World of Warcraft on the
iPad? Apparently, thanks to an interesting service called
Gaikai. Gaikai, currently in beta, is a new technology that will let you play any game online in your browser. Here's how it works -- Gaikai hosts the games on their servers and worries about the hardware and software updates, then they stream the games to you through your browser. They call this technology "Streaming Worlds." What does this mean for the average
WoW player? Well, when you have a computer that otherwise looks seemingly impossible to play
WoW on such as the iPad, you can use Gaikai to stream the game via
Java,
Flash or
Silverlight to your computer, resulting in the
screenshot shown above.
While the screenshot is amazing, there are doubts to its credibility since iPad's browser doesn't support Flash. Unfortunately no video of the game in action was provided. However, the concept surrounding Gaikai, and the implications for browser-based games that are graphically intensive like
World of Warcraft are fascinating.
Tags: Breaking, browser-based, browser-game, browser-games, flash, gaikai, ipad, java, silverlight, streaming-worlds, world-of-warcraft, world-of-warcraft-screenshots, wow, wow-ipad
Filed under: News items
May 3rd 2010 at 6:00PM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
sprout_daddy May 3rd 2010 6:03PM
Interesting idea, which will promptly become moot when Blizzard's army of lawyers descend on them for violation of ToS.
Ametrine May 3rd 2010 6:07PM
Not to mention the fact that nobody would ever play the game addon-free, which, if all the stuff is being streamed by someone else to you, would mean you would be unable to use all the mods you now do...
Khremloc May 3rd 2010 6:08PM
Unless they have Blizzard's permission. These sort of services, be it GaiKai or OnLive, usually have the company's permission before using their games.
Chris May 3rd 2010 7:18PM
and who will be responsible when and if we get hacked... the game is not on a local machine, therefore we will be giving out our pwd to this company.
Mirantha May 3rd 2010 8:23PM
I can't see how Blizzard is going to allow this to happen. In order for players to play the game, they must log into the Blizzard servers, and only the Blizzard servers are legally allowed to host the content. Not to mention the copyright issue, or hacks. If a player's account is stolen, who then is at fault if they are using this system - the player or the Gaikai servers that have something on them? Even if I had an iPad, I wouldn't be playing any games on it in this manner until such time as the companies releasing the games authorise it. And with all the WoW accounts being stolen, there is no way I would be going through a third party.
Wither May 4th 2010 5:58AM
There's really nothing in the ToS about this and given you will still pay your Blizzard subscription fee, I would imagine Blizzard would actually be excited about this service and are probably co-operating with Gaikai to help get it working.
The way to think of it is that the only thing you use of your computer is your monitor, while you utilize a computer that's on the internet. The computer you are using has a hard-drive (so you can save game-files (like addons), create your account (for you subscription) and upgrade the version (this will be done for you). It has a very powerful graphics card to render your graphics, which are then sent over the wire to your computer.
It is a clearly a disruptive technology. Gamers are used to spending a lot of money on their own "rigs". In the future it is unlikely to be necessary. Bandwidth is already allowing full-screen video to be transmitted over the internet and bandwidth is still increasing.
Regarding security - I don't know how you will log into the Gaikai service. However, they could also use the same "Authenticator" technology (an RSA key fob) that Blizzard uses.
As already said though, the service does suggest that Flash is necessary to use the service (and I can understand why) and the iPad is flashless. However, they could have additionally written a iPad application that provides the same functionality.
Apollath May 3rd 2010 6:06PM
I hereby dub this screenshot the WoWpad!
Grovinofdarkhour May 3rd 2010 6:09PM
If I was Blizzard, I'd be very against this. Once we can play WoW through a browser with no download required, we'll all be playing all day at work until we get fired. And an unemployed customer doesn't remain a paying customer very long.
Grovinofdarkhour May 3rd 2010 6:12PM
OK, I know, I shouldn't make presumptions about the rest of you. But I have no illusions about my own addiction. I thank God I have to leave the house for 10 hours a day. I like that house and don't want to lose it.
Res May 4th 2010 4:19PM
There are already multiple handheld tablet computers that run full Windows installs that can play WoW without the need to stream or any other type of trickery. It would require people to look outside of the tiny world consisting of any product starting with a lowercase i though.
Grovinofdarkhour May 4th 2010 5:49PM
I getcha Rez, but I'm not talking about the hardware, I'm talking about being able to play through a normal internet browser window (instead of on downloaded software), on a normal desktop computer, in a place (such as at my own desk, in my own office) where I would never even consider downloading WoW to my (the company's) machine.
Seraph May 3rd 2010 6:13PM
Not to mention that if you're using their servers to log onto WoW, you're sending your username and password through their servers too.
All it takes is one person who works for them to try something stupid.
nieboh May 3rd 2010 6:27PM
That was my first thought. How do you keep your account info secure if you have to send it through a third party website? Plus one more fake website scumbags can use to trick the unsuspecting. Giakai.com anyone? Caikai? It's just begging for abuse in my opinion.
busuan May 3rd 2010 6:18PM
I doubt it.
How would the keybindings ever get to work?
They can show it on a screen, which may not be so hard.
But I don't think it's playable in any realistic way.
Crellen May 3rd 2010 6:17PM
Actually I think this may be a viable platform, monetarily speaking:
1) Blizzard would only allow users to play through Gaikai with a true Blizz account (so you can play at home too)
2) Gaikai charges for their hosting service, including additional fees for addon storage, playing time, etc.
3) Blizz gets a percentage of the Gaikai subscription funds.
Wish I would have thought of that one :P
Blacksheep May 3rd 2010 6:20PM
This won't work for every game, unless there is some way around add-ons, PC gamers like mods and won't give them up. On the other hand, for some games that are one off FPS or some single player RTS/RPG, it's gold. However, if the add on thing can be worked around, I'm imagining kissing Windows goodbye and playing everything on Ubuntu Linux forever! Free OS for life, no more $300 upgrades, no more worm threats, no more fatal errors, just the incredible beauty and stability of Ubuntu and all the games I love.
Clydtsdk-Rivendare May 3rd 2010 7:56PM
Somebody's missing out on Wine methinks?
Dave May 3rd 2010 6:20PM
Flash? Not on a portable Apple product.
Angus May 3rd 2010 6:49PM
Flash doesn't actually work on any portable product. Adobe has had 3 years to listen to smart phone makers demanding it and finally got off their butts last year. The current mobile Flash is a kludge, and it isn't very stable at all.
One friend mocked me for not having flash and demonstrated how superior his phone is by going to a site that has Flash on it. I waited for him to reboot the phone after it locked up before I gave him the thumbs up on how great that was.
Besides, Java works (not the greatest thing) and if they go to HTML5 it should work about as well as Silverlight. (Moonlight on a Mac)
HrFaHoLick May 3rd 2010 7:02PM
At least Flash is slated to be in Android 2.2. Can't say the same for Apple's next mobile OS.