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Gaikai teasing a big E3 announcement

Gaikai and On Live may not work properly now, but when they will work and Gaikai will be built in tv sets ( according to EDGE, Gaikai and LG are going to ) Sony, MS and Nintendo will have serious problems.

I think Sony has to react now and if they team up with Gaikai , it may be a very wise thing to do.
 

DiscoJer

Member
Sony's thinking:

1. Build most powerful handheld ever.
2. Rely on cloud gaming for games, which doesn't utilize power of said handheld.

= profit?

This doesn't seem right.

Well, what good is having powerful hardware if no one really wants to make software that utilizes the hardware fully? Just software period is looking awfully slim for it - it's not even getting much shovelware (I guess the carts aren't cheap enough for that to be profitable).

Even Sony hasn't exactly embraced it in terms of software, their biggest developers passing it up and them continuing to announce exclusives for the PS3 (though some have Vita releases hinted at)
 
I don't think if Sony will really cooperate with Gaikai for Nextgen, that they will rely only on Cloudgaming. I think it could be more of a hybrid approach like we have with World of Warcraft. That means it will be a digital download service like Steam, BUT unlike Steam, you can choose to play at any time during the download. But on the other side, the quote from the Gaikai woman says they mabye won't have a new console. In 10 days we will know more I guess. ^^
 

Durante

Member
Gaikai and On Live may not work properly now, but when they will work
That depends on what you consider "working". The latency will always be higher than local gaming, and to get even remotely the same image quality out of it that PC games feature now (1080p/60fps) will be prohibitive in terms of bandwidth for at least a decade or two.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
Hmmm...Gaikai enables a custom created streaming module. You can license the tech and modify it for your business.What if it's something like:
- a new version of Remote Play for Vita (streaming all PS3 games to the handheld) or
- being able to play PS3 games on your PC (streaming all PS3 games to the PC) or
- being able to stream PC games to the PS3 (unlikely but nom nom nom)
- streaming BC for PS2 games

All of those options would be pretty sweet.
I was wondering why they would bring cloud gaming to PS3/Vita, but these things makes much sense :)
 

starmud

Member
seems a little too early to make a big push into this... but given sonys situation, a cloud console has to look attractive.

i haven't been digging this posturing from sony of making playstation into a cloud suite that can go on any device of their choice. signals a rocky futrue of what sonys' dedicated gaming hardware will look like.
 
Gaikai and On Live may not work properly now, but when they will work and Gaikai will be built in tv sets ( according to EDGE, Gaikai and LG are going to ) Sony, MS and Nintendo will have serious problems.

I think Sony has to react now and if they team up with Gaikai , it may be a very wise thing to do.

This is entirely dependent on good broadband connections and that's still a long way away for the large majority of people the world over.

Then there's the arbitrary caps that more and more providers are implementing.
 
That depends on what you consider "working". The latency will always be higher than local gaming, and to get even remotely the same image quality out of it that PC games feature now (1080p/60fps) will be prohibitive in terms of bandwidth for at least a decade or two.

Gaikai is already 720p/60fps though. Technically with it coming to ps3 you could have assassin's creed playing on your ps3 at double the framerate of the console counterpart. Pc gaming and possibly next gen gaming looks out of reach as of now, but it seems comparable to console gaming of today (higher fps but lower iq due to compressed video feed).

Edit: sorry, onlive is 60 fps, not gaikai, but overall it shows you could have a streaming service with 60fps and 1080p in the future.
 
That depends on what you consider "working". The latency will always be higher than local gaming, and to get even remotely the same image quality out of it that PC games feature now (1080p/60fps) will be prohibitive in terms of bandwidth for at least a decade or two.

You're absolutely right, but if they will get the job done, gaming enters the livingroom of almost everybody and there will be no need ( for most people, not for us core gamers ) to buy a console next to your tv set.
 
°°ToMmY°°;38187967 said:
Gaikai is already 720p/60fps though. Technically with it coming to ps3 you could have assassin's creed playing on your ps3 at double the framerate of the console counterpart. Pc gaming and possibly next gen gaming looks out of reach as of now, but it seems comparable to console gaming of today (higher fps but lower iq due to compressed video feed).

Under IDEAL conditions. I don't think that can be said for the service across the board.
 

Durante

Member
°°ToMmY°°;38187967 said:
Gaikai is already 720p/60fps though.
Well, I wouldn't compare a very lossily compressed stream with a real 720p image. As soon as you have lots of motion all over the screen it will look terrible.

You're absolutely right, but if they will get the job done, gaming enters the livingroom of almost everybody and there will be no need ( for most people, not for us core gamers ) to buy a console next to your tv set.
You are probably right. This should be another incentive for MS/Sony to go all-out with hardware specs for the next-gen consoles. Otherwise they'll lose core gamers to PC (including console-shaped HTPCs) and more casual gamers to very cheap streaming boxes and tablets.
 

GopherD

Member
This is entirely dependent on good broadband connections and that's still a long way away for the large majority of people the world over.

Then there's the arbitrary caps that more and more providers are implementing.

It depends. Gaikai was originally designed for higher res streaming. But if the tech was used for PS2 BC or PS3-Vita Remote Play, the actual amount of data streamed is considerably less. It means needing a smaller pipe, but it also enables a higher encoding rate (higher fps, better quality etc)
 
Gaikai and On Live may not work properly now, but when they will work and Gaikai will be built in tv sets ( according to EDGE, Gaikai and LG are going to ) Sony, MS and Nintendo will have serious problems.

I think Sony has to react now and if they team up with Gaikai , it may be a very wise thing to do.

I doubt having these services built into TV's will cause Sony or MS any trouble. Many people invested in very expensive TV's which I doubt they would give up for some streaming gaming service. Plus these services are still in there infancy and I think most people would prefer to play on traditional console/PC still. Also, from what I've been told you need a pretty decent Internet connection for the games to be remotely playable.
 
It depends. Gaikai was originally designed for higher res streaming. But if the tech was used for PS2 BC or PS3-Vita Remote Play, the actual amount of data streamed is considerably less. It means needing a smaller pipe, but it also enables a higher encoding rate (higher fps, better quality etc)

Ah, then it clearly makes sense for Sony to push for cloud based BC. Do it Sony, do it. God, I hope they do it.
 
i haven't been digging this posturing from sony of making playstation into a cloud suite that can go on any device of their choice. signals a rocky futrue of what sonys' dedicated gaming hardware will look like.

It doesn't signal anything unless you think that Sony is actually foolish enough to build an entire console around this idea.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
I will be very surprised if this is about streaming games from the cloud. Many of the games that excist on Gaikai also excist for PS3. I think that Sony rather want people to buy the PS3 copies instead of sharing the income with Gaikai.
 

SparkTR

Member
I will be very surprised if this is about streaming games from the cloud. Many of the games that excist on Gaikai also excist for PS3. I think that Sony rather want people to buy the PS3 copies instead of sharing the income with Gaikai.

Depends on the games. If they're old, people will just buy them used so Sony won't get any money regardless. If this is true I'm betting that new games like The Last of Us won't be on there anytime soon.
 

wsippel

Banned
I will be very surprised if this is about streaming games from the cloud. Many of the games that excist on Gaikai also excist for PS3. I think that Sony rather want people to buy the PS3 copies instead of sharing the income with Gaikai.
Like I wrote: Demos. And possibly PS3 games on Bravia TVs. No general access to Gaikai on PS3, no PS3 games on "regular" Gaikai.
 
I will be very surprised if this is about streaming games from the cloud. Many of the games that excist on Gaikai also excist for PS3. I think that Sony rather want people to buy the PS3 copies instead of sharing the income with Gaikai.

Might be a way of sticking it to MS. Looking at their site, there are a few games that are currently 360 exclusives and will likely stay 360 exclusives.

What better way to get your competitors exclusive games on your console? MS can't do anything about it and Sony don't have to do anything beyond share some of their income with gaikai.
 
It could be cool for demos (no need to download etc.) but going by my experience with cloud gaming it's pretty much useless for serious gaming (input lag, worse gfx and framerate, compression artifacts etc.). Not sold on BC either, input lag will still be present and the amount of data is not reduced by the games requiring less computing power. The streams I had were not true HD anyway and still suffered.
 

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
Maybe this is absolutely nothing, but back in Febuary, David Perry (CEO of Gakai) mentioned that Sony had sent him a free PS Vita. I'd be semi-surprised if Sony sent out free new hardware to random industry people that they didn't have some sort of relationship with...
 
I was just thinking. Wouldn't a streaming game service eliminate backwards compatibility issues with getting say PS1/PS2 games onto Vita/PS3? Perhaps this is what it's for.
 

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
I will be very surprised if this is about streaming games from the cloud. Many of the games that excist on Gaikai also excist for PS3. I think that Sony rather want people to buy the PS3 copies instead of sharing the income with Gaikai.

Sony's already kind of outright said what they might use cloud tech for. Legacy and 'casual' content.

I think they may extend that in the future to sampling 'full on' high end content, and maybe very eventually, as an option for playing those games in full alongside download and disc. Maybe apply it to a more universal remote play too.
 

Feature

Banned
I know about Onlive and now this Gaikai. But what makes me relunctant to give it a try is my fear of input lag. How big is the input lag?
 
Well Sony has made a lot of foolish decisions as of late, I hope they don't go this route.

This just seems like a nice optional thing that they're implementing. No one is going to move away from boxed titles anytime soon. I'm not sure that i'd ever use this type of service to play through a full game, but it seems like a fantastic way to distribute demos. No more hour wait times for a demo download.
 

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
I know about Onlive and now this Gaikai. But what makes me relunctant to give it a try is my fear of input lag. How big is the input lag?

It's very much dependent on your own location/infrastructure etc. and the game, I guess.

I tried OnLive ages ago and was easily able to play Virtua Tennis. Borderlands I couldn't play though. Haven't tried Gaikai yet.
 

dose

Member
The lag on controls when I played via Gaikai were terrible and you ended up overcompensating with the camera and movement (and yes I have a decent connection). Totally not interested.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
Depends on the games. If they're old, people will just buy them used so Sony won't get any money regardless. If this is true I'm betting that new games like The Last of Us won't be on there anytime soon.
Like I wrote: Demos. And possibly PS3 games on Bravia TVs. No general access to Gaikai on PS3, no PS3 games on "regular" Gaikai.
Might be a way of sticking it to MS. Looking at their site, there are a few games that are currently 360 exclusives and will likely stay 360 exclusives.

What better way to get your competitors exclusive games on your console? MS can't do anything about it and Sony don't have to do anything beyond share some of their income with gaikai.
Sony's already kind of outright said what they might use cloud tech for. Legacy and 'casual' content.

I think they may extend that in the future to sampling 'full on' high end content, and maybe very eventually, as an option for playing those games in full alongside download and disc. Maybe apply it to a more universal remote play too.
It could be. This make me think that it is more like a custom version of Gaikai, and not just a direct "copy" of what already excist. This way they can select what content they want to be available for the PS3 (and maybe Vita too).
 

Lionheart

Member
So, any chance we'll also be seeing a stream only 'PS3 lite' announced without Blu-ray drive, with just a small amount of flash storage for cache / saves, available for like $99, but requiring PS Plus or additional subscription for any content?
 
This just seems like a nice optional thing that they're implementing. No one is going to move away from boxed titles anytime soon. I'm not sure that i'd ever use this type of service to play through a full game, but it seems like a fantastic way to distribute demos. No more hour wait times for a demo download.

Yeah, that is what I said earlier. For demos this would be a fantastic idea but not full games IMO.
 

jiggles

Banned
I just took Gaikai for a spin in my browser just now.

I was pretty impressed. I'm running a slow connection here right now, but the Witcher 2 was perfectly playable.

But, it seems like the service is just demos? Is that right?
 
PS+ Members get full access to PSOne and PS2 Library ON DEMAND.

I've got 50 or so bucks left in my wallet, do this Sony and I'll sign up for PS+ and continue to be a member for years to come.

Maybe this move will put some pressure on MS to the same with OG xbox BC.
 

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
It could be. This make me think that it is more like a custom version of Gaikai, and not just a direct "copy" of what already excist. This way they can select what content they want to be available for the PS3 (and maybe Vita too).

I think whoever they partner with will be powering things under the hood, but the end-user experience will be 'Playstation' with Playstation content. It's possible they might give access to select PC-based titles but I don't think it'll be a general onlive or gaikai app with access to those company's own content services. It'll be a Playstation content service built on top of their infrastructure. Gaikai has already publicised their white-label offering, I'm sure OnLive would do similar stuff for a partner.
 

starmud

Member
It doesn't signal anything unless you think that Sony is actually foolish enough to build an entire console around this idea.

i hope they don't D:

i wouldn't be surprised to see cloud play be a big feature of the next box. i'd be shocked if the entire console is based on it though lol

i just find the posturing odd... especially given the need to be smarter about costs next go around.

their free floating right now, it shows in the product. whos argument at sony about where to go wins is a wild guess. ps4 is going to be interesting to see. i think its safe to think of what the next xbox will look like and were going to know the wiiu soon.

a big cloud play push would really differentiate themselves from the rest, i can see them considering it viable.
 

GopherD

Member
I think whoever they partner with will be powering things under the hood, but the end-user experience will be 'Playstation' with Playstation content. It's possible they might give access to select PC-based titles but I don't think it'll be a general onlive or gaikai app with access to those company's own content services. It'll be a Playstation content service built on top of their infrastructure. Gaikai has already publicised their white-label offering, I'm sure OnLive would do similar stuff for a partner.

Thats the way Gaikai works as opposed to OnLive. Gaikai are as interested in licensing the tech behind their service as well as the service itself. The interface, games catalogue and server connections are completely customisable. At the very least I could see streaming demos which would be a great start. But it would be a shame to waste the licensing fees on one niche use, so I'm hoping they'll optimise it for other uses as well.
 

stalker

Member
I just took Gaikai for a spin in my browser just now.

I was pretty impressed. I'm running a slow connection here right now, but the Witcher 2 was perfectly playable.

But, it seems like the service is just demos? Is that right?

I did the same, I tried NFS The Run. It was better than I expected though not really acceptable in my opinion (my connection is super-slow). Anyway, it's clear to me that the potential is there when the tech improves, at least for certain games.
 

DrWong

Member
I just took Gaikai for a spin in my browser just now.

I was pretty impressed. I'm running a slow connection here right now, but the Witcher 2 was perfectly playable.

But, it seems like the service is just demos? Is that right?

It's a buisness model choice not a tech limitation. To have access to their cloud techno is cheap I guess, it's on the traffic linked to their techno they make their money. Not the same model for Onlive. Some others "little" cloud service players work more like white labels, licencing their techno and (little, with casuals & large games) catalog to TV/Box content providers. In France (and other countries) we already have some examples, the last one coming from the new Bouygue Telecom box with Playcast to provide a cloud gaming service.
 
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