption.

Not really I fail to see how it would be much different than streaming something like netflix. Which manages just fine at 3 mbps for 720p content. The OnLine service recommends 5 mbps, and requires at least 2. Not a very big assumption. In the US you can get 10-30 mbps for $30-50 a month. Definitely not hard to come by.

Remember all you're doing is streaming the game, even a Roku or something similar should be able to do this.

Hell if levels buffered at the beginning of a level and took 2-3 minutes per level it wouldn't even be such a big deal to even break into a market like this.

Edit: Checking out the Gaikai website, they recommend 5 mbps as well.

[Mr McC]

Originally Posted by Kenshai

Not really I fail to see how it would be much different than streaming something like netflix. Which manages just fine at 3 mbps for 720p content. The OnLine service recommends 5 mbps, and requires at least 2. Not a very big assumption. In the US you can get 10-30 mbps for $30-50 a month. Definitely not hard to come by.

Remember all you're doing is streaming the game, even a Roku or something similar should be able to do this.

Hell if levels buffered at the beginning of a level and took 2-3 minutes per level it wouldn't even be such a big deal to even break into a market like this.

Edit: Checking out the Gaikai website, they recommend 5 mbps as well.

I am not in the US and it takes me a day and half to download a game from Steam. America may be ready for this technology, but I am not sure that the rest of the world is - 4 mbps is the maximum I can hire due in my location and the actual service, despite what they advertise, goes at a fraction of this speed.

[THE_EGG]

In Australia the very fastest download rate I have seen with Steam is 4.2mbs, but usually it hovers around 2.5mbs. I too am against this cloud gaming stuff, I still prefer to have the hard copy if it is available and if it's cheap enough.

[Kenshai]

Originally Posted by THE_EGG

In Australia the very fastest download rate I have seen with Steam is 4.2mbs, but usually it hovers around 2.5mbs. I too am against this cloud gaming stuff, I still prefer to have the hard copy if it is available and if it's cheap enough.

Bandwidth is measured in bits. 2.5 Megabyte a second is more than enough to run this kind of service.

Don't get me wrong there will probably be some bad services offered with this technology but someone will get it right. It likely is the future of gaming in general to be cloud based as it will eventually cut costs to the manufacturer while slowly making its way to the consumer.

I personally prefer to have my own system, but I've accepted that technology will likely transition in such a way.

[Kantastic]

This will have huge impact on bandwidth usage for customers who are capped and given an allotted amount of bandwidth per billing cycle.

[THE_EGG]

Originally Posted by Kenshai

Bandwidth is measured in bits. 2.5 Megabyte a second is more than enough to run this kind of service.

Don't get me wrong there will probably be some bad services offered with this technology but someone will get it right. It likely is the future of gaming in general to be cloud based as it will eventually cut costs to the manufacturer while slowly making its way to the consumer.

I personally prefer to have my own system, but I've accepted that technology will likely transition in such a way.

Ah well if we were talking about bits then I usually get about 16-19mbits/s (according to speed test) and upload speed is just terrible at 0.49mbits/s and for some reason it's always around 0.5 whenever I try speedtest.

I do agree though that games will likely transition to cloud based services, I will accept that but personally I prefer having my own hard-copy when/if possible. I also get 150GB a month and it is a shared household so things could get interesting towards the end of the month :/

[fochkoph]

Hopefully Cloud gaming goes the way of 3D. Out the fucking door.

[tacosRcool]

too bad for stupid data caps...

[TheMailMan78]

Don't worry there will be agreements with ISP's and license holders (publishers) in the near future were bandwidth will not be an issue with certain services. Combine this will tablets and welcome to the future people.

[Xzibit]

Horrible lag for multiplayer based games.

If anyone payed attention to E3 Gaikai & Nvidia were testing their GRID.

Dedicated line to Datacenter 10 miles away just for E3.

Internal latency was 10ms (Time it took from receiving to process to send)

User to DataCenter latency was 100ms (This will only get worse in the real world from User to DataCenter)

They mentioned they only have limited testing with a max of 40 people and are still try'n to get latency down. I dont see it getting much better if the numbers are that bad with a dedicated line in controlled testing.

[Hilux SSRG]

Great job Sony! Now have Gaikai work around your asinine and archaic network know-how and wait for everyone with talent to leave Gaikai. And Sony just bought a $380 million dollar turd... of course they are in the red for a decade now.

[Delta6326]

I live in America and the fastest speed I can get is 1mbs. I only live 10-15 mins. from a large city they have 40mbs.

[Morgoth]

yay and im stuck with 980kbs sec on torrents
peaks 1,5mb on steam

[v12dock]

Lol people playing this way out of proportions

[james888]

Originally Posted by v12dock

Lol people playing this way out of proportions

Are we? When the mainstream gaming market is consoles because of ease and cost... what makes you think they will not move to cloud gaming. Sony (console maker) just purchase a cloud gaming platform.... The average homeowners bandwidth probably isn't enough for the next console but the console after that may be cloud gaming.

There are benefits such as a bigger push for faster internet and more bandwidth.

[Yo_Wattup]

for a game like battlefield 3 to load from my ssd takes 1 minute per map. Hdd takes about 3-4. Your telling me that for a game as high a quality as bf3, im going to have be waiting 5-10 minutes for it to load, on a fast connection? Dont think so.

[james888]

Originally Posted by Yo_Wattup

for a game like battlefield 3 to load from my ssd takes 1 minute per map. Hdd takes about 3-4. Your telling me that for a game as high a quality as bf3, im going to have be waiting 5-10 minutes for it to load, on a fast connection? Dont think so.

It would take to long. So in the matter of convenience they would make less quality games wouldn't they. I'm saying playstation 5 era not 4. The bandwidth isn't there yet as you pointed out. They also already have all their licensing agreements for hardware in place for the playstation 4.

Imagine though:
Play video games on demand with the ease of flipping a channel. The playstation 5 delivers top-tier games over the Internet to your TV, so you can play instantly on the biggest screen in the house.

Wait... thats onlives statement.

Onlive isn't mainstream right now. May never be. But with the playstation or xbox branding it would sell better. Especially when in the future there is faster internet... I hope.