Cloud gaming storms into the UK Cloud-based gaming is again in the limelight today with the announcement that game service Gaikai has gone live in the UK for all to trial. Gaikai - which today came out of its closed beta stage - allows users to demo games in their browser without the need for a download. Just like cloud-based gaming platform OnLive, this …
the same as you need to stream an HD vid on youtube, I'd guess.
AFAIK, their servers do all the rendering and stream the game as something close to a video feed but with a bit more interactivity.
I'd think that even on a normal 8meg line you'd probably not notice much lag, depending on how fast their server connections are.
i say more of this sort of thing! :D
OK with all the talk about cloud-based gaming I thought "no chance" but gave this a look after reading the article. I already own it so I picked and played the Mass Effect 2 demo. If it wasn't for the menu bar at the top (tells you connection quality, options to close game, pop-out of browser, fullscreen) and the not-quite-fullscreen aspect for my HDTV I wouldn't have known the difference. I saw no lag and it was the same experience I've had while playing normally. Great stuff!
How can you test if your machine can run the game properly if you are running it on a remote computer?
Also I assume the game runs at lower quality than on a native high end machine, to save bandwidth. This would be a turn off when playing the demo as it will look rubbish. This would be a bad advertisement for the game.
But Ok if they are trying to deliver content in a different way. It will be rubbish though if this becomes the only way to get demo's. This is alreayd a large problem on the PC, with hardly any games having demos anymore. Now we get them, but they will give a bad indication of what the fully purchase game will be like. Yay, progress...
When will Gaikai be able to offer games to everyone, everywhere?
Gaikai's business model may be different than what you'd expect. We're not trying to offer a subscription-based service, so there's no expectation that everyone will be able to play from day one. Instead, we're powering demos of games on publisher, retailer, and associate sites. These demos will only be offered to users who meet the standards required for an awesome gaming experience. Users who don't meet these standards will never know they missed anything ... but they will help us understand where we need to add servers next. Over time, we'll be able to serve more and more demos to more and more users, across the world.
Yeah, sounds like a winner
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