Many believe the future of the games industry is in cloud gaming, where the game you’re playing is run on servers located at a datacenter (as opposed to the console/handheld/PC in your home) and streamed to a screen — a TV, computer, phone, tablet, etc. Should that prove to be the case, Sony has ensured it will be prepared by acquiring cloud gaming company Gaikai for $380 million. It’s a deal which has numerous implications, the most intriguing of which is what the cloud’s implementation will be in the PlayStation 4 and how that potentially negates the need for another PlayStation console to ever be released.
Back in May it was reported that a deal between Sony and either Gaikai or OnLive would be announced at E3. It’s possible that was the case, and due to the particulars still being worked out, an announcement could not be made as planned; the press release Sony Computer Entertainment sent out last night notes the deal still has to go through closing conditions and the usual regulatory stuff. Those should be no issue at all, and knowing the deal is with Gaikai enables us to now better brainstorm what things could look like down the road.
