Posted on Sunday, November 01 2009 @ 9:10 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
Microsoft believes cloud gaming services like OnLive or Gaikai will not be able to compete against local machines in the foreseeable future. Jerry Johnson, product unit manager of Xbox Live at Microsoft, said streaming technology is something that the industry is betting on longer term, but that it won't be able to replace the experience offered by a local machine anytime soon.
“I think streaming technology is something that [the industry] is betting on longer term. Right now I don’t believe that technology can scale out against the experience we can offer on a local machine. The technology will continue to improve. As an industry, we’ll have to accept that and move with it – but I don’t think it’s on an accelerated timeline for the foreseeable future,” said Jerry Johnson, product unit manager of Xbox Live at Microsoft, at London Games Conference, reports MCV web-site.
Remote video game streaming services, which allow their customers to play games that are processed by the server, not by the local hardware, have three main advantages over contemporary consoles or personal computers: gamers do not need to buy expensive hardware (which means that more people can be addressed), gamers do not need to acquire games themselves in a retail stores or carry any physical media (which makes games more affordable or even free in certain cases), gamers cannot pirate software.
Source: X-bit Labs
