Microsoft reacts to Sony buying Gaikai: "Cloud is a big area of investment for Xbox"
Microsoft doesn't appear to be too concerned by Sony's big acquisition today
Sony made a huge splash in the games business today, picking up cloud gaming firm Gaikai for a cool $380 million. Rival Microsoft isn't sitting idly by, however. When GamesIndustry International asked for reaction to the Sony news, a spokesperson noted that the cloud will continue to be hugely important for Microsoft.
"The cloud has been a key component of our strategy and a big area of investment with Xbox for many years. Through Xbox LIVE we're serving up gaming and entertainment in the cloud to more than 40 million people," a spokesperson remarked.
"We're committed to delivering extraordinary entertainment experiences across devices in a uniquely connected way through Xbox, Windows Phone, Windows 8 and other popular devices, and we're looking forward to continuing to innovate in this space in the future."
There's been a lot of speculation that Microsoft could buy OnLive, but others think that Microsoft will simply continue to invest and improve its own technology. Cloud gaming is certainly rising in importance, and Microsoft isn't about to let Sony gain the upper hand. We'll keep you posted on any new developments.
So isn't Microsoft ahead already and this is actually Sony playing catch up?
Bandwidth usage on a massive scale is only going to force ISP's to grow more and more stingy with their badwidth caps. They already crack down massively on things like Netflix and Youtube. HD streaming of cloud gaming is going to be like Netflix only worse.
Unless they make the Gakai games cross platform compatible with brick and mortar sales, it will be hard for the Gakai fire to catch a real flame. Current streaming technology (as far as I understand), increases and reduces the compression of the content during streaming to compensate for the lag due to internet, rendering, etc. Somebody will have to figure out how to compensate for this with cross platform products and prevent one from having an unfair advantage over the other.
Just my two cents.
Effectively next gen content processed through existing PS3 tech delivered vi the Cloud? Surely not! ;)