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SCE acquires Gaikai


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Sony Computer Entertainment has acquired cloud-based gaming company Gaikai for approximately $380 million. Through the acquisition, Sony will establish a new cloud service, ensuring that it continues to provide users with truly innovative and immersive interactive entertainment experiences.

 

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In Theory : The Sony Gaikai Deal and What It Means for PlayStation

Let's not get completely carried away by what today's news represents, because Sony's decision to acquire Gaikai does not mean the end of console gaming as we know it. PlayStation 4 is still going to be unveiled at next year's E3 and it will almost certainly be in our homes by the end of 2013. Whether we're talking console or cloud, the message is obvious enough though: Sony isn't putting all of its eggs in one basket.

 

What the deal represents is acceptance from a major console platform holder that gaming is fast approaching its own Netflix or iPod moment - the point where convenience and accessibility to content becomes more important than the inevitable hit to fidelity demanded by the underlying technology. We're not there yet, of course, but as Digital Foundry has discussed several times in the past, it's now a matter of when - not if - we will reach the point where the hit to quality ceases to become an issue for the majority of gamers.

 

While the overall level of the experience isn't there yet, even the first-gen cloud products offer some tantalising advantages which Sony would be keen to offers its customers:

Playback hardware: virtually any device with an h.264 decoder chip can run Gaikai, encompassing tablets, smartphones, and Smart TVs. Even current-gen consoles could run cloud games. We've seen World of Warcraft streaming on an Xbox 360 via Gaikai and it looked great.

No need for hardware upgrades: h.264 video compression is here to stay for many years to come, so you'll keep the same decoding devices and Sony will upgrade the Gaikai servers to accommodate the requirements of new games.

No more updates, no more patching: this will be music to the ears of PS3 owners in particular. Lengthy firmware upgrades, patches, - all of this is a thing of the past.

Instant access: demos and games would not require lengthy downloads or installs.

 

Read More @ http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-in-theory-sony-gaikai

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Cross-play is pointless for majority of games across the devices with very different input types, take fighters, shooters or any sports game, genres which accounts for majority of online MP, only turn based RPGs/strategy games can make use of it properly. Why would you like to go head-on with a player who has proper joystick controls while you are handicapped with touch-screens, feel-pads and what-nots?

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Cross-play is pointless for majority of games across the devices with very different input types, take fighters, shooters or any sports game, genres which accounts for majority of online MP, only turn based RPGs/strategy games can make use of it properly. Why would you like to go head-on with a player who has proper joystick controls while you are handicapped with touch-screens, feel-pads and what-nots?

 

Probably co-op will fair better than versus... there is no harm in co-op players playing on their favorite/comfortable devices.

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Probably co-op will fair better than versus... there is no harm in co-op players playing on their favorite/comfortable devices.

Depends on the game. Like Portal, I think it was quite OK there, useless still.

 

The softwares should run in perfect sync, the server specs should be same for all the platforms, the systems should have identical responses to friend requests/invites.... and these are just macro level things without which it wouldn't be a good experience.

 

Again, dev would ask themselves "why are we doing it?" "Why should we put efforts to let players in different eco-systems to play against each other?" And there is no strong answer to these.

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Depends on the game. Like Portal, I think it was quite OK there, useless still.

 

The softwares should run in perfect sync, the server specs should be same for all the platforms, the systems should have identical responses to friend requests/invites.... and these are just macro level things without which it wouldn't be a good experience.

 

Again, dev would ask themselves "why are we doing it?" "Why should we put efforts to let players in different eco-systems to play against each other?" And there is no strong answer to these.

 

Ya, portal was quite ok but didn't come out splendid. And server specs shouldn't affect the end devices as they are different clients that uses the same network(considering PSN for example). But I agree cross network will be challenging.

 

and the answer(s) for the question "why are we doing it?" is a multiple choice one and vary according to how you look at it.

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