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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsGaikai promises to stream PC games like WoW straight to your browser
by Mike Schramm 
Jul 3rd 2009 at 11:00AM
His latest idea is a system called Gaikai, a "game streaming service" that allows players to jump right into any PC games they'd like, no installation or hard drive space necessary, online. There are a number of services like this springing up lately, including the much-discussed OnLive, where instead of depending on your local hardware to render and produce the game you're playing, you just send and recieve information with a remote server. As you can see above, Gaikai is focusing on PC games, and anyone who's planning on running a PC gaming service has to include World of Warcraft. Starting at about 6:00 into the video above, he shows off a version of WoW that requires no installation or loading at all; just sign in and play.
Tempting, though the service isn't quite there yet. On the technical side, Perry does say that the server he's playing with in the video above is about 800 miles away, but with all of this net connection stuff (just ask my Xbox when it attempts to stream HD Netflix video), theory is always much different than practice. Not to mention that one user running a service like this is fine, but what if 12 million people all tried running this at the same time? And then there are licensing issues -- Blizzard obviously makes money off of selling their expansions and software in stores, and it's not yet clear exactly how that money (or how much of that money) will be made here.
I have no doubt that given how much both computing power and network speed has increased lately, a service like this will almost definitely become the de facto at some point -- instead of worrying about having your hardware at home, it'll likely just be easier to stream the gameplay in from elsewhere. But Gaikai is still in the development stages, and no one knows how long it'll be until a service like this is ready for primetime. Your current WoW installation isn't going anywhere fast, but within a few years from now, you may not need it at all.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Hardware
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
Brouck Jul 3rd 2009 11:33AM
While I'd never use this for my home cpu. This would make trips to my parents house better when everyone goes to bed at 9pm and I'm up doing nothing till 11 or 12, I could just log on from their CPU and do some playing. Obviously raids would not hold up well, but it'd be good farming time for either gold or rep.
X Jul 3rd 2009 11:34AM
Mike, the least you could do was to give credit to the person who sent you that link, including instructions to fast forward to 6:00 etc
Agony Jul 3rd 2009 5:22PM
o_O
"Starting at about 6:00 into the video above..."
Hooked on phonics worked for me!
loutr Jul 3rd 2009 11:43AM
The Earthworm Jim series was awesome, so were Aladdin and Jungle Book (my favorite Sega Genesis game for months on end), MDK was great, but after that the quality of David Perry's games really went down. Messiah was OK but disappointing compared to the hype, and the Matrix games were just aweful. Nowadays he's just a standard (some would say sub-par) game designer living on his former fame.
Back on topic, seems like an interesting (but not new) idea, could be very useful when traveling. And the use of an authenticator limits the risks of having your account stolen.
Xigageshi Jul 3rd 2009 11:36AM
I think the biggest issue would be security, after all like onlive, the remote server is running the game, you're just streaming it, which means you'd have to enter your log in information into their systems, which blizzard might discourage for the simple fact that they can't guarantee security on someone else's service.
honestly i'm not too thrilled about this technology, i'm not big on middleware of any kind, I even eliminate retail when I can, I just hope games continue to allow us to install the game ourselves, even if these services take off. it'll be pretty tough to mod, and even in wow's case, how will addons work? will the server you stream from have only the most popular ones installed? what about people who make custom addons? will they have to submit their addon to the company?
people get so wrapped up in the idea and don't seem to think much about the ramifications
Banndit Jul 3rd 2009 11:43AM
What about ur addons?
Moskau Jul 3rd 2009 11:46AM
Did anyone else notice the very first window in that video said "World of Warcraft [Private Server]" ?
bigsampson Jul 3rd 2009 1:27PM
uh so wtf does that have to do with it.
Badger Jul 4th 2009 5:29PM
That has a lot to do with it, Sampson. The fellow behind this new project could get in a whole lot of trouble for violating every user agreement that accompanies any "WoW" installation. So-called "private servers" are forbidden in no uncertain terms.
Jed Jul 3rd 2009 11:57AM
Well for one blizzard makes money by selling accounts not game discs.. so i think this thing is pretty cool and viable if the servers are up to snuff
twelve Jul 3rd 2009 12:15PM
Mh.. well, i don't really know, but i think it's quite possible that John Carmack (id software co-founder) was the first to come up with the idea of game-streaming.
QuakeLive works fine, and i'm sure it's only the beginning.
offday Jul 3rd 2009 12:23PM
"he started out with a company called Shiny Entertainment, responsible for great old games like Earthworm Jim, MDK, Messiah, and the Enter the Matrix movie tie-in game."
Shiny Entertainment? What? I'm pretty sure those games belong to Interplay.
Keyra Jul 3rd 2009 1:54PM
Now you have me wanting to play Lost Vikings again!
Seraph Jul 3rd 2009 7:20PM
There's a difference between developer and publisher, you know.
Draim Jul 3rd 2009 3:53PM
In before cease and desist letter.
Suzett Jul 3rd 2009 4:43PM
Frankly, I would pay extra for this type of service. I've long wanted to show my coworkers how to play this game and streaming it would solve that issue. Also, I'm dying to do AH and admin functions during my lunch hour at work, or raid while traveling and again, this service would answer that issue. Bottom line is that there are many out in the world who would utilize this service and I hope that Blizzard is looking into this. I would pay more money monthly to them for this service. Why? Because its good business.
Seraph Jul 3rd 2009 7:18PM
Yeah, I tell you what! That Enter the Matrix game was awesome, I don't see how this guy could possibly fail at anything!
Oh wait...
Corday Jul 4th 2009 10:07AM
The problem with his statement, "you're not supposed to be able to stream driving games, but you saw Mario Kart, and here's Pro Street" is that he doesn't say *why* you aren't supposed to be able to stream driving games. The latency problems inherent in this kind of service make timing your turns almost impossible, so he used the Mario Kart track with the biggest, widest, slowest corners, and he was off the road at every slight bend in Pro Street.
This technology will work for turn-based stuff, and it'll possibly work for non-PvP MMO and conventional RPGs. Anything where real-time interaction with the game, though? Forget about racing, sports, action games, adventure games, music games, most puzzle games, simulators, first person shooters, real-time strategy...
Badger Jul 4th 2009 5:27PM
"And then there are licensing issues -- Blizzard obviously makes money off of selling their expansions and software in stores, and it's not yet clear exactly how that money (or how much of that money) will be made here."
That's an easy one, Mike. I could be wrong (which would be nothing new), but I think Blizzard probably makes the vast majority of their profit from their monthly subscription fees (which I still think could and should be reduced, but that is neither here nor there). Sure, they have explosive cashgasms every time they release an expansion, and those usually continue for a month or two after a release, but the reason profit is *sustained* is because players continue to pay fees over an extended period of time, following those releases.
In order to access "WoW" in the first place, you have to have an account, so I'm guessing that Blizzard would probably still make a nice chunk of change from having new accounts registered prior to accessing them over the Gaikai service. It's obvious that they would lose some money from users not picking up the physical copies of their expansions, but they could still profit from this.
Actually, wouldn't this make the game MORE accessible to folks who own hardware that can stream online video at a smooth FPS count, but who don't have graphics cards that can render DirectX10 (or 9, for that matter)? It seems to me that this service would actually REMOVE some barriers to players who can not access the game due to current hardware restrictions. It would also mean that anyone lucky enough to work somewhere without an overly-restrictive firewall or ridiculous security measures could continue to access their account when they're not at home, further engaging their customers and allowing them to continue growing with the game.
Robert Jul 5th 2009 5:34PM
considering I can't even get the video demo to stream without a few glitches I can't see this realistically happening without the FCC allowing ISPs to offer more bandwidth to the public sector, and them being able to afford it.