Picking up on Mitch's piece from yesterdayI caught this on Cnet last night. Official company website here. The basic idea (see graphic below, sorry it's fuzzy) is that they house the games on their servers and stream them to your computer, set top box, whatever... They've already lined up some content providers to work with it as well (EA, take-two, Ubisoft, etc). As far as video games and consoles go, it's an interesting idea. Why should I bother having a particular console if I can stream the same to my living room without a console? (Except of course their streaming box "console"). If I can get all the games that are currently platform specific through one system without buying three consoles, it's a compelling idea if I'm a gamer. The details are not fully fleshed out yet, and it's true that some of the value of an Xbox 360 is through network effects of the online interaction, but clearly with gadgets like this around the corner console makers are going to need to provide more services and capabilities to get people to buy.
Posts
There is also a similar service called Steam for PC games https://steamcommunity.com/ that is already up and running. It takes the same community approach where you can connect with your friends or meet new players online. You can buy online versions of games and the Steam server automatically keeps the games patched and updated on your computer. It's a little different than the pure streaming model, but once a CD key is linked to your profile, you can download and play the game on any computer. some of the draw backs are you have to install a Steam client on your computer and launch the game through that, which adds another layer. The servers can also be down or overloaded at times, but there is an option to play "offline" once your game is patched. Game producers like this approach because certain files needed to run the game are only on the Steam server, thus reducing piracy.
ReplyDelete