Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) to Buy Cloud Gaming Company Gaikai for $380 Million (1 Viewer)

The rumors prior to E3 were that Gaikai and Sony would make a joint announcement at the show. Instead, Gaikai and Samsung announced that the TV maker would be adding Gaikai's cloud gaming service to their 7000-series and higher Smart TVs. The Sony Computer Entertainment aqcuisition may negate the Samsung SmartTV deal announced at E3.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-07-02/sony-to-buy-cloud-gaming-company-gaikai-for-380-million

Fantastic! A shitty implementation owned by an equally crappy company!
Gakai and Onlive are terrible ideas with terrible implimentation. Anyone who uses them instead of, you know, buying a decent $800 computer and paying for the games they play are both hurting themselves and the industry.
Sony's MMOs are all failing and they have nothing to bridge the gap until PS4. So: Smoke Screen time!

I think this is a fantastic idea. I don't understand what your issue with it is, Sam. Most people are not willing to sink hundreds of dollars into their computers and I think that cloud-based services are the future. There will always be a market for owning physical things but this is not at all a bad move.
The ideas that I've seen for what this could create are neat. Some think this could mean playing PS games (whether that's PS1, 2, 3, or future consoles) games on a PC through a browser without needing to have a good computer. Or adding the ability to play PS/PS2 games to PS3 or future consoles without worrying as much about lag since the graphics aren't that difficult to render. Or even adding streaming PC gaming to a PS3 so that you now have all of Gaikai's games on a console.
Internet speeds will need to increase a good amount for this to be amazing but I think this is where a lot of things are headed. And I actually like that. Saving time, money, and space at home are three great ideas.

According to the book of Sam if it aint by APPLE then it aint the shit.

If you choose to believe that, go nuts.
I have actually used a number of these services, on-live in particular and know they are not ready for prime time for games that demand low latency. Try em out, there is a reason they are selling so cheaply. If you want to do casual games thats one thing, but thats not what these are aiming for.
I also have been a paying customer on a number of SCE/SOE products for over 13 years, having been to 7 Fan Faires (SOE side) and owned every Playstation (SCE side) . Note that SCE and SOE are similar but different.
I'm also quite familiar with virtualization technologies as a whole. I am very pro vitualization. But trying to do imperceptible lag over consumer grade IP in 2012 is simply not going to be a fun experience.
Understand that Gakai and its ilk are trying to do what Huddler is trying to do for forums. It's all about cutting out the middle man and making a buck, the consumer be damned.

I see your point, but this is tech that is probably not going to be released to a 2012 consumer. I'd imagine that this will not be the sole means for game delivery, just like the PS Vita does not use digital downloads as the sole means for game delivery. If it's used as an option for playing games, whether quick demos or full games, or used to play legacy console games, then I think its actually a great idea. It would allow them to add features to their current or future consoles very easily. However, I would not expect them to revolve their entire future platform(s) around it.
They could also try to turn Gaikai into something like a PlayStation Portal that you play PlayStation games on through your computer. They're already releasing PS games for phones and expanding the PlayStation Suite thing, so this could just be an extension of that. I think its too quick to jump to conclusion and judge this move.
Also, what kind of speeds do you have at home? I played around with OnLive once and found it to be pretty impressive. I'm not playing Call of Duty or Battlefield (I don't play either as it is, anyway) so I don't think a little lag is deadly especially if using the service will save me a LOT of money on a computer that could do what OnLive does.

I have Fios 35/35. And it's still not good enough to play shooters competitively. On-Live that is, I admittedly have not tried Gakai. But again, I think these services are bad for consumers who care about quality and I think they are horrible for the industry as a whole.

First blood:

Brian Fargo just said on his Facebook page that OnLive is shutting down today… no confirmation yet.

Click to expand...

Gary Whitta on Twitter
Fargo just tweeted: "Brian Fargo ‏@BrianFargo
Apparently a new company will be formed but everyone is losing their job. Don't know what that means."
Or maybe not?
http://www.macrumors.com/2012/08/17/onlive-denies-rumors-that-the-company-is-shutting-down/

Total $/17 sandwich:
http://gamepolitics.com/2012/08/17/former-onlive-employee-describes-bizarre-all-hands-meeting

It's unfortunate that this happened now. While the Ouya thing might not revitalize OnLive, it will certainly lead to more people at least trying the service. Since OnLive can play any PC game and Ouya is only $100, you basically get a $100 state-of-the-art computer that works on your TV, so long as your internet connection is good enough.
Well, you will get that in March.

Here's the reality: Only 1600 people thought this technology was worth paying for. You can invest all you want in making this work but nobody wants it, if they gotta pay.
http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/28/3274739/onlive-report

I read somewhere that it was only 1600 people at a time were using it, not that only 1600 people in total had used it or purchased content. Even so, you could argue that the original XBox bombed in Japan but that didn't keep MS from buying up exclusive games and releasing a second console once they hit 30 million worldwide units, so why should cloud gaming stop now? I think that this technology is going to be a big part of the future, whether in gaming, productivity, or something else.

And I believe that to be hogwash because the hardware does not scale and the need just isnt there. There is a tiny number of people who are either too cheap or too poor to buy consoles but who can afford the monthly costs, high speed internet sub, and base hardware. And that does not can not and will not cover the extreme infrastructure costs.

Probably not, but if you are able to charge $50 for a game that, honestly, costs them like $30 to make (per copy) then that's money to pay off infrastructure costs. Additionally, you could come up with a subscription model like they sort of had already that offers a lot of older or smaller games for a low monthly fee. I really do think the model could work, we just need enough people to have access to high speed internet. If you have a console already, have an internet connection, then adding Gaikai or OnLive to a current system should be pretty easy. As a bonus feature, I don't see this being a bad thing at all.

You can't have a bonus feature that costs hundreds of millions of dollars to implement and costs 10s of millions of dollars in bandwidth, maintenance and personnel a month.
As The Wire says "You want it to be one way, but it's the other".
And I believe you are incorrect about game retail price thing too, with your guess at retail versus wholesale pricing. It simply doesn't work the way you think it does. Again, steam and the iOS app store are good models here for why the $60 new release model is broken and unsustainable, and their very existence seems to prohibit a scheme like On Live or Gakai getting a foothold.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2012/07/06/virtual-world-needs-laissez-faire-economists/

The iOS/App model isn't a sufficient replacement for standard console gaming. I agree that $60 is unsustainable but that doesn't mean going to $1 games that can be mastered in 20 minutes or are just puzzle/Angry Birds games. In fact, studies have shown that people treat iOS gaming as just a way to waste time and not a way to invest time; it's something to do on the train, not something that you plan a night around or that you try to make time to enjoy. It's like saying listening to your ringtone is the new version of going to a concert.
As for Gaikai/OnLive, as a bonus feature then yes that's a lot of investment into the service to create just one little item that would probably act as little more than a checkbox on a list, but I think Sony really has more intentions than that. If this becomes a streaming service then they could potentially put PS3 or better looking games on ANYTHING with a screen. Maybe they'll release a PS4 console for $300 or a $50 box (ala OnLive) that has an annual fee to keep active. I could see this being a new form of PS+ and MS is kind of doing this with their latest 360 console, where you buy it for $99 but have to get XBL for 2 years at $15/month. That actually may be a genius idea because it turns gaming from a collecting hobby into a service.

Interesting how I continue to believe almost the exact opposite of everything you post =)

Not dead yet:
http://www.polygon.com/2012/11/15/3649014/onlive-now-comes-pre-installed-on-lg-g2-series-google-tvs

You know the definition of insanity, right?
http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/12/playcast-cloud-gaming-service-hands-on/

WSJ says streaming is go: http://m.wsj.com/articles/a/SB10001424127887323478004578306663577439962?mg=reno64-wsj