Apple has gotten a lot of attention recently for the unveiling of its iCloud, but in the video-game sphere, two companies already in the “cloud” — delivering complex games via the Net to smaller, simpler devices than consoles and PCs — unveiled new advances.
Many games will be able to be adapted for touchscreen control when the service expands later this summer. From Dust, a game in development by Ubisoft for Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network, was shown being played using the iPad’s touchscreen. Players also can choose to use an accessory universal controller (no price set).
“You can have this little TV, if you will, and this controller, and have a full gaming experience,” says Steve Perlman, president of OnLive, which began delivering games via browsers to computers and, using an adapter, to TVs last year. (Games can be rented, purchased or played as part of a $9.99 monthly subscription.) http://www.onlive.com
If publishers choose, they could adapt games so that OnLive players could use a tablet and TV in tandem, “very much the vision that Nintendo was showing” at E3, Perlman says. The in-development Wii U console’s handheld controller includes a 6.2-inch touchscreen. “The difference is, of course, this is something that works outside of your living room and is not tethered to the TV.”
Cloud-gaming competitor Gaikai (www.gaikai.com) takes a different approach, pitching publishers such as EA to use its globally connected network of servers to deliver their games directly to consumers. Games and demos can be played within a standard Web browser on computers, TVs and tablets.
Most games can be streamed, but deep, rich games such as Mass Effect 2 might have a portion of the software downloaded to the user as the initial scenes play out. The download would be smaller than the standard game installation, says co-founder David Perry. “You don’t have to install. We believe in the Web being the future,” he says.
Publishers also could allow their games to play directly through Facebook.
Services that deliver console-quality experiences without requiring console-strength hardware could be a glimpse into the future, says M2 Research analyst Billy Pidgeon. “This may be the last generation of consoles, and if it is, it’s going to be replaced by this sort of thing,” he says. Having two competitors “just validates the space.”
