Hawken to be playable via Gaikai prior to official release
Hawken keeps surprising us. First, we were surprised that the really great-looking mech shooter is being made by an indie studio, then it surprised us to learn that it would be free-to-play. And here's another surprise: Dave Perry's cloud gaming system Gaikai has signed a deal to let players see Hawken running through the service in advance of the planned December 12 release date.
Gaikai allows nearly any game to be streamed directly from its servers to any browser, which means that the first impression of the graphics-intensive Hawken will be playable anywhere Gaikai will run (including on some tablets, and computers of all shapes and sizes). This deal makes a lot of sense from both sides: Hawken needs a large audience to get its free-to-play engine running, and Gaikai could use a big title to connect users to its servers. The Gaikai demo will be on playhawken.com and a few other sites, so eyes open until then.
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GAIKAI SIGNS THE RIGHTS TO PRE-RELEASE THE VISUALLY STUNNING
HAWKEN VIDEO GAME FROM THE CLOUD
Highly Anticipated Free-To-Play Mech Shooter HAWKEN from Meteor Entertainment Will Come
to Gaikai Ahead of Its 12/12/12 Launch Date
LOS ANGELES, CA – May 15, 2012 - Gaikai Inc., the innovative cloud gaming service, and
Meteor Entertainment, a newly formed publisher of free-to-play video games including the
highly anticipated HAWKEN, today announce a new partnership that will bring HAWKEN to
Gaikai's open cloud gaming platform. Powered by Gaikai's high performance open cloud
platform, HAWKEN will be available to try instantly before its 12/12/12 launch date on
www.playhawken.com and other websites, with no downloads or installs required.
Developed by Adhesive Games and published by Meteor Entertainment, HAWKEN is an
innovative free-to-play multiplayer online game where players battle giant armored mechs
amongst the ruined cities of a toxic planet. The new PC title is set to revolutionize digital
game distribution as well as the mech genre, by delivering fast paced mech combat action
and state-of-the-art visuals to hardcore players worldwide on the web through a free-to-play
business model where players buy virtual goods rather than paying for the game up front. Since
HAWKEN was first announced on 2/6/12, over 200,000 players have signed up for the closed
beta at www.playhawken.com and trailers of the game have generated over 3 million views from
excited fans on YouTube.
"HAWKEN wants to be free and it wants to be everywhere - and with Gaikai, it will be," stated
Mark Long, CEO at Meteor Entertainment. "Their tech is the next level. It's mind blowing to see
HAWKEN running on a tablet!"
"HAWKEN is set to be one of the hottest titles of 2012, with stunning visuals and action-
filled gameplay. It is a refreshing addition to mech genre, as well as an outstanding example
of a high-quality development from an independent studio," said Robert Stevenson, EVP
at Gaikai. "By hosting the best gaming experiences available, we can fully showcase the
capabilities of Gaikai's open cloud platform."
This past February Meteor Entertainment raised more than $10M from Benchmark Capital and
FirstMark Capital, backers of the successful Riot Games studio, to support development efforts
on HAWKEN.
Gaikai has spent four years designing and building the fastest interactive cloud network in the
world, instantly capable of delivering cutting-edge games without the need for any extra custom
hardware or software. Coupled with relationships with the top video game and development
partners around the world, Gaikai is capable of delivering a broad catalog of the world's most
exciting games straight to consumers across the web including social networks like Facebook or on any Internet connected device including televisions, set-top boxes or tablets.
