Gaikai goes live, brings Mass Effect 2 and Dead Space 2 demos to browsers

The Gaikai game-streaming service has officially gone live. According to David Perry, Gaikai's CEO, the PC cloud-gaming technology that allows players to test drive AAA computer games through their online browser is now available in 12 countries, with a handful of high-profile EA titles standing in as the system's first guinea pigs.

The launch was announced onPerry's bloglast Friday and included links to Gaikai demos forMass Effect 2,Spore,Sims 3andDead Space 2, the latter of which requiresyou to fill out apainless survey before playing. Each game is delivered in a Java window designed to grant internet users access to a high-fidelity PC gaming experience.

In the post, Perry explained, “Our thinking is somewhat like YouTube, as instead of just building a portal to go and watch videos, they decided to focus on putting videos everywhere on the web. We are doing the same with games, so when you read a review on a game, you can try playing it right there on the same page as the review.”

Unlike OnLive's similar game-streaming outfit, Gaikai is positioning itself as a digital advertising platform geared towards providing publishers and developers the means by which to embed game demos into their websites or social networking portals.

"Nobody else in the world has achieved this kind of streaming performance directly into browsers,"touted Perry, adding,"It's technically the most advanced interactive advertising unit in existence, and I'm incredibly proud of my team's accomplishments."

Perry promised a high-end demo of Gaikai's full capabilities will be showcased at this week's GDC conference in San Francisco. Until then, we're interested to hear how the service works for you...

[Source:David Perry]

Feb 28, 2011

Got a news tip? Let us know at tips@gamesradar.com


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The launch was announced onPerry's bloglast Friday and included links to Gaikai demos forMass Effect 2,Spore,Sims 3andDead Space 2, the latter of which requiresyou to fill out apainless survey before playing. Each game is delivered in a Java window designed to grant internet users access to a high-fidelity PC gaming experience.

In the post, Perry explained, “Our thinking is somewhat like YouTube, as instead of just building a portal to go and watch videos, they decided to focus on putting videos everywhere on the web. We are doing the same with games, so when you read a review on a game, you can try playing it right there on the same page as the review.”

Unlike OnLive's similar game-streaming outfit, Gaikai is positioning itself as a digital advertising platform geared towards providing publishers and developers the means by which to embed game demos into their websites or social networking portals.

"Nobody else in the world has achieved this kind of streaming performance directly into browsers,"touted Perry, adding,"It's technically the most advanced interactive advertising unit in existence, and I'm incredibly proud of my team's accomplishments."

Perry promised a high-end demo of Gaikai's full capabilities will be showcased at this week's GDC conference in San Francisco. Until then, we're interested to hear how the service works for you...

[Source:David Perry]

Feb 28, 2011

Got a news tip? Let us know at tips@gamesradar.com


11,000 invitations to test the cloud-based gaming service issued. More invites are coming soon


Cloud gaming system Onlive gathers pace, but there are still a lot of of potential problems

Matt Bradford wrote news and features here at GamesRadar+ until 2016. Since then he's gone on to work with the Guinness World Records, acting as writer and researcher for the annual Gamer's Edition series of books, and has worked as an editor, technical writer, and voice actor. Matt is now a freelance journalist and editor, generating copy across a multitude of industries.