SCE To Acquire Gaikai, Cloud-Based Service Coming

...and in tomorrow's news today, Microsoft buys OnLive.

4 up, 3 down

Let Microsoft buy OnLive. I have heard so many horror stories about remaining connected. I know the internet can be a haven for negativity but our very own Bikersaint has one and I trust him. Ask him about his OnLive experiences. Let's just say I don't think he was very thrilled because he had so many connection issues.

Anyways, I'm thrilled that Sony has made such a big investment. Now, I do have concerns about streaming gaming devices. If the network goes down then no games for you. :(

The month long PSN outtage last year was a very painful reminder of the risks of relying on a network to deliver gaming services. At least we still had a physical medium to fall back on. If that network failure happened to a streaming only gaming device then you would have been flat out screwed.

I know our internet infrastructure will improve over time but I'm still not comfortable relying totally on a network . I have a hard wired internet connection that's the fastest one can buy in my area. Anyways, I know I have been kicked out of games before because of some kind of network failure on my end because I will see a red flashing light on my modem.

Other times I will get a random PSN outtage...just randomly kicked and signed out of PSN. I can usually turn around and sign right back in but sometimes it takes a few minutes. Now, this rarely happens and I'm very happy with robust online services Sony provides to us for free BUT having the network go down even for a little bit makes me nervous relying entirely on a network to stream my games.

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Last edited by Excelsior1 on 7/2/2012 1:21:33 PM

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I had an onlive account, didn't care for it at all. I expected the games to be cheaper since they all digital, but nope. They don't even charge pc disc prices, but console prices.

Who wants to pay full price for a game with the guarantee that it could be removed from the servers at any time.

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I've had no problems with OnLive at all, and in fact, am a major supporter for the service.
If anything, Gaikai is a joke of a service, and currently only provides gaming demos. Not something I'd consider to be a 'leading' service.

As for random disconnections, I've been an OnLive user since 2010, and have only been disconnected from the service once, which was during their Wifi beta. Other than that, their service has been extremely reliable, even more so than Steam and the PSN. (especially Steam)

So, I don't get why everyone hates OnLive as much as they do. If they have had bad experiences, then that's understandable. However, everyone has a bad experience with everything at some point in time. That doesn't mean the entire service as a whole is instantly flawed and a failure.

As for the amount of bandwidth that OnLive uses, it's virtually the same amount for any video game of this generation, in terms of download size that is.
Most current-generation video games on disc are over or around 10 GBs in size, and most of them also contain some kind of diverse online interaction or connectivity. That could add another couple of GBs if you decide to participate in the online modes often.
The average consumer tends to buy 3 to 6 video games each month for the various platforms that they own. That's between 30 to 60 GBs of data that you must download.

Assassin's Creed: Revelations is roughly 12 GBs in size, and can be finished in one play through in 13 hours.
OnLive uses roughly 800 MB of data every hour, which is 10.4 GB for a 13 hour session of ACR.
That means, you'll use less bandwidth to stream ACR than you would use to download the game.

L.A. Noire: The Complete Edition is roughly 16 GBs in size, and can be finished in 26 hours. Because this is a long game, it would use around 21 GB to fully stream from start to finish on OnLive, instead of the 16 GBs it would use on the consoles, or on the PC.
In the L.A Noire example, it would be a better idea to purchase the game on the console, or on the PC, as it would end up using less total bandwidth. However, being as how video games keep getting larger in file size, and shorter in gameplay length, OnLive will eventually be the ultimate solution to people who are worried about using all of their bandwidth on downloading the latest digital games.
OnLive is good enough for most people, and wouldn't make much of an overall difference when it comes to your bandwidth consumption.

Also, in reply to kraygen; OnLive guarantees that the games will be available on their service for 3 to 5 years. That is the minimum period publishers must agree to provide support for the OnLive platform. If publishers decide to drop out after this time, then you're correct, the games may be pulled from the service entirely. However, same can happen to any video game of this generation, including games being released for the PS3. Take, for example, an online multiplayer game. The developers can choose to discontinue the online services at any time, making the game virtually useless.

Gaikai, to be honest, is really just an advertising platform. It has demos. That's pretty much it.

Sony would greatly benefit from the Gaikai services, but it is unlikely for them to compete directly against OnLive. As of where the both services currently stand, OnLive would win any such competition. They are simply a more powerful and stable network.


Also, I'm sure this post will get a lot of down votes. My love for a virtual console is sure to cause hate. :p


(oh, and the download thing was comparing OnLive / cloud with digital direct downloads)

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Umm, my comment was just about keeping up with the Jones'. Today Sony buys a cloud based gaming company and I could see Microsoft wanting to do the same in the very near future.

I will say that I have no idea how OnLive performs as it's not available where I live; however, Gaikai is, I tried it and was very impressed.

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Sorry I couldn't respond sooner but we had a very scary hurricane-strength straight-line wind storm that took down thousands of trees & power lines(I'm OK), hence I've had no electrical power since late Friday night.

I actually like my OnLive & have no problems whenever playing games on it, & I never get thrown off when doing so.

The big problem I have is that I usually couldn't even get in to start playing, & kept getting server errors when I was trying to get in,.
So in all reality, I was only able to connect 2 times out of the 2 months I was trying to daily.

With that said, I haven't tried in the last couple months so I'll go try again just to see if whatever went wrong has finally been corrected for once & for all.
Stay tuned....


As far as Sony getting Gaikai, I knew about this a couple months ago & am all for it. It's just another way of playing our favorite games & something else that M$ doesn't have(at least not ATM).
Lets just hope that the game prices will be a lot more affordable over time due to a lot less overhead.

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OnLive connection UPDATE:

Nope, although I just finished rechecking my OnLive network & it says that I'm-AOK, after 5 more tries I still can't seem to get connected to OnLive's servers.

FYI, after about 3 to 10 minutes of their "connection icon" spinning around, it then keeps giving me the same "Unable to connect" along with an "a512 error" code each time.

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@BikerSaint: what is your internet download speed?
Chances are, your connection isn't fast enough to handle the service. Either that, or your connection is unstable. Have you run any kind of ping test?

If you're unable to sign on to the service completely, then that is most likely the case. The PlayStation Network behaves differently than OnLive, which is why you're still able to log on and play games.

OnLive requires that you have an internet download speed of at least 3 Mbps, and 5 Mbps for HD gameplay. I personally have 50 Mbps speeds, but have had no problems connecting to the service on a 4 Mbps connection, which was below the HD speed requirement.

Remember, OnLive is basically a live video stream in high definition.

Additionally, if you receive that error after already signing into the service, it means your connection has dropped below the minimum requirements, or has become unstable. This isn't a problem with OnLive, but rather your own personal connection to the internet.

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i hope they are smart about this, and execute properly. I doubt we will see this on the ps3 anytime soon, but for sure on the ps4 and vita.

Option one buy the physical media (full regular price), option two buy the stream version with the option of playing the game on vita, ps3, Vaio tablets, xperia games and even sony tvs Tvs(discounted price). Also you can upgrade the stream version to digital version by paying the upgrade fee. Finally you can buy the bundle version which includes the physical version, with codes for the digital and stream unlocks (Premium price).

I think this is good for sony if they want to start streming movies. anyway this is really smart move I think what you guys think?

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I do worry that Sony will gimp or restrict the potential of this technology in some way in order to preserve hardware sales. I can't see Sony allowing PS3 games to be played on PC's or even Sony TV's (anytime soon); however, they may allow PS2 and PS1 games.

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@marckon

Sony already has movies on PSN. It's not a streaming service but you can start watching your movie while it's downloading to your hard drive.

Sure, this could help Sony get into the movie streaming market. It's a heavily saturated market however. We already have so many choices now when it comes to movie steaming. There's Netflix, Vudu, CinemaNow, Amazon on demand Video, and finally Hulu Plus. Oh, I almost forgot about Crackle that it is totally free. The selection of content on Crackle isn't so great and you are bombarded by comercials BUT it's still free. I watched Final Fantasy Advent Children, and Final Fantasy the Spirits within on Crackle,

I agree with Simcoe to an extent on the restrictions. I would imagine Sony wants you buying their Playstation hardware and gaming on it. We are still going to get a traditional console next gen that will have a physical medium to play games. Broadband penetration isn't high enough yet...Sony would not be able to reach as many customers in the less developed regions of the world if they ditch the physical medium entirely and rely entirely on streaming to deliver games.

I suspect this acquistion by Sony is more about next gen. Maybe they will stream games as an option and offer backwards compatabilty through streaming. It's not technically backwards compatability but rather a streaming service that gives you access to the PS3's library of games on a PS4 I'm speculating on.

This acquistion by Sony makes them a stronger company so I'm thrilled about that.

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Last edited by Excelsior1 on 7/2/2012 2:34:51 PM

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@excelsior, Sony owns Crackle. I immediately thought of this. With streaming technology Sony can stream just about any type of media content. Music, Movies, Games...

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Fathasun if Sony owns crackle then why do we have to use the Web browser and xbox has an app for crackle?

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I have high hopes for this acquisition and am very excited about the potential that is available. After trying Crysis 2 out for about 15 or 20 minutes, last month, I was surprised at how good the game looked and played on my browser!

I do see the entire (or very nearly all) PS2 games suddenly becoming playable on PS3 (and fingers crossed PSV too).

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I think this move is to give an extra feature to SONY TV's and we may see this service used in the PS4.

With the PS4 expected to ditch exotic architectures in favor of more traditional architectures this might be the way to play Cell games on PS4.

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I think basically Sony will use this to broaden the Playstation brand. "Don't want to own a playstation 4? If you get one of our sony tv's or sony vaio computers you can have that same functionality (for a monthly fee of course). I think it can certainly work.

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Never heard of it. Probably should have bought Activision instead but I guess it's a good idea to get into this cloud based gaming while it's still small.

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Last edited by WorldEndsWithMe on 7/2/2012 11:52:04 AM

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I don't think Activision would have sold for $380 million ;-)

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I suppose not.

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If Sony decides to shove cloud gaming down our throats, I'll move to PC and Nintendo gaming only.

3 up, 1 down

It's probably just getting a foothold on a future that eventually we won't be able to fight anymore.

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Just another step in the transition to all digital gaming. EA has already announced that they are transitioning to 100% digital.

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Sony already has the all digital taken care of, this is for something else.

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i doubt will see anything of this till next gen, but id be so freaking cool if $ony started using streaming for ps1 and ps2 games!
seriously doubt it would happen, but it would be so cool!
this will more likely be for next gen BC, including hardware for BC is ridiculously expensive!
software solutions are just as expensive to develop as the hardware, so this would be the perfect solution.

2 up, 1 down

Saw this move coming a while ago, Sony was cozy with them for a while. For once I agree with Mr Underline, this will help cover BC in the future.

You know, I wonder whether Sony will acquire one of the Social games companies that are so successful on Facebook? If they could translate some of those games into a Home based interface, it would be quite likely successful...

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Last edited by Highlander on 7/3/2012 10:49:34 AM

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So I'm guessing that Sony will be able to stream everything onto the Vita too?????

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That would be one way to increase hardware sales!

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