Sony Scoops Up Gaikai
$380 million means streamed games are coming to a PlayStation near you... eventually.
Published: July 18, 2012
Prior to E3, there were rumblings that Sony was about to enter a partnership with a major game streaming service, and as there are only two major players out there, OnLive and Gaikai, it wasn't hard to jump to conclusions about who might be playing ball. Of course, E3 came and went, and though we were treated to former Shiny Entertainment founder David Perry's convincing spiel during the show, there was no official word that his newest company, Gaikai, was buddying up with Sony for any kind of deal. In fact, Perry downplayed the rumors and effectively dismissed any talk of the deal, explicitly telling Eurogamer there would no cloud gaming announcement by Sony at E3.
He was, of course, absolutely correct, but apparently a month makes all the difference and despite "a bunch of random events," that supposedly made smoke where there was no fire, Sony has officially announced not a partnership, but a wholesale acquisition (pending regulatory approval) of Gaikai. The deal, inked for a hefty $380 million, means Sony now has their fingers in the cloud gaming pie. It's important to note that while this was an acquisition by Sony Computer Entertainment, it's not just a deal for PlayStation stuff -- though obviously there are clear reasons to do so (universal backwards compatibility, anyone? How about playing PlayStation 1/2/3 games on non-PlayStation hardware?) -- so this tech could well be applied toward desktop and mobile computing as well.
"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," beamed a clearly proud Andrew House, SCE Inc,'s President and Group CEO, not to mention all-around good guy. "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," gushed an equally cheery Gaikai CEO David Perry. "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."
Even back during E3, the rumors sent speculation flying, and when we met with Perry at the big show, we were impressed not just by The Ganglion's ability to really sell the technology, but at how promising that tech was (and how much of a perfect fit it was for some of the planned PlayStation 4 offerings). Sure, there were compression artifacts all over the place, and both latency and bandwidth are still a huge issue in some parts of this country, much less the rest of the world. Despite that, though, the tech is only going to improve, and Gaikai's build-out of that tech was already well underway before Sony's deeper pockets came along. Properly implemented, this could open up a whole new way of delivering instant demos, of letting gamers play games away from their original hardware, and opening up the very real possibility of getting games on non-PlayStation systems. No, they'll likely never match the responsiveness and clarity of playing it at home, but as Perry himself told us at our E3 meeting, if movies and music can become ingested in an instant-on setting, games can't be far behind.
Of course, that opens up an interesting can of worms -- one we've had here in the office: at what point do hardcore gamers feel visual fidelity and input lag are "good enough" that the hardware is no longer needed? One thing's for sure: we're about to find out, and sooner than most thought.
He was, of course, absolutely correct, but apparently a month makes all the difference and despite "a bunch of random events," that supposedly made smoke where there was no fire, Sony has officially announced not a partnership, but a wholesale acquisition (pending regulatory approval) of Gaikai. The deal, inked for a hefty $380 million, means Sony now has their fingers in the cloud gaming pie. It's important to note that while this was an acquisition by Sony Computer Entertainment, it's not just a deal for PlayStation stuff -- though obviously there are clear reasons to do so (universal backwards compatibility, anyone? How about playing PlayStation 1/2/3 games on non-PlayStation hardware?) -- so this tech could well be applied toward desktop and mobile computing as well.
"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," beamed a clearly proud Andrew House, SCE Inc,'s President and Group CEO, not to mention all-around good guy. "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," gushed an equally cheery Gaikai CEO David Perry. "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."
Even back during E3, the rumors sent speculation flying, and when we met with Perry at the big show, we were impressed not just by The Ganglion's ability to really sell the technology, but at how promising that tech was (and how much of a perfect fit it was for some of the planned PlayStation 4 offerings). Sure, there were compression artifacts all over the place, and both latency and bandwidth are still a huge issue in some parts of this country, much less the rest of the world. Despite that, though, the tech is only going to improve, and Gaikai's build-out of that tech was already well underway before Sony's deeper pockets came along. Properly implemented, this could open up a whole new way of delivering instant demos, of letting gamers play games away from their original hardware, and opening up the very real possibility of getting games on non-PlayStation systems. No, they'll likely never match the responsiveness and clarity of playing it at home, but as Perry himself told us at our E3 meeting, if movies and music can become ingested in an instant-on setting, games can't be far behind.
Of course, that opens up an interesting can of worms -- one we've had here in the office: at what point do hardcore gamers feel visual fidelity and input lag are "good enough" that the hardware is no longer needed? One thing's for sure: we're about to find out, and sooner than most thought.
