GDC09: Gaikai digital gaming service to stream MMOs to web browsers

by James Egan Mar 26th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: MMO industry, News items, Browser, Massively Event Coverage

One of the more interesting announcements to come out of GDC 2009 is OnLive, which will allow low-end PCs to play high-end games via streaming technology, piping in a game experience where all the heavy (graphics) lifting is done on the company's servers. It's a significant step forward in gaming provided it lives up to expectations, and the fact that it's fully cross-platform means that Mac users will be able to play PC titles never ported for the OS. OnLive isn't alone in wanting to make games more accessible though, particularly when it comes to MMOs.

Acclaim CEO David Perry told GameDaily, "We have already filed a patent on what OnLive is doing. I'm working with a team called Gaikai... we have World of Warcraft and EVE Online running." Since Gaikai's "Streaming Worlds" technology involves servers which remotely do the graphics crunching required of most modern games and streams the game to a web browser, all one needs is a machine with a good internet connection. No game client downloads are required. "You can play World of Warcraft anytime, on any browser," said Perry. The OnLive and Gaikai services are still in development and beta testing for both may begin this Winter, if not sooner.

Tags: accessibility, acclaim, browser, cross-platform, david-perrty, eve-online, flash, gaikai, gdc, gdc-2009, mmo-industry, onlive, streaming, streaming-worlds, world-of-warcraft

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

JP said on 4:14PM 3-26-2009

Impressive.

This could not only revolutionize people's ability to play MMOs, but revitalize the PC market much further.

Ryan A said on 4:30PM 3-26-2009

Is this and Onlive the same service? I missed that...

James Egan said on 4:38PM 3-26-2009

OnLive and Gaikai will be competitors as they're offering very similar services. There are some big 'IFs' with how this will all work out (particularly in terms of latency) but as JP said above, it could be a significant new dimension to how we play our games.

James Egan said on 4:41PM 3-26-2009

I picked up on Gaikai because there was specific mention of the top fantasy and sci-fi MMO titles in Perry's statements. This is not to say that OnLive won't have similar offerings, but I don't have the details yet.

Ryan A said on 4:43PM 3-26-2009

I think both of their ideas are brilliant but they will require a very finite level of tweaking to be succesiful. Personally im pumped about this idea. Glad someone started thinking outside the box :)

mikejl said on 4:48PM 3-26-2009

Cool now I won't be able to get Darkfall on all my PC's!

Hardy said on 4:50PM 3-26-2009

If this works and the games are a giant lag fest with this service, this will be absolutely amazing for the computer gaming market, specifically for Mac users.

Such an untapped market with MMOs. Only EVE and WoW have really tried to reach that market.

Iokthemonkey said on 7:05AM 3-27-2009

"It this works..."

It won't.

Jalann said on 5:23PM 3-26-2009

I notice he opened with "We already have a patent with what Onlive is doing."

I smell lawsuits.

Frans Charming said on 5:24PM 3-26-2009

I wonder what kind of extra markup price this will have atop your mmo subscription. Would seem to me that you can expect to double your monthly costs.