Gaikai and OnLive both a no-show at E3 Expo 2009
We heard about two competing gaming services at GDC 2009 that could revolutionize the video game industry, if the technology announced can live up to its claims: OnLive and Gaikai. Both services aim to stream game content to users while the graphics crunching is handled on company servers, thereby eliminating the escalating hardware barriers to playing the latest and greatest titles -- a home user's low-end machine would be able to run high-end games. Gaikai head David Perry (of Acclaim) has said that the company's "Streaming Worlds" technology is suited to handle MMOs, and has specifically stated that World of Warcraft and EVE Online can already be streamed to browsers.
When we heard about these companies at GDC we were hoping to hear more a bit later in the year, but it seems that neither OnLive nor Gaikai will be at the E3 Expo 2009. Gaikai cites patent filings as the reason they've had to pull out from E3 while OnLive states that their service doesn't fit in with the 'retail-orientation' of E3. We'll keep an eye on both companies as time goes on, though at this point only Gaikai has announced that they plan to stream MMOs.
