Sony to buy OnLive or Gaikai?

[Nintendo]

Sony Close to Buying a Cloud Gaming Service, Potentially Transforming Future of PlayStation
Sony might be in talks to acquire either OnLive or Gaikai—the two biggest cloud gaming providers—according to a report on Edge that follows up on previous articles on MCV and VG 24/7.


The speculation jibes with comments previously made by a Gaikai executive about this coming E3. It begs the question: what if a console manufacturer got into the cloud gaming business in a big way? Seeing as how the Sonys, Nintendos and Microsofts of the world are hugely dependent on disc-based content, it'd be the equivalent of dogs and cats sleeping together. Well, get ready to have a talk with Fido and Furball, because they may be about to be roommates.


OnLive's managed to bring spiffy tech to market but would probably continue to struggle to make a dent in the hardware market so a deal like this would make sense for them. Gaikai, on the other hand, hasn't sunk money into manufacturing any kind of consoles or controllers but it's shown proof-of-concept for YouTube integration and has a deal for the service to be integrated into upcoming models of LG smart TVs. Of course OnLive has a similar deal with the Google TV platform.


Sony offers full downloads of games via the PlayStation Network but such an acquisition would give them added infrastructure and the proprietary tech that eith company uses to make its streaming viable. Now, it'd be foolhardy to think that such a move would totally replace the next-gen hardware that Sony's working on. But it might shift the design of Orbis/PS4 towards being a box that can stream content more effectively than the current console. The future of consoles is going to be more online-centric moving forward and if these reports are true, Sony would get ahead of the curve in a big way.


When contacted for this story, Sony replied that they do not comment on rumor. Kotaku also reached out to OnLive, who had no comment to offer on the story.

http://kotaku.com/59...nlive-or-gaikai


IMHO, this can only mean good things for console gaming as a whole.

 

[GiraffeeDreams]

Initially I say yes, but I think it might also be another hit to physical media and well, I'm quite fond of carts and discs, as well as stores.


But yes, games would be cheaper, and if they implemented something like that green gamer site, allow digital license trade ins (trade the game in digitally, getting money off towards other games etc) then I'm all the more for it.

 

[Nintendo]

I think it might also be another hit to physical media and well, I'm quite fond of carts and discs, as well as stores.

Well...


Sony was once thinking about making a "digital downloads only" PS4 console.

 

[iprice]

But yes, games would be cheaper

There's no guarantee of that and probably the opposite.


Many new (and recent) games are actually cheaper in retail units than on STEAM right now, because of the competition. Remove the possibility of competition and the only place you can get a title is from Download Only Retail Corp (or D.O.R.C) who can now charge whatever it wants...


Admittedly some stuff would never make it on the shelf (or are really old games for older formats), so they will be cheap as chips, but newer stuff won't be.


Anyway, if this goes ahead I would expect Sony to charge users a monthly fee for access to all/majority of the new games, kinda like NetFlix or LoveFilm, so it could work out cheaper in terms of rental, rather than outright purchase.

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

I think microsoft will release the xbox 720 with both physical media and cloud gaming.I don't think they will allow onlive to take console market share from them even though onlive is pretty crap anyways but it will get better.Looks like sony might do the same.Gakai is run by dave perry an ex sony bigwig so I think the story is true.Im pretty sure Sony and microsoft are going to go head to head in a big way this time.should be interesting to watch.

 

[Ian J]

I voted yes because I hope this will seal Sony's future and leave the door open for someone to come in and shake up the system a bit.


I'm not a Microsoft/Nintendo fan-boy I have owned a PS1 & a PS2 but Sony's attitude towards consumers leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

 

[ghostpatch]

No! Im against that idea. If the PS4 could stream to a smartphone or PS Vita hell yeaH!! but not if I have to pay monthly and dont own the games. It would kind of feel like beeing dependent of Sonys will. Remember when Sony removed PS3 Linux support. I was pissed. Also in Germany its difficult as hell to get uncut games for steam!! that just sucks! Im over 18 so I'm allowed to play uncut games and even games on the index! but steam wont allow me that right! -.-


There are also reasons like I dont want the requierment to be online to play a game or hey that content is not available in you region.


Its easier to get uncut games for PS3 and such. A lot of Germans buy their games form UK, or Austria for that reason.


I buy a lot of used games so that would be a problem as well. Of course it doesn't nessecerily mean hard cops will vanish but there will be exclusive games and content like Fez (Xbox Live); Journey(PS3 PSN); Escape Plan (PSN PSVita)

 

[Caine]

The problem with these kind of services is that they don't transfer ownership of the titles to the purchaser but rather just the right-to-play. Once I purchase a game I want the right to play it forever at no additional cost and independent of the survival of whatever software house and/or publisher is selling it.


The other option is to not buy a game but buy entertainment, i.e. access to the network and ALL the titles it provides. Last time I looked, Onlive and their ilk typically combine both monthly payments for network access AND purchase of individual titles which I deem unacceptable.


Personally, I don't care all that much about what SONY does as the company is on my boycott list. If such a move would kill them then I would only applaud that. However, they will most likely get away with it as the typically reaction of the public at large seems to be to bend over and accept whatever happens from there.

 

[GiraffeeDreams]

I understand some companies are already trying digital only distribution, EA are already doing away with physical manuals in their games, digital 'should' be cheaper is what I should have said, but most companies seem to bump up the price, the uk PSN store often has games coming out around £10 more than the RRP for physical media.

 

[Nintendo]

Some Vita games don't have manuals.

 

[craigix]

It's Samsung:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18336427

 

[Nintendo]

So, Sony can still buy OnLive?

 

[craigix]

I'd guess Samsung and Sony had a little bidding war and Samsung unexpectedly won.


You could be right and Sony could now go with onlive.

 

[Nintendo]

Which service is superior though?

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

both suck compared to consoles.Gakai are psartnered with lg to offer a better service cos something is built into the lg tellys to reduce latency.Textures, slowdown and input lag are present currently and onlive cant display properly on bigger tellies

 

[Nintendo]

LG = S. Korean


Samsung = S. Korean

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

LG = S. Korean


Samsung = S. Korean

True.It's an invasion! But seriously lg are a particularily active company in the last few years.My guess is the ps4 and xbox 360 will have both physical media and cloud storage/gaming.i think microsoft will announce a new xbox this year ata dedicated event to be released in 2013.

 

[Nintendo]

I know it's still a little bit of a wait, but I'm very eager to see both their next outings.