Gaikai ready to stream full games within months

Gaikai–the cloud-based gaming platform that has focused on providing gamers with high quality demos–is set to offer users full games within months, according to company co-founder David Perry.

January 23, 2012 5:45 PM5

Since launch, the cloud-based gaming service Gaikai has focused on providing gamers with high quality demos of PC titles, showing users what the technology is capable of. According to Gaikai co-founder David Perry, the company has plans to offer gamers with full titles, within months.

Priority one is launching the platform on Facebook–a deal the company revealed last week. Once Facebook is ready, Gaikai will be injected within three months. “About 90 days from that,” Perry said in a recent interview. “I’m not aware of any technical hurdles we have that would stop it.”

Gaikai currently allows users to play supported game demos within a browser on its official site.

Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, Perry noted there are substantial differences between Gaikai and cloud-based competitor OnLive. “They have to modify the game, they have to get the source code to the game. Gaikai doesn’t require modification of the game.”

Using The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings as an example, Perry outlined how both Gaikai and OnLive were given the game at the same time and while Gaikai currently has a demo of the game available, OnLive’s version has not launched.

“We went live with Witcher 2 immediately and now four or five months later they still don’t have that live, and that’s because they have to touch the code. The whole structure of Gaikai is about not touching the code,” he said.

Gaikai’s next steps are to bring the service to other social networks, like YouTube, and even retailers like Best Buy. “If you give me your game today I can put your game in front of more than 100 million people, easily. Quite honestly if we put you on the homepage of YouTube right now on it’s own, you’re already hitting that number,” Perry claimed.

With Gaikai’s technology reaching such an expansive network of users, the company becomes an attractive possibility for a company looking to expand its cloud-gaming portfolio. Perry says that console manufacturers need to take the technology seriously.

“You do not want to be the console that can’t do this,” he said. “I would play a lot more games if I fired up my Xbox, clicked on a game and it started playing straight away. I don’t want to take your console from your cold dead hands, that’s not the case at all. You’re going to continue to play the way you play, but just imagine that you could have an opinion on all games because you’ve been able to try all of them. Each evening, flick through four or five games that just came out.”