gaikai posts

Gaikai's David Perry on solving latency issues with streaming games to your browser

by James Egan Jul 13th 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Business models, Interviews, MMO industry, Browser

Gaikai is a company we've taken note of in the past few months, one that aims to eliminate hardware barriers to gaming -- including MMOs like World of Warcraft and EVE Online -- by streaming games to your browser via their "Streaming Worlds" technology. Despite what Gaikai has said and demonstrated thus far, their technology -- which essentially turns games into an interactive video stream -- has been met with skepticism. This is not surprising. How they'll handle latency issues has been debated at length in our own comments at Massively and pretty much everywhere else online that Gaikai is mentioned.

A recent interview with Gaikai's David Perry sheds a little more light on how they aim to deliver on smooth game performance. Perry spoke with Develop writer Rob Crossley and says, "No one has ever tried to solve the issue in the way we are."

Tags: browser, business-models, david-perry, develop, eve-online, gaikai, interviews, mmo-industry, rob-crossley, streaming-worlds, world-of-warcraft

The Daily Grind: Browser-centric MMOs

by Lesley Smith Jul 4th 2009 at 8:00AM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Browser, The Daily Grind, Legal

The other day, I watched this demo of Gaikai, a new service being spearheaded by the legendary games developer David Perry. The idea is a simple one: using a browser you can access everything from MMOs to racing games and even the memory-hog that is Photoshop with all the actual software installed on a remote server and accessed via the cloud. Now it seems like an awesome undertaking but I came out of it feeling really impressed. WoW and EVE were running at lightening speed and the prospect of not patching or updating got me a little excited. Now browser-based MMOs are now new. Just look at Free Realms and the plethora of free-to-play titles. But the idea of playing seriously intensive games like EVE? Wow, just wow. You still need some kind of graphics card in your computer but the cloud seems to do the vast majority of the work.

So readers, what do you think? You might well have used browser-centric MMOs in the past and their ease of use is encouraging. Would you play WoW on a browser if it could mimic your current setting or even improve on them? Would it make your life easier knowing that someone else was dealing with all the patches? On the other hand, cloud-based technology is still new and shiny, would you rather stick with actual discs or your own hard drive? Tell us, readers, and drop your thoughts in the box below.

Tags: browser, browser-based, browser-based-MMOs, cloud, cloud-computing, david-perry, eve-online, gaikai, patching, the-daily-grind, world-of-warcraft

First Gaikai demo shows WoW and EVE played via browser

by James Egan Jul 1st 2009 at 5:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Sci-fi, Video, EVE Online, MMO industry, News items, Browser

Gaikai is a new game streaming service that's currently in development, which was first announced at GDC 2009 (and later was apparently previewed by game publishers at E3 2009.) We've since mentioned Gaikai a few times at Massively, and how the service could bring MMOs (and other games) to devices like netbooks that don't have adequate graphics capabilities to run these titles. Gaikai will use "Streaming Worlds" technology to do all the graphics crunching on remote servers and then stream games to your computer via a web browser. In effect, you're playing the game as a video stream. No client install required, no patching needed.

Given the reactions we've seen from gamers in our own comments and elsewhere on the web, skepticism abounds. Perhaps seeing is believing though, as Gaikai's David Perry has put out a video demo of the service today, explaining Gaikai to viewers as he plays several games, namely World of Warcraft and EVE Online. No doubt there will still be skepticism, but it's good to get a first look at the service. Perry makes a few details about the demo and the service itself clear on his blog: the data travel distance in the demo is 800 miles; this is a (non-fiber) home cable connection; it works over wi-fi and with netbooks lacking 3D graphics cards; any clicking sounds heard are only from Perry's wireless headset mic.

We've got a video embed of the Gaikai technology demo for you below, where you can see World of Warcraft and EVE Online played via a browser:

Tags: browser, david-perry, demo, fantasy, gaikai, mmo-industry, sci-fi, streaming-worlds, tech-demo, videos

Gaikai and OnLive both a no-show at E3 Expo 2009

by James Egan May 27th 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Events, real-world, MMO industry, News items, Browser

We heard about two competing gaming services at GDC 2009 that could revolutionize the video game industry, if the technology announced can live up to its claims: OnLive and Gaikai. Both services aim to stream game content to users while the graphics crunching is handled on company servers, thereby eliminating the escalating hardware barriers to playing the latest and greatest titles -- a home user's low-end machine would be able to run high-end games. Gaikai head David Perry (of Acclaim) has said that the company's "Streaming Worlds" technology is suited to handle MMOs, and has specifically stated that World of Warcraft and EVE Online can already be streamed to browsers.

When we heard about these companies at GDC we were hoping to hear more a bit later in the year, but it seems that neither OnLive nor Gaikai will be at the E3 Expo 2009. Gaikai cites patent filings as the reason they've had to pull out from E3 while OnLive states that their service doesn't fit in with the 'retail-orientation' of E3. We'll keep an eye on both companies as time goes on, though at this point only Gaikai has announced that they plan to stream MMOs.

Tags: acclaim, browser, david-perry, e3, e3-2009, e3-expo, eve, eve-online, gaikai, gdc-2009, onlive, streaming, streaming-worlds, world-of-warcraft, wow

The Daily Grind: Will streaming technology revolutionize MMO gameplay?

by James Egan Mar 27th 2009 at 8:00AM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, EVE Online, MMO industry, Opinion, Browser, The Daily Grind

Along with much of the gaming world, we were excited to hear the GDC 09 news about OnLive and Gaikai. The services both companies will offer (likely to enter beta testing in the next year) will eliminate the graphics performance of your computer as a barrier to play. The concept is that the company's servers do all the graphics crunching and stream the output to your computer, so all you would need is a decent broadband connection.

In the case of Gaikai and its Streaming Worlds technology, they've specifically mentioned MMO play through their service for World of Warcraft and EVE Online. You don't need to download clients or patches to your own machine, that'll be done remotely on the Gaikai servers. They'll stream games right to your web browser via Flash. If this all pans out as they say it will, it'll be feasible to run MMOs on older machines as well as on laptops that are normally considered below spec to run these titles.

While there are some big "IFs" with how this will work out, particularly as it concerns latency, do you feel the accessibility these services can offer could revolutionize MMO gaming?

Tags: browser, eve-online, flash, gaikai, gdc, gdc-2009, onlive, streaming, streaming-worlds, tdg, the-daily-grind, world-of-warcraft

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