david-perry
Latest
Sony: Gaikai may deliver PlayStation content to other devices
Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, sees the Gaikai streaming service as key to his goal of transforming PlayStation from a hardware platform to "something closer to a service." Sony acquired Gaikai in June of 2012 from former Shiny Entertainment head and Gaikai founder David Perry. It's long been known that Sony hopes to use Gaikai's technology to stream PlayStation, PS2 and PS3 games to the PlayStation 4 in lieu of hardware-based backwards compatibility, but now it seems that Sony wants Gaikai to spread PlayStation software to non-PlayStation (and potentially non-Sony) devices. "Speaking of the ultimate goal, we would like to deliver PlayStation games to all devices," Yoshida stated in an interview with Dengeki Online (translated by DualShockers). "So we're considering various things like PC, TVs, Blu-ray players, smartphones, and tablets." "We hope to continue to expand not only to Sony devices, but even to devices other than Sony's," Yoshida added. Yoshida's ultimate goal is to create a web of devices capable of streaming PlayStation content, with Sony's latest console serving as a hub for this activity. "We previously spoke about PlayStation going from hardware to something closer to a service, regardless of the device - of course PlayStation will still be the center, but I think we would like to expand to different things," Yoshida said.
(Hopefully) play your favorite PS3 MMOs on the PS4 thanks to cloud streaming
The just-announced PlayStation 4 might not be natively compatible with games made for its predecessors, but that doesn't mean you're out of luck if you were hoping to play your favorites on the new console. David Perry, founder of the Gaikai streaming service, announced today at the Sony PlayStation event in New York City that the aim is to make the PS4 make use of the PlayStation Cloud to stream older games. This is, of course, wonderful news for fans of PS3-era MMOs (DC Universe Online? Free Realms?) who want to enjoy their beloved titles on the shiniest new gaming device.
David Perry 'sure' new Earthworm Jim will eventually happen
David Perry, aside from now being a part of Sony, is perhaps best known for his contributions on the Earthworm Jim series, once 16-bit pride of the '90s that now rests beneath the soil from whence it came. Perry doesn't see that earthly retreat lasting forever."It's one of those things that, no one's got the time right now. I'm sure it's going to happen, I just can't tell you exactly when," Perry told Eurogamer during last week's Develop conference in Brighton, England. "It's just a bunch of guys who all have their own thing. Everyone has their own company. So, to get them to stop what they're doing and work on a game is very difficult, but it's something they all want to do." Perry explains some of the old gang keep in touch on Facebook, and says the obvious idea of doing a Kickstarter campaign was considered."The thing we had talked about in the past is Jim had been in retirement. So, he's been sitting at home watching movies and eating popcorn. He's grossly overweight now. The plan was to start with him literally getting off the sofa, and it's a disaster because he just hasn't done anything since. But he's got to get back into action again." Perry also explained that this hypothetical new game would definitely be 2D, with "little" camera control.
Distro Issue 48 arrives with the Nexus Q, Levar Burton and more
After a brief respite to recover from last week's hot dog and homemade ice cream comas, our tablet mag is back in action. Getting our e-publication affairs back in order, Brian Heater sits down with Levar Burton to chat about Reading Rainbow, a new iPad app and Star Trek gadgetry. Hitting on another bit of childhood nostalgia for many of us at Engadget HQ, Alexis Santos drops by NASA's Launch Control Center (LCC) for a tour after more than three decades of operation. On the review front, we roll up our sleeves and put both the Nexus Q and the Samsung Series 9 through the wringer while offering some in-depth impressions. "Eyes-On" takes a peek at the Google booty offered to I/O attendees, "Hands-On" our latest gadget outings and Gaikai's founder admits his reliance on the PowerPoint gods in the Q&A. Don't take our word for it. Snag your copy of the e-magazine with a few clicks on the download links that follow. Distro Issue 48 PDF Distro in the iTunes App Store Distro in the Google Play Store Distro APK (for sideloading) Like Distro on Facebook Follow Distro on Twitter
Rumor: Gaikai seeking to sell itself for $500 million
David Perry's cloud-based gaming middleware company Gaikai could soon be courting buyers, according to a report at Fortune. The company has supposedly hired bankers in order to prepare for the transaction and purportedly anticipates that its market value will ring up somewhere around $500 million or higher, according to Fortune's sources.Unlike OnLive, Gaikai provides no consumer-facing gaming service itself, but instead provides the technology required for other companies like Samsung, LG and Facebook. Gaikai's official stance on the situation is that it does not comment on rumors; a statement likely prepared by a super-cluster of servers before it was streamed to our inboxes.
Gaikai-powered cloud gaming coming to Samsung Smart TVs (update: hands-on video and impressions)
At this point, most people (in the tech world, at least) are quite familiar with Gaikai's cloud gaming platform, which lets users have a not-quite-console quality gaming experience on any device. The technology has found its way onto Facebook and in LG TVs, and now Gaikai's bringing gaming to Samsung TVs, too. Called Samsung Cloud Gaming (SCG), it'll be available via the Smart Hub on Samsung 7000 series and up Smart TVs in the US this summer. The technology powering SCG is the same as what's behind LG's service, but Sammy's customized the UI to suit its sensibilities. We got a chance to speak with Gaikai CEO David Perry about his company's latest partnership, so join us after the break for more. Update: Video hands-on added after the break. We also demoed the service playing Darksiders, and aside from some mild stuttering the button masher was smooth enough to play using a USB-connected controller. We're told that the software we viewed isn't final, so it may not reflect the final look. Joe Pollicino contributed to this post. %Gallery-156996%
TERA offers instant streaming demo courtesy of Gaikai
If you've been curious about TERA but are unsure of putting your money down or waiting for a lengthy download, then En Masse has a treat for you today. The studio has partnered with cloud gaming service Gaikai to offer an instant streaming version of TERA's demo. Players can get right into the game with no download by visiting the new TERA demo page. Massively tested this out and confirmed that the game does indeed launch within seconds and allows you to test drive one of three pre-made characters in this action combat world. There is no cost associated with using this feature. VP of Publishing Chris Lee thinks this is a perfect way to spread the word of TERA: "Gaikai's powerful cloud streaming service gives players a chance to enter the action combat world of TERA almost instantly. Within seconds of accessing TERA through Gaikai, players will be immersed in the skill-based combat of a true action MMO where they will experience the depth of a traditional MMO alongside the visceral satisfaction of an action game." Gaikai offers tailored cloud-based gaming services for studios. We recently spoke with Gaikai's CO Dave Perry about his company's ambitions and goals within the MMO industry. [Source: En Masse press release]
What's in a Name: Gaikai
David Perry, Co-Founder and CEO of Gaikai, sat down with us during last week's Game Developers Conference: Online in Austin, TX. Over the howl of the expo floor's contemporary rock soundtrack, David let us in on Gaikai's mysterious branding: "Basically one of our founders, his name is Rui Pereira, he came up with this name 'Gaikai,' and I said, 'Oh my God, no one will ever be able to pronounce that, no one will ever be able to spell that, this is a bad idea.' And of course, there's all the following conversations, what about all the other strange words that are out there: The Googles, and the Kodaks, and the, you know, the Xeroxes? "There's all these strange things that are out there, so what's wrong with having a strange name? I then took a marketing class in Texas, and they explained the idea of 'mystique marketing;' it's actually cool to have a hard-to-say name, because it means if you know how to pronounce it, then you're in the club. "So any time you hear Gaikai pronounced wrong, you can go 'Hrm, this guy doesn't know what it means, or how to say it even.' That's mystique marketing, so I thought, 'Huh, maybe we give this a try.' "It turns that the actual word is a Japanese word, and it means 'a large open space,' like out on the open ocean, and if you look around on the open ocean, you can go in any direction. And that's what we believe cloud gaming enables." Gaikai is a technology company that provides streaming game middleware to third-party corporations such as Walmart. Like this feature? Be sure to check out the What's In A Name Archives.
CrazyKinux ends his EVE Blog Pack
If you're an EVE player, you've probably heard of David "CrazyKinux" Perry at some point. Affectionately known as CK for short, CrazyKinux has been instrumental in the development and growth of EVE Online's dedicated blogging and podcasting community. He helped either create or promote the largest parts of that community's online presence, from the Tweet Fleet to the EVE Blog Pack to EVE Blog Banter to several podcast hosting duties and more. But sadly, CK has recently announced his retirement from his blog and presence in the EVE community. According to his final blog post, CK has been hired as the director of development for indie game studio Behaviour Interactive. He says he now will have the time to "play the darn game and read your blogs!" If you're interested in following post-blog CK, his new Twitter is @SocialDave. Best of luck, CK!
Phil Harrison joins Gaikai advisory board
Backing up his talk, Phil Harrison has joined the advisory board of cloud-gaming service Gaikai. In his keynote address before the Italian Videogame Developers Conference last December, Harrison precipitated "the browser wars of the 21st century" -- a battle to distribute console-quality, triple-A games on any browser-equipped device. "Somebody is going to win," he said at the time. "Somebody is going to deliver console-level 3D graphics, video and audio into a web browser." It would appear that Harrison has placed his chips -- or at least some of them -- on Gaikai. The one-time president of Sony Computer Entertainment (oh, and Atari, too -- don't forget), Harrison will maintain his role as rich guy investor at London Venture Partners, which he co-founded last year with some other fat cats. Joining the rich guy on the Gaikai advisory board is rich gal Robin Kaminsky, the former executive VP of Activision, who led both studio and marketing activities. Kaminsky's marketing experience in particular is coveted by Gaikai CEO David Perry. "The first use of Gaikai's open cloud is to disrupt how video game advertising works," he said in today's advisory board announcement. Gaikai's current mission differs from the service provided by chief competitor OnLive (oh, and Otoy, too -- don't forget) in that it seeks to provide browser-based demos that developers and publishers can feature on their websites to drive full-game sales. Gaikai is currently in a closed beta testing phase.
Gaikai is live with streaming demos of Mass Effect 2, Dead Space 2 and more
Following more than a year of media demos and beta testing, cloud gaming startup Gaikai is letting the public try out the fruits of its efforts: Demos of Mass Effect 2, Dead Space 2, Spore and The Sims 3 are all playable from within your web browser. That is, if you have the bandwidth -- we don't, apparently. (Granted, we're on gratis Wi-Fi here at GDC.) You might have better luck at home: You can visit Gaikai's site where you'll be prompted to launch Mass Effect 2. "Just wait and if your connection quality to our Server is fast enough," instructs CEO David Perry, "one of several pop-up designs will appear." Additionally, taking a survey about the service will grant you access to the Dead Space 2 demo. Spore and The Sims 3 trials can be found here and here, respectively.
Engadget gets its hands on Gaikai closed beta
Our geekier, yet still kind of cute in her own way sister site Engadget recently took Dave Perry-fronted streaming service Gaikai for a spin, and posted the results for all to see. Though the performance sounds about comparable to OnLive, the greatest strength of Perry's competing service is that it's not, in fact, attempting to compete. Gaikai is primarily a way to sample games before purchasing them on a retail console or PC, so the inherent limitations aren't as large of hurdles as they are on OnLive, which aims to replace the home console. Or, at least, that's how Perry's pitching it. Get more of his take (and more Engadget reaction to the Gaikai experience) right here.
Gaikai enters closed beta, we get an exclusive first look
This is Mass Effect 2, running on a netbook -- a stock Eee PC -- with a single core Atom CPU that wouldn't dare to dream of actually processing the game. It works because the sci-fi opera's not taxing that silicon at all, but rather a beefy server miles away, streaming processed and compressed video frames direct to the 10.1-inch screen. It's called Gaikai, and if you're thinking it sounds just like OnLive by a different name, you'd be half-right. However, this streaming game service has a radically different business model which doesn't cost players a dime. Rather than provide a library of titles and charge you for on-demand, Gaikai will power game advertisements that let you actually play their games. If that sounds like an idea you'd like to hear more about, then we've got a treat for you. We spoke with founder David Perry about what the service can do, got an exclusive hands-on with the closed beta, and an extensive video walkthrough to boot. After the break, find the whole scoop. %Gallery-108541%
Dave Perry details Gaikai's server plan, teases E3 announcement
Dave Perry is dreaming big with his Gaikai streaming service. He went into a little more detail on just how it will at work at today's LA Games Conference. The company is still planning to kick off its service with 300 data centers, and while he admits it will have "much more traffic than the servers can handle," Gaikai will limit early users to those closest to the centers. If you're close enough to the server to have only about 5-10 milliseconds of lag, you'll get in. If not, Perry told Joystiq, then you won't even see the embedded window -- but your request will be logged anyway. That way, he said, Gaikai will be able to track not just where people are using the service, but where they want to use it. If a bunch of users in Alaska try to play, but can't connect because they're too far away, then "we know we're losing money in Alaska," he says, and Gaikai will set up more datacenters there. Perry says Gaikai will help with security as well -- he suggested that companies might even be able to release their E3 demos to the world just during the week of the event, allowing press or the public to play them online for a limited time, with the code securely held on Gaikai's servers. It's all speculation at this point, though -- a service like that won't be ready to go by this year's E3 in June. But stay tuned anyway: Perry also promised us an announcement about Gaikai at E3. "We got some cool stuff to show off," he confirmed with a knowing nod.
Gaikai will be fee-free, utilize 300 data centers in the US
Meeting with Gaikai's founding fathers -- ( from left to right) Rui Pereira, Andrew Gault and David Perry -- this morning, we chatted about the company's unique take on "cloud gaming," particularly how, unlike competitor OnLive, there will be no fee to play streaming games using its servers and in-browser app, and what it's doing to "reduce friction" in trying (and eventually buying) games online. Saying that Gaikai "isn't trying to be PlayStation 4 or take out the next Wii," Perry described (and demoed) the concept of embedding instantly playable games on any website. A publisher can, for instance, have a clickable pop-up appear when people are looking at one of its games on Amazon, which quickly launches an overlay window running the full game, with whatever time limit the publisher chooses. After this period, players can opt to buy the game for unlimited streaming, download it, or have a physical copy shipped to them. What intrigued us more is the ability to Tweet from within these demos, and, if you're playing a multiplayer title, anyone who clicks the link sent to your Twitter feed will be launched into your game. We also got a look at a widget that places a small video of any game you're currently playing via Gaikai on your personal blog, which friends can click to either try the game or actually join the session you're in, if applicable. This demo used Mario Kart 64, in which it was possible for Gaikai staff to drop in as player two, three or four fairly easily. Perry also revealed to us that Gaikai has secured servers at 300 data centers across the US (as opposed to OnLive's five), in addition to inking deals with local broadband providers to install servers at another 900 peering locations -- all with the goal of keeping latency as low as possible. The ideas we saw in action have the potential to shake up the traditional game demo model, for sure. What do you think of what Gaikai's cooking up?
Score $5 million in funding for Gaikai
David Perry's "It's not OnLive" service, Gaikai, recently gained $5 million in venture capital, a Security and Exchanges Commission filing shows. For the uninitiated, basically Perry wants to beam games directly into your house. We imagine the tech behind it is kinda like that crazy set-up the Riddler had running all over Gotham, hence the need for such a large sum of money. All kidding aside, Perry's been very tight-lipped about Gaikai, offering up little via his Twitter account and the usual channels. However, back in July, he did offer the first sneak peek at the game streaming service, which looks like it's coming along nicely. [Via Big Download and Venture Beat]
-1132009-580px.jpg.cf.jpg)
Zoe Mode creating not-for-profit XBLA puzzler for children's charity
click to enlarge OneBigGame, a non-profit games publisher founded in 2007, announced today that its first title will come from Zoë Mode, creator of games such as Crush (PSP), You're In the Movies (360) and co-developer of the SingStar franchise (PS3) with SCEE. Called Chime, the music-based puzzle game will launch this winter on Xbox Live Arcade. The first screens, while sort of soothing in their minimalism, don't exactly explain anything about how the game's played. Thankfully, Zoë Mode goes into detail about the gameplay on its newly launched Chime site.The developer is the first of what OneBigGame says are many others currently creating 15 titles, with at least 80 percent of all revenue made from them going to two charities: Save the Children and Starlight Children's Foundation. Zoë Mode developed Chime pro bono and has committed to giving all the royalties it receives from the XBLA game -- which it says will be around 60 percent of its purchase price -- to OneBigGame.Other developers signed on to produce games include Shiny founder David Perry, PaRappa the Rapper creator Masaya Matsuura and prolific adventure game designer Charles Cecil (Beneath a Steel Sky, Broken Sword). %Gallery-77193%
MicroWarpCast interviews EVE lead game designer Noah Ward
The EVE Online-focused podcast MicroWarpCast returned this week, hosted by our friend CrazyKinux with guest Noah Ward (aka CCP Hammerhead), who is a Lead Game Designer at CCP Games. We mentioned a while back that the winner of a contest CrazyKinux was running would get to interview an EVE developer on the podcast. People entered by writing an article on planetary control and how this could be implemented in EVE Online. The winner was Xiphos83 from the EVE blog "A Misguided Adventurer" who wrote about about a siege system that could be used in planetary conquest. As the contest winner, Xiphos83 posed questions to Noah about some of the current or controversial issues in the game. This led to Noah explaining CCP's reasons for limiting the use of the directional scanner with a timer -- a major issue cited by many players who either hunt others or want to evade attackers -- due in part to player macroing of directional scans. The directional scan will never go back to how it was since that system was too easily exploitable, but he asserted that the devs have tried to balance performance for the players with server demands.
Gaikai's David Perry on solving latency issues with streaming games to your browser
Gaikai is a company we've taken note of in the past few months, one that aims to eliminate hardware barriers to gaming -- including MMOs like World of Warcraft and EVE Online -- by streaming games to your browser via their "Streaming Worlds" technology. Despite what Gaikai has said and demonstrated thus far, their technology -- which essentially turns games into an interactive video stream -- has been met with skepticism. This is not surprising. How they'll handle latency issues has been debated at length in our own comments at Massively and pretty much everywhere else online that Gaikai is mentioned. A recent interview with Gaikai's David Perry sheds a little more light on how they aim to deliver on smooth game performance. Perry spoke with Develop writer Rob Crossley and says, "No one has ever tried to solve the issue in the way we are."
The Daily Grind: Browser-centric MMOs
The other day, I watched this demo of Gaikai, a new service being spearheaded by the legendary games developer David Perry. The idea is a simple one: using a browser you can access everything from MMOs to racing games and even the memory-hog that is Photoshop with all the actual software installed on a remote server and accessed via the cloud. Now it seems like an awesome undertaking but I came out of it feeling really impressed. WoW and EVE were running at lightening speed and the prospect of not patching or updating got me a little excited. Now browser-based MMOs are now new. Just look at Free Realms and the plethora of free-to-play titles. But the idea of playing seriously intensive games like EVE? Wow, just wow. You still need some kind of graphics card in your computer but the cloud seems to do the vast majority of the work.So readers, what do you think? You might well have used browser-centric MMOs in the past and their ease of use is encouraging. Would you play WoW on a browser if it could mimic your current setting or even improve on them? Would it make your life easier knowing that someone else was dealing with all the patches? On the other hand, cloud-based technology is still new and shiny, would you rather stick with actual discs or your own hard drive? Tell us, readers, and drop your thoughts in the box below.
