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'Control' and 'Hitman 3' head to Switch via cloud streaming
Control and Hitman 3 are coming to the Nintendo Switch via cloud streaming.
Sonic Adventure, La-Mulana feature in Japanese TV streaming service
Japanese cable company KDDI is set to roll out an Android app-based cloud service that will stream games from Sega, Konami, and other publishers to J:Com and JCN subscribers, Engadget reports. The Ubitus-developed GameNow service, which is compatible with an upcoming lineup of Toshiba Smart TVs in the United States, will offer a number of paid and subscription-based games when it launches in Japan this year. Announced titles include Sega's Sonic Adventure, Milestone's World Rally Championship 3, and Konami's World Soccer Winning Eleven 2014 (Pro Evolution Soccer 2014). Other featured games include Square Enix's puzzler Yosumin, Nigoro's indie adventure game La-Mulana, and Falcom's Eiyuu Densetsu: Sora no Kiseki FC (released stateside for the PSP in 2011 as The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky). Sony's similar PlayStation Now streaming service recently entered a closed beta ahead of a planned launch this summer. [Image: KDDI/Ubitus]
Rumor: PS1 and PS2 emulation coming to PS4, won't use cloud streaming
PlayStation and PS2 backward compatibility may soon be coming to the PlayStation 4, a source close to Sony told Eurogamer this week. Notably, the source stated that backward-compatible PSOne and PS2 games would be stored locally on PlayStation 4 consoles and recreated via emulation. The claim runs contrary to Sony's previously announced plans to offer PS1 and PS2 games remotely via its PlayStation Now streaming service. According to Eurogamer's source, Sony still plans to make legacy PlayStation 3 games available via cloud streaming on the PlayStation 4. The source additionally claims that Sony is working to ensure that backward-compatible games are optimized for native HD resolutions, eliminating the blurred upscaling seen in emulated releases on the PlayStation 3. We've reached out to Sony for comment regarding these rumored features, and currently await a response.
Amazon 'AppStream' service allows devs to stream games from the cloud
Amazon announced the upcoming introduction of AppStream, a service that delivers high-performance games and other applications via Amazon Web Services cloud streaming. Essentially offering developers the ability to "build complex applications that run from simple devices," AppStream aids in reproducing high-performance, GPU-powered rendering on platforms normally incapable of delivering such performance. Supported applications launch instantly, and can be controlled either with touchscreen input or with linked devices. Microsoft's Xbox One has a similar supplemental cloud service in the works to boost in-game performance, and Amazon's AppStream could potentially help power graphically rich games for mobile and desktop devices. Developers interested in testing out a limited preview version of Amazon AppStream can apply for admission here.
Rumor: Microsoft plays with cloud-based gaming, demos Halo 4 on a PC
Microsoft company officials demonstrated a prototype cloud streaming service for games during an internal meeting this week, The Verge reports. Unnamed sources who are close to the event confirmed that officials had a streamed version of Halo 4 up and running on Windows PCs and even a Windows Phone (including Xbox 360 controller support via an attached peripheral). The demonstration reportedly ran smoothly, with latency on a Lumia 520 phone dipping as low as 45ms. Sony purchased Gaikai earlier this year in a bid to establish a streaming service for the PlayStation 4. Microsoft previously announced that it would use cloud computing to leverage additional processing power for games like TitanFall, but has not confirmed plans for a cloud-based streaming service.
Yes, Ouya is still supporting OnLive
Yes indeed, the Ouya is still planned to have OnLive support at launch. Ouya announced in late July that OnLive cloud game streaming support would be in the Android-powered, Kickstarter-funded open-source console when it launches early next year. Reps from both companies reconfirmed their commitment to the collaboration this afternoon.If this sounds a bit familiar, it's because OnLive has – in unspecific terms – said as much already. "All previously announced products and services, including those in the works, will continue and there is no expected interruption of any OnLive services," a statement by the company read last Friday. However, we've seen this question pop up repeatedly since last week, so we wanted to state each company's position on the record one last time. Just for you. Yup, you.
Documenting the death of OnLive: notes from the company's final meeting
"I've been a non-stop fundraising machine," OnLive CEO Steve Perlman told his entire staff yesterday morning. "And I finally got to the point where I just could not bring in enough funding to carry this thing forward." The hundreds of employees that make up OnLive were – en masse – relieved of their positions in yesterday's meeting, including Perlman himself. "All of us, technically, as of today, our jobs have ended – our current jobs with this company," another administrator informed the crowd after Perlman finished speaking.OnLive is entering what is known in California as an "Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors," or an "ABC," (a form of bankruptcy) wherein an "assignee" (a person, persons, or entity) takes over the assets of the current company – in OnLive's case, this means "the software, hardware, network architecture, our logo, all that stuff," according to Perlman – in an effort to lighten the previous company's debts and get its creditors paid off. Thus the "Benefit of Creditors" part of that acronym.Perlman didn't say who that assignee was during the company's meeting, only referring to him as "an extraordinary guy" (not an entity), and a "very accomplished and well known venture capitalist" who is "very wealthy." The unknown assignee apparently believes that OnLive "is the entire future of everything," Perlman told employees. Unfortunately, he isn't wealthy enough to bring on the 150-200 people that OnLive employed."Here's the tough part, and this is the thing I'm very sorry to say: it's just not possible for one individual in a startup – whether it's that old startup or this new startup – to bring in this many people into a company," Perlman said. Without giving numbers, Perlman said that, in the new company, "the people that come on board are the essential people, as needed, to go and accomplish that goal of getting this thing to cash-flow positive."He prefaced that news with a stinging reality: "The people that are gonna be coming on board here, that will come out of the group ... I'm gonna tell you, most of the people will not be coming on board."
GameStop's cloud streaming will spurn consoles, hang with PCs, tabs and TVs only
When GameStop bought Spawn Labs, it was clear that some sort of cloud-based game streaming was on deck, to compete with the likes of Sony's Gaikai and Onlive (now allied with Ouya). However, the company has just announced that the service will exclude consoles, and work only on tablets, PCs and internet enabled TVs -- a change from the original plan. The decision was made "based on consumer feedback" after a private beta, according to the retailer, who hinted earlier that consoles may be a non-starter on the service. It also cited its "success in selling mobile devices, and the imminent launch of new consoles" to justify the change. The program's launch is still planned for next year, but for now the console streaming path is clear for others.
Gaikai: Delivering instant MMOs to your browser
Imagine that you're reading up on an MMO on a site such as Massively (far-fetched, but stay with us on this). The words intrigue you and you think it might be worth checking out. You make a mental note to do so in the future -- to head over to the game's site, see if there's a trial, download it, set up an account, and give it a whirl -- but time gets away from you and none of that actually happens. Now imagine that right after you read that article there was a single button or link. Clicking on it, a Java window opens up on top of your screen and tells you that you're now playing a trial of the game. There's no wait, no download, no lengthy form to fill out -- just click and play, right away. You go from interested to inside the game within mere seconds, your computer specs (mostly) aren't an issue, and your curiosity is immediately sated. This isn't a far-fetched dream but the here-and-now reality. This is cloud-streaming MMOs brought to you by Gaikai. And it just might be the future of MMOs as we know it.
Crytek's Gface hits beta, wants you to stream your games, life
Facebook games just not doing it for you anymore? Than put on your gameface -- or log into it, rather. Gface is an upcoming social network, powered by Crytek, that seems to be gunning for OnLive (or maybe Gaikai)'s cloud gaming foothold. Yes, streaming's the name of the game here -- Gface is powered by Crytek's new Seed Engine, a cloud technology platform that lets users share context aware game sessions, video seeds and personal media. Details are hazy at the moment, but if the network's new beta subscription page is anything to go by, Gface will allow friends to socialize, share live video feeds and stream casual and high-performance games in both single player and cross-platform multiplayer modes. This real-time sharing setup is designed to be a hardware independent, cross-platform network that runs in your browser, powered by the GFace experience plug-in; imagery on the teaser page suggests you'll be able to seamlessly pick up a game of "Warface" on your PC, smartphone or tablet. There are plenty of questions left to ponder about the budding social network, but one picks our brain: will it run Crytek's Crysis? Hit the source link below to sign up for the beta, and if you get in -- let us know.
Amazon negotiating for Cloud Player music licensing deals after all?
Publically, Amazon wants you to think it doesn't care about licensing the music that it will let you store in the cloud, but privately we're hearing the company is scrambling like mad to work things out with angry music labels as we speak. Specifically, the Wall Street Journal cites a pair of anonymous sources who say Amazon's actually negotiating deals with the four major labels right now -- though Amazon won't confirm such a thing -- which the e-tailer hopes to close in a matter of weeks. What's more, they say Amazon may move to a system that compares users' uploaded songs with a database of those tunes it's managed to licence should the deal go through -- a system much like Sony's Music Unlimited, by the sound of it. It shouldn't come as any surprise, then, that the Journal quotes Sony Music chairman Martin Bandier in its final paragraph, who makes his pointed indignation at Amazon's announcement heard: "This is just another land grab. I can't make it any plainer than that. It's really disrespectful, and of course we are considering all of our options." Nothing like a little bit of mainstream media coverage to help pressure a business deal.
Amazon Cloud Player upsets Sony Music over streaming license, Amazon shrugs
In case you missed the news, last night Amazon gave us a little surprise by launching its free Cloud Player service, which lets you stream your music collection from the cloud to your computer or Android device. While this has no doubt put a smile on many faces (American ones only, for now), Sony Music isn't too happy about Amazon jumping the gun over licensing for streaming rights. The record label told Reuters that it's hoping Amazon "will reach a new license deal, but we're keeping all of our legal options open." Yikes. In retaliation, Amazon responded with the following statement to Ars Tehcnica: "Cloud Player is an application that lets customers manage and play their own music. It's like any number of existing media management applications. We do not need a license to make Cloud Player available. The functionality of saving MP3s to Cloud Drive is the same as if a customer were to save their music to an external hard drive or even iTunes." Of course, the bigger story here is that Amazon's free Cloud Player is going head-to-head with Sony's Music Unlimited streaming subscription service, which was pushed out last month after plenty of money talk with various record labels. Understandably, Sony isn't willing to let Amazon cut through the red tape here without a fight, and this may also affect similar music locker services like mSpot and MP3Tunes, albeit at a much smaller scale. In fact, Sony's already expressed its discomfort with those particular companies' mode of operation, so you can probably expect to see this tension boiling over to some form of legal action before long. Now that a big shot like Amazon's involved, it's almost inevitable. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Apple slyly enables background iDisk music streaming in iOS 4
Well, would you look at that? The v1.2 update to MobileMe iDisk that Apple pushed out last month has a secret -- er, did have a secret. One of the concealed new features of the app is background streaming, or as Apple puts it, the ability to "play audio from your iDisk while using another app." For starters, it's pretty fantastic just to have this functionality in-hand for your own garage jams, but what's more is that any licensed music on your iDisk still streams perfectly fine. Only time will tell if any record labels (or that mean, mean RIAA) step forward with a grievance, but this could very well be the beginning of iTunes in the cloud. Or a reason for buying Lala. Or a mysterious combination of the two.
