Sony to acquire Onlive or Gaikai Cloud Gaming

RoverZT

Sony may be planning to do much more than announce a cloud gaming deal with either Gaikai or OnLive at E3 - it's reportedly soon to reveal it has fully acquired one of the companies.
That's according to MCV, which says it has been informed by sources that takeover papers are "close to being signed".

Such an acquisition would have major implications not only for Sony's console arm but its wider business, making it possible for the company to stream its games not only to PlayStation devices but to other consumer technology products like its Bravia TVs and Vaio PCs. Players could benefit from the ability to access gaming content from multiple devices while on the move. Back in January, Sony CEO Kaz Hirai suggested that disc-based consoles will remain the norm in the coming years, noting that "there's always going to be requirement for a business of our size and scope to have a physical medium". There's no reason why physical games and streamed ones couldn't live together on PS4, but if so the impact on the games retail sector would be highly significant.

Really big news if true.

Use them all the time at home and at work and finding it amazing for what it is.

A company with the resources of Sony could change gaming forever with this tech.

I found it incredible that all you needed was a good internet connection 10mb+ and you could play any game even on an ancient PC.

I was playing Dirt 3, Crysis, Batman Arkham City, Pro Evo 12 on my PC at work, it's a PIII, 256mb ram piece of crap and it ran Crysis perfectly smooth

Onlive/ Gaikai never really had the revenue to push it the way a Sony or Microsoft can, but with one of them involved it has a boundless potential.

I might be wrong but could graphics on a platform like this be far more advanced than any traditional hardware powered console/pc?

If Sony were to go thin client / streaming , wouldn't developers not be bound to the power of the console under your TV?

Instead wouldn't all the processing be done at the backend, on huge servers , therefore not bound by the spec of the console but rather by the collective processing power of your servers.

Wouldn't Sony/Microsoft have the revenue to produce rendering farms like the one's used for Avatar just for that purpose?




http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2009/12/22/the-data-crunching-powerhouse-behind-avatar/

If connections improved to 20mb+ as an average household connection, it should be possible right.

To have Avatar level visuals over a stream connection.

It would probably cost 100m to make such though

CrazyFish

On a console that can already play games without the need to stream them I don't really see the point.

Kirby

While Onlive type services are good for single player games, I have my doubts about their multiplayer applications.

For things like real time strat games or RPG's sure....but for FPS games or fighting games? Twitch games? Don't think so. Even on a really good connection the input lag would be.....very noticeable.

Retr0gamer

I'd rather own my games than play them through a glorified rental system, still looks like this is going to be pushed and Onlive were dropping hints six months ago that one of the console manufacturers was going to take streamed gaming very seriously.

RoverZT

Kirby wrote: »

While Onlive type services are good for single player games, I have my doubts about their multiplayer applications.

For things like real time strat games or RPG's sure....but for FPS games or fighting games? Twitch games? Don't think so. Even on a really good connection the input lag would be.....very noticeable.

What if most of the processing is done in the clouds but most of the rendering is done on the console.

So they wouldn't be streaming video over the internet but streaming small bits of data.

Wouldn't have any lag then.

RoverZT

CrazyFish wrote: »

On a console that can already play games without the need to stream them I don't really see the point.

For PS3, it'll might mean some new stuff (like streaming demos, old ps2 games )

By the time PS4 rolls out, this technology could be offering a lot of nice features.

Give it a couple of years when internet speeds rise, we won't be able to imagine coming back.

If fiber connections became the norm, it could offer visuals that a standalone box for 300 euro couldn't even dream of.

A super fast internet connection and rendering farms in the cloud churning out visuals that wouldn't be possible for 20 years on standalone hardware.

Just like Netflix is killing Dvd, Blu-Ray sales, a service like this could kill hardware.

The potential uses for this are endless. There's simply no telling what we might see as a result of this technology.

You're replacing hardware with an Internet connection.

Why would you buy a 600 euro graphics card when a stream serviced that can be played on any device with a suitable video decoder could render games with visuals far beyond your 600 euro graphics card.

Jaafa

RoverZT wrote: »

For PS3, it'll might mean some new stuff (like streaming demos, old ps2 games )

By the time PS4 rolls out, this technology could be offering a lot of nice features.

Give it a couple of years when internet speeds rise, we won't be able to imagine coming back.

If fiber connections became the norm, it could offer visuals that a standalone box for 300 euro couldn't even dream of.

A super fast internet connection and rendering farms in the cloud churning out visuals that wouldn't be possible for 20 years on standalone hardware.

Just like Netflix is killing Dvd, Blu-Ray sales, a service like this could kill hardware.

The potential uses for this are endless. There's simply no telling what we might see as a result of this technology.

You're replacing hardware with an Internet connection.

Why would you buy a 600 euro graphics card when a stream serviced that can be played on any device with a suitable video decoder could render games with visuals far beyond your 600 euro graphics card.

Because when this service inevitably crashes every-time a new AAA game comes out, or your internet connection goes down, or the service is hacked you'll be gaming away with your graphics card while everyone else spends the afternoon pressing F5.

That said it does look quite good and certainly will have a significant place in the future of gaming.

NTMK

RoverZT wrote: »

Just like Netflix is killing Dvd, Blu-Ray sales, a service like this could kill hardware.

Movies != Games - movie streaming doesnt have to deal with issues like lag the servers that stream it do not have to deal with the huge amount of input from games

The potential uses for this are endless. There's simply no telling what we might see as a result of this technology.

You're replacing hardware with an Internet connection.

Why would you buy a 600 euro graphics card when a stream serviced that can be played on any device with a suitable video decoder could render games with visuals far beyond your 600 euro graphics card.

the amount of data processed by a graphics card costing €600 is huge
you also have to remember who has to pay for the extremely high spec servers

also as for mainstream games Diablo 3 says hello. 2/3 weeks in to the game and im still struggling to connect due to server crashes

Until they can ensure that they wont lose sales Microsoft or Sony wont go that way which is a long way away considering the likes of South Africa and rural areas of Ireland and uk still suffer with horrendous internet availability

Varik

Sony will not move from physical media during the next generation and would likely try for a expand on the current vita system, the problem with streaming games is that it is one further step from complete ( or nearly so) control as with a blue ray but if a downloaded PSN games not only gave you the current benefits with the possible inclusion of cross play with the vita a la motorstorm but also streaming uses many people would take advantage of it.

I don't think any game would be wholly streaming without at least a full downloadable version to run locally; with the exception of any possible use of PC games, rentals, and demos.

Also have a feeling that if true it may involve the new PlayStation plus plans that are reported to be announced.

Remote play on the Vita without even needing your PS3 to be on and allowing you to play ( where control feasible) a PS3 game.

Helix

game over

sony wins

ShiverinEskimo

I presume cloud gaming will also generate huge volumes of data - essentially streaming HD video for hours on end.

With Irish broadband availability and traffic caps it'll be difficult enough I reckon. And as mentioned above you'd be looking at an absolute minimum of a half a second reaction time. For serious FPS play that's the difference between still alive and reloading a checkpoint.

A huge physical limitation inherent in networking to overcome. Nice to see boundaries being pushed all the same though.

Myrddin

RoverZT wrote: »

Why would you buy a 600 euro graphics card when a stream serviced that can be played on any device with a suitable video decoder could render games with visuals far beyond your 600 euro graphics card.

There's still a big difference in the visuals between the two. Yeah it can stream new release stuff to older machines, but compare the two side by side & you'll notice the differences.

Also, it's Sony...so expect them to mess this up somehow.

Shiminay

Our broadband infrastructure still has some ways to go I think, but it's really close.

It's a good move for Sony, I see them taking a 2 tiered approach and offering a streaming service via a PSN account with set top box and integrated products for TVs (let's call it PlayStation TV) and then the dedicated console which has the added bonus of being awesome and having your Blu Ray player and the ability to stream the stuff via your PSN account anyway (and that's your PS4).

RoverZT

Shiminay wrote: »

Our broadband infrastructure still has some ways to go I think, but it's really close.

It's a good move for Sony, I see them taking a 2 tiered approach and offering a streaming service via a PSN account with set top box and integrated products for TVs (let's call it PlayStation TV) and then the dedicated console which has the added bonus of being awesome and having your Blu Ray player and the ability to stream the stuff via your PSN account anyway (and that's your PS4).

Samsung have already followed suit with there smart TV's.








Mate of mine has a Samsung Smartview, must give it a try.

If the service is decent it's a gamechanger alright, no doubt about it.

Varik

Some more rumours about it.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-06-01-sony-brings-backwards-compatibility-to-playstation-with-gaikai-deal

they're saying it's older PS1 and PS2 games.

Corkfeen

Varik wrote: »

Some more rumours about it.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-06-01-sony-brings-backwards-compatibility-to-playstation-with-gaikai-deal

they're saying it's older PS1 and PS2 games.

I sort of suspected that would be the case. Far more straight forward to stream older titles.

vard

Here's me trying out onlive on my phone.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLuBUE1kP_8

It's very impressive, and I do think cloud processing is the way forward. Early days, still, at the moment. It will be a while before it really takes off - internet down/upload speeds really need to improve across the board first... particulary in Ireland. Once they do, however, I'd expect to see Sony/onlive and its competitors make a very big push with this tech.

Sony, Ms... they're all racking up big losses on manufacturing costs. Servers are expensive of course, but with no factory lines and big export chains there will be serious they could prove to make a lot of money. Hopefully it will transpire to consumers and we'll see cheaper software too.

With regard to input lag, which would be a concern regardless of internet speed, I've been reading that development is underway on some system, which uses some sort of weird science that doesn't make sense to me, and absolutely eliminates all lag. All that quantum alternating physics malarkey.

Retr0gamer

If you're talking about a quantum network, well we are a very long way off that.

vard

Retr0gamer wrote: »

If you're talking about a quantum network, well we are a very long way off that.

I don't know what I'm talking about. A long way off, probably. Surely we're at least capable of minimising lag to somewhere around the speed of light. So, what would that be - about a 0.1 second response time, at a max?

ShiverinEskimo

vard wrote: »

I don't know what I'm talking about. A long way off, probably. Surely we're at least capable of minimising lag to somewhere around the speed of light. So, what would that be - about a 0.1 second response time, at a max?

Will always be electronics/routing and some form of multiplexing which means processing. Latency is not getting down to 1ms in our lifetimes.

RoverZT

Corkfeen wrote: »

I sort of suspected that would be the case. Far more straight forward to stream older titles.

Would be great if they were upscaled to 720p, had the FSAA, Anisotropy Filtering and all that.

I often use Dolphin and some of the gamecube games look amazing.

dreamers75

Internet on phones will never take off....GPRS is too slow....


Onlive is the way of the future...technically theres no reason my phone cant play the latest AAA console game via online service such as this.

not a bad idea for a console maker to take over one of these places.

wes

Certainly an interesting idea. However, I wouldn't quite say that its the future just yet. There is still issues with the technology that need to be worked out. Also, the entire cloud business, is really just a new version of a main frame and thin client computing, that uses clustering and virtualisation. Having said that, I do think this latest iteration has potential, but I wouldn't be calling it the future just yet.

Helix

wes wrote: »

Certainly an interesting idea. However, I wouldn't quite say that its the future just yet. There is still issues with the technology that need to be worked out.

of course it's the future. the technical issues are disappearing rapidly, and will be non-existent within 7-8 years

Varik

Turns out it's not happening or at least not from Gaikai.