Sony To Acquire Cloud Gaming Company Gaikai for $380 Million 72
Sony announced today that they've entered into an agreement to acquire Gaikai, Dave Perry's cloud gaming company, for $380 million. Sony said they will use the company to "establish a new cloud service" which will provide 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." The Digital Foundry blog discusses what this means for the gaming industry:
"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. ... The quality of the experience comes down to two specific factors: image integrity and control response. The former is going to require significant increases in bandwidth, because the current 5mbps level needs to rise to 10-15mbps to really solve the artifacting issues that are present in the first-gen cloud systems as they stand right now. But in a world where top-end UK internet connections have leapt from 2mbps to 100mbps in less than a decade, this is only a matter of time."
could also mean Sony made another bonehead play. (Score:5, Interesting)
Sony is notorious for awful takeovers, and this one could also turn into a black hole.
As ISPs Move Toward Charging-by-the-Bit... (Score:3, Interesting)
If ever one needed evidence that modern capitalism is an exercise in bleeding consumers dry, here ya go.
Re:could also mean Sony made another bonehead play (Score:4, Interesting)
what this represents (Score:2, Interesting)
What the deal represents is acceptance from a major console platform holder that gaming is fast approaching its own Netflix or iPod moment
I think what this represents is that Sony is being run by old execs who don't understand gaming, and aren't finding people who do.
If they want to improve their viability in the gaming world, they should put their money into creating new interesting, great games; they should not be acquiring a new experimental platform whose major achievement is that it's buzzword compliant.