At the end of May a rumor making the rounds suggested that Sony was trying to acquire either Gaikai or OnLive. In the process it would secure the ability to stream any game from any platform to Sony hardware. The rumor got watered down to the point where Sony was expected to announce Gaikai’s service would be used to stream PS2 and PSOne games on the PS3.
Today, Sony laid all the rumors to rest by announcing it has acquired Gaikai for $380 million.
As part of the announcement Sony confirmed it intends to setup a cloud streaming service using Gaikai’s technology to offer a broad range of entertainment. What has not been confirmed is whether such a service will be limited to Sony-only hardware platforms such as its TVs, tablets, smartphones, and gaming hardware.
The move is one that could really shake up the gaming space for the company, as well as putting its rivals including Microsoft and Nintendo on their back foot. With Gaikai’s game streaming technology under its control, Sony now has the ability to offer a game library well beyond anything its rivals can provide. It can also achieve that on any hardware platform it wishes because everything is streamed.
Looking ahead, the acquisition could help shape what the PlayStation 4 console ends up being. If Sony did decide to ship a machine without physical media, then Gaikai could be used to keep hardware costs to a minimum by streaming all games. I don’t think that’s likely to happen, though. Instead, Sony can leverage Gaikai to offer backwards compatibility on PS4 for PS3, PS2, PSOne, and PSP games. Movies could also be offered via Gaikai–playing instantly in full HD on any hardware that can run the Gaikai app.
What will be interesting to watch now is how Microsoft reacts. The most obvious response is to acquire OnLive, but that’s assuming OnLive is for sale and Microsoft sees the service as a good investment. It’s hard to argue against the fact that controlling a proven cloud streaming service is anything but a big advantage.
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