Tweet
Let's not get completely carried away by what today's news represents, because Sony's decision to acquire Gaikai does not mean the end of console gaming as we know it. PlayStation 4 is still going to be unveiled at next year's E3 and it will almost certainly be in our homes by the end of 2013. Whether we're talking console or cloud, the message is obvious enough though: Sony isn't putting all of its eggs in one basket.What the deal represents is acceptance from a major console platform holder that gaming is fast approaching its own Netflix or iPod moment - the point where convenience and accessibility to content becomes more important than the inevitable hit to fidelity demanded by the underlying technology. We're not there yet, of course, but as Digital Foundry has discussed several times in the past, it's now a matter of when - not if - we will reach the point where the hit to quality ceases to become an issue for the majority of gamers.
While the overall level of the experience isn't there yet, even the first-gen cloud products offer some tantalising advantages which Sony would be keen to offers its customers:
Read more…
More...