Tag: Gaikai

Sony Buys Gaikai For $380 Million


Gaikai is a revolutionary streaming service that allows players to demo popular games over their browser, without the wait or bandwidth of downloading the increasingly growing games. Currently demos are very limited both in time and size, with most games only offering a few levels and up to an hour of gameplay.

Games Industry is reporting that Sony has acquired Gaikai to the tune of $380 million. Sony Computer Entertainment President Andrew House had the following to say:

“By combining Gaikai’s resources including its technological strength and engineering talent with SCE’s extensive game platform knowledge and experience, SCE will provide users with unparalleled cloud entertainment experiences,”

There are numerous competing developers currently using Gaikai’s services to stream their games. What does this mean for competing products on Gaikai? Only time will tell.

(Source: Gamesindustry.biz)

Our Thoughts: TERA Gaikai


TERA is 50 gigabytes. That is as many as five tens and that is terrible. For some, fifty gigabytes may be too much of an investment in terms of bandwidth or time to give TERA’s seven day trial a go. Luckily this is where Gaikai comes in. Founded in 2008, Gaikai is an online cloud-based streaming service being employed by a growing selection of MMORPGs. The trials through Gaikai are currently very limited, both in time in and content. The benefit to this, however, is that the game can literally be booted up in seconds, playable directly through your browser.

You can’t beat Gaikai in terms of accessibility. You can play without ever having to sign up for an account, entering your email address or personal information, or linking your Facebook/Twitter/Bebo accounts. At the offset, you have three classes to choose from: Warrior, sorcerer, and lancer. The preview encompasses the introduction, starting the player off at level 20 with the associated class skills already unlocked.

As you can see, the graphics have been scaled back somewhat to function properly through the browser. Following a lengthy bit of running around talking to various NPCs, receiving equipment, and a lot of walking, the player is introduced to the combat mechanics and the demo ends with the player fighting one of the game’s big-ass monsters.

The demo is only disappointing in the sense that at least half of the demo is wasted on the most boring section: Tutorial. Once you get to the part where there is actual combat, the demo feels almost over and all you’ve accomplished is reading through quest text. For someone who has never played TERA, this is probably not the best presentation to make them transition on to the full seven day trial. All other systems except for combat are not mentioned at all.

I’m sure TERA will eventually support a better demo on Gaikai, but this feature feels rushed and ultimately is unsatisfying and poorly marketed as a result. Even with the scaling back of graphics, the game still looks great and handles just as well as it does in the full game, but overall it just feels half-baked.

En Masse Entertainment should create a Gaikai specific demo instead of simply plucking the first area and show off more of the game, including crafting, the political system, and broker.

TERA Launches With Strong 7-Day Trial


When you launch your game with both a client cost and a subscription, gathering new customers after the initial rush of early adopters can get pretty hard. In recent years, level-based trials with no time limit have replaced the one to two week trials of the past. Another hard wall that developers have faced in bringing in new customers, even with the free trials, is the growing size of game clients. Back when Dungeon Runners shut down, the developers noted that a large percentage of players would never even finish downloading the client, and Dungeon Runners was free!

TERA launches its seven day trial with some pretty generous offerings. Players are able to level up 8 characters to level 23 on one server (assuming you can do that in seven days), with some restrictions to certain chat channels, trade brokers, and player vs player combat. Trial accounts are also not allowed to vote in the elections, so put your vote-rigging plans to rest.

Additionally, if you don’t want to take on the 50 gigabyte installation that is TERA, you can try the limited Gaikai streaming trial. There is nothing to install for this trial, however it only lasts 30 minutes and you are restricted to the warrior, sorcerer, and lancer classes. Additionally, Gaikai services are only available in the United States and Europe.

Hit up the link below for details on both the 7-day trial and the Gaikai streaming demo.

(Source: Try TERA)

Eve Online Possibly Coming To Gaikai, Onlive


I have a feeling that we’re going to be seeing a lot more of Gaikai around here for the foreseeable future. Two weeks ago I talked about Turbine’s plan to bring a limited trial for Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online to Gaikai, an online streaming service where players would be able to play a very limited version without having to download a massive client. Following that news, CCP Chief Marketing Officer David Reid has talked to Eurogamer to discuss bringing Eve Online to Gaikai or Onlive in some form.

“We think it’s a really important way to not just play the core Eve Online gameplay – that you do play today principally on the PC and on the Mac – but also to add new sorts of experiences – when you think about Planetary Interaction in Eve Online right?”

It is important to note that whatever happens is still a very long way off, and we may not see anything come of this until 2013. MMO Fallout will be paying close attention for more details.

(Source: Eurogamer)