Sony has been making a few waves today with the official announcement that they have bought up Gaikai and their cloud gaming technology for $380 million (USD). SCE states that they are planning to establish a "new cloud service" with the technology, which may allow players to run beautifully rendered games on very low-end hardware.
Gaikai's tech works a bit like the OnLive service. Meaning that the graphics and heavy lifting is all done on external servers and then shot back to the player. With a fast enough connection, lag input is virtually non-existent and it allows players to play games on graphical settings they may not normally be able to play a game at with their current hardware setup.
What does this mean for Sony? Well, current rumors suggest that it may be used for backwards compatibility of original PS1 and PS2 games on the PlayStation 3. It is possible that it may also be used for backwards compatibility in the PlayStation 4. Until announcements are made, this is merely speculation.
CEO Andrew House had this 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.
"SCE will deliver a world-class cloud-streaming service that allows users to instantly enjoy a broad array of content ranging from immersive core games with rich graphics to casual content anytime, anywhere on a variety of internet-connected devices."
"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.
"SCE will deliver a world-class cloud-streaming service that allows users to instantly enjoy a broad array of content ranging from immersive core games with rich graphics to casual content anytime, anywhere on a variety of internet-connected devices."
Gaikai's tech works a bit like the OnLive service. Meaning that the graphics and heavy lifting is all done on external servers and then shot back to the player. With a fast enough connection, lag input is virtually non-existent and it allows players to play games on graphical settings they may not normally be able to play a game at with their current hardware setup.
What does this mean for Sony? Well, current rumors suggest that it may be used for backwards compatibility of original PS1 and PS2 games on the PlayStation 3. It is possible that it may also be used for backwards compatibility in the PlayStation 4. Until announcements are made, this is merely speculation.