When Sony announced they’d bought Gaikia on Monday, some just assumed it would play second fiddle to their existing business and simply offer up additional, non-gaming options.
We evaluated the various path Gaikai could present, and whilst some were quick to dismiss, it’s clear that Sony’s intentions with the cloud gaming company were exactly for that – gaming.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal (via MCV) Sony’s Andrew House confirmed that Gaikai would be focused on “Sony’s game machines” and said that cloud gaming is going to have a “profound and possibly a very positive impact on not only our game business, but also in the way our consumers interact with and obtain content in general”.
House also stated that there was a clear intention to start an “online videogame streaming service” – locking Gaikai down to a very specific purpose.
That said, House also said that “expanding the technology to other Sony products is absolutely within the frame,” suggesting that we might be seeing PlayStation titles across multiple formats in the future – tablets, TVs, PCs…
Stefan L
Qelle surprise!! ;)
dave87fez
Always a good thing to see new stuff being experimented with, I think.
Forrest_01
As long as it’s in addition to core stuff & not instead of, yes.
Paranoimia
‘GAIKAI ACQUISITION TO OPEN UP A “VIDEOGAME STREAMING SERVICE” FOR SONY’
Huh. Of all the things they bought it for, that one never crossed my mind. The first thing that came to my mind was that they’d be using it to explore the deepest recesses of the ocean floor.
JesseDeya
I know, crazy right? Who would have thought they’d buy a video game streaming business, and then use it to actually stream video games?
In all seriousness though… “some just assumed it would play second fiddle to their existing business and simply offer up additional, non-gaming options.” …who exactly Alex?
I think this article is stuck in opposite land. From my side of the internet it looked more like everyone always assumed Gaikai was going to be used to stream games, whereas House is suggesting it might be used for more than that, which is the real story here… “not only our game business, but also in the way our consumers interact with and obtain content in general.”
Paranoimia
Well, I know Pachter for one thought it would be used to sell more Sony TVs.
He may be right in as much as the tech may well find its way there eventually, but the thing he seems to have overlooked was that Gaikai was actually bought by Sony Computer Entertainment, and not by Sony the parent company – a small but vital and very important detail.
For me, and most others, that suggests that the purchase is about PlayStation first and foremost, and the other Sony divisions ‘as and when’.
BalramRules
Now I’m totally ecstatic about the PS4, at first I was thinking the jump from PSOne to PS2 was one heck of a leap, and PS2 to PS3 was too, but what could Sony possibly do after that? Well, Sony definitely seems to have something in mind, and that’s great, but let’s all hope Sony time the PS4 right. :-)
cam the man
All of the PS’s back catalogue available to stream to PS3/4.
Free for Plus’ers – that would be good.
KeRaSh
Not going to happen… They have enough licencing issues with the few titles they have on the store right now (across all regions) and if those titles were free devs and publishers would demand a cut from Sony’s PS+ income.
hazelam
” the way our consumers interact with and obtain content in general”
i find myself more than a little concerned about that sentence, the last part in particular.
are we going to start seeing titles that can only be brought for that cloud service?
because i can tell you i won’t be buying games that are only available through a cloud gaming service, not unless they’re super cheap, and i’m talking like onlive introductory first game for 99p cheap.
a sub service i could be interested in, if it’s part of plus, great, but not buying
cc_star
What a shame, felt this would happen.
One key advantage of the cloud is that you can get your service on all devices, everywhere… Reserving it just for Sony machines erodes that advantage.
I really though Sony might have learned from their long, long list of past mistakes and stop with this silo building that ends up not being as big as it could be if they were to open up.
Another area of concern for me is whether Sony will use it to stream older, less advanced games to a newer device, which kind of defeats the point of the cloud, when you could get more advanced games than hardware will affordably allow & your service (& paying customers) on every device, browser, tv, phone, tablet going… and really let it flourish
To be expected when a dinosaur hardware company by a software service though
WTF Sony?
bowie
“One key advantage of the cloud is that you can get your service on all devices, everywhere… Reserving it just for Sony machines erodes that advantage.”
But preserves an advantage that would otherwise be lost consistency. Limiting the hardware on which this works lets your provide a better experience. Which has been Apple’s strategy for a lot of things and it seems to have done ok for them. I could imagine playing the Last of Us on my Vita but the thought of playing it with virtual thumbsticks on my iPhone makes me cringe.
In contrast, consider the Xbox Live Android app. Microsoft are attempting to target as many people as possible. The net result, numerous people have been disappointed that the app fails work with their device. As I write this about half as many people have given the App a one star rating as have given it a five star rating. Not a gushing endorsement of Microsoft’s approach.
Besides chasing the biggest install base doesn’t always mean the most money. The Futurlab interview on this site made that pretty clear.
BalramRules
…and I’m sure Sony will use this acquisition wisely.