David Perry demos OnLive-style tech

By Robert Purchese Published 1 July, 2009

Gaikai shown running WOW, EVE.

Acclaim's chief creative officer David Perry has posted a video demonstrating his streaming games-on-demand cloud service, Gaikai.

The clip shows World of Warcraft and EVE Online running through a web browser, which controls the game running on a remote PC.

On his site, Perry explains his "real internet" set-up of Windows Vista and Firefox used during the demonstration. There's no need to install any software, he adds, nor pay astronomical fees for a super-server - this is a regular server in a regular hosting facility.

The server used during this demonstration was 800 miles away, which gave Perry a ping of 21 milliseconds.

"We designed this for the real internet," writes Perry. "We don't claim to have 5000 pages of patents, we didn't take seven years, and we do not claim to have invented 1 millisecond encryption and custom chips. As you can see, we don't need them, and so our costs will be much less."

"Our goals are really simple," he adds, "to remove all the friction between hearing about a game and trying it out, to help reduce the cost of gaming, to grow video game audiences, to raise the revenue that publishers and developers can earn, and (most importantly) to make games accessible everywhere.

"If the iPhone App Store has taught us anything, when you make it easy to check things out, you get a billion downloads," he said. "The professional games industry has never had access to those countless millions of clicks, but now they do."

Perry will be detailing the technology at the Develop conference in Brighton later this month. And we'll be there. We're there already, in fact, and just waiting for the conference to arrive.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (30) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #1 3 years ago

    Seeing as both WoW and EVE have had issues with sever to client lag even on the highest spec pcs this is a very bold statment.

    However after the Onlive guys avoided E3 claiming it wasn't the right place to show at least a tech demo, it's still all PR guff, as much as I want to beleave Onlive or a a simular version is going to be the way forward, these guys aren't helping the case by not actally showing it working in a RL enviroment.

    Theres nothing to say he tested it in places like Wintergrasp in WoW or Jita in EvE with that ping he could be hiding in a low pop corner of the game.

    This never feels 'right'

  • mashk #2 3 years ago

    Gamesmaster one or Earthworm Jim one?
    Edited by 1 at 01/07/09 @ 13:58

  • Darren #3 3 years ago

    I want to see this tech running when it has 50,000+ subscribers using it concurrently, thank you.

  • aldo_14 #4 3 years ago

    I want to see this tech running when it has 50,000+ subscribers using it concurrently, thank you.

    Yeah, exactly - for this to be a feasible business they need to show they can support thousands of simultaneous users.

  • Inspirius #5 3 years ago

    I assume the ping he mentions is an additional amount of lag between the server and web-browser. You would still have the normal ping of playing a game on top of that.

  • AaronTurner #6 3 years ago

    I reckon this is the way to go. If I could play games with all graphics options enabled on this then I'd subscribe.

  • PearOfAnguish #7 3 years ago

    "Gamesmaster one or Earthworm Jim one?"

    The latter. Dave 'Games Animal' Perry is too busy wearing silly bandannas and crying when someone mentions Mario 64 to do anything like this.

  • sneetch #8 3 years ago

    "There's no need to install any software, he adds, nor pay astronomical fees for a super-server - this is a regular server in a regular hosting facility."

    Yes, and running a single client.

    My ping to the WoW server varies from about 150-300 ms depending on time of day and so on this would make that 170-320 ish but your ping doesn't make a huge amount of difference in these games (you don't "aim" in WoW or Eve, it's lock on target and press a hot button combat).

    Lets see how it works on FPS or driving games where the additional 21 ms input lag may or may not be noticeable (my usual ping is about 30-40ms in TF2 and even there as a medic there are times when I'm 100%, absolutely and positively sure that I activated my ubercharge before that crit rocket could have hit me and yet I still die).

    Then lets see this when the "normal" number of people are using the server (I presume they're not going to have a single server per player after all).

    @Kremlik
    This never feels 'right'

    I know what you mean, I get a vague whiff of snake-oil whenever OnLive is mentioned.

  • Collymilad #9 3 years ago

    Does nobody actually give a shit about having the hardware in your house?

    I'll have a box in my house, cheers - not some one based thousands of miles away over which I have no control. And yes, i know you get a set-top box type thing, but that's irrelevant.

  • mashk #10 3 years ago

    He should go on Dragons Den.

  • sneetch #11 3 years ago

    @Collymilad
    Does nobody actually give a shit about having the hardware in your house?

    I want the hardware in my house too, it's never been a huge burden before and I'm sure that with the cost of subscribing to this kind of service and paying to access its games over a year or so you could easily afford the console (and probably those same games and it would be yours).

  • m0thr4 #12 3 years ago

    On his site, Perry explains his "real internet" set-up of Windows Vista and Firefox used during the demonstration.

    I'm sure Microsoft will love his casual dismissal of their Internet browser (the name of which I forget).

  • m0thr4 #13 3 years ago

    Does nobody actually give a shit about having the hardware in your house?

    Nope. The day I quit PC gaming was the first day on the path to being a much happier (and wealthier) person.

    If they can deliver a PC gaming experience to my living room without large metal boxes, noisy fans, expensive hardware upgrades and the most incompetent operating system ever to grace this planet, then I'm in.
    Edited by 1 at 01/07/09 @ 14:50

  • cyacomini #14 3 years ago

    Bit strange - why is his 'demo' showing Mario Kart 64 as a downloadable PC title?

    I know I know, it's probably only a place holder but you would have thought he'd have used something a little more 'PC' if you will.

  • sneetch #15 3 years ago

    @cyacomini
    Bit strange - why is his 'demo' showing Mario Kart 64 as a downloadable PC title?

    I know I know, it's probably only a place holder but you would have thought he'd have used something a little more 'PC' if you will.

    Okay, whilst my code is compiling I took a look at the demo movie (was just working on the article), he actually said it's a version of Mario Kart running on an emulator. Go get 'im Nintendo! ;)

    Flicking about there also seemed to be poor FPS on WoW.

    @m0thr4

    You do seem to need a PC for this as it requires a browser. Set top boxes may be an option though.

  • cyacomini #16 3 years ago

    /\

    Ah - I have no sound on PC at work so that explains it.

    Swap it out for MDK and i'll sign-up

  • lunnyt00n #17 3 years ago

    I don't see any option in that video to enable full screen, apart from maximising the browser itself.

    I do not want to play my games in a browser window, although there probably is a way to do it, i just would have liked to see it in that video though.

    Interesting if it works, but i still rather build my own pc though.

  • peterfll #18 3 years ago

    Yes Dave, it's amazing what one can achieve in very very controlled conditions....

    Bored of this until we see it working in a real world environment. And I bored of Dave Perry a long time ago too.

  • Whizzo #19 3 years ago

    Considering how awful the performance is in NFS:prostreet I'm surprised it's in the demo clip.
    Edited by 1 at 01/07/09 @ 15:16

  • Freek #20 3 years ago

    So if he diden't spend 7 years developing all the fancy pants technology, how exactly is this going to work at all? Especially on "the real internet" ?

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #21 3 years ago

    To me, this sounds all a bit more practical than Onlive.

    In fact, it sounds as if they don't really mind if it's a bit crap. Provided it's good enough for people to enjoy playing MMOs in a web browser somewhere that doesn't have a computer that will run the games in question, or upon which it is practical to install them, it should be good enough.

    Not that I'd consider using it much, but the notion of using it for demos might make it worth a look.

  • smurphs #22 3 years ago

    I think the mention of the iphone is the interesting bit. If they can create a portal where you can jump into a wide selection of games without needing downloads or installs I'll be back on my PC for more than just surfing.

  • zisssou #23 3 years ago

    Dave Perry?! psssh he's no Big Boy Barry

  • Kerome #24 3 years ago

    Perry always was good at the smooth sell...

  • Skurmedel #25 3 years ago

    It's quite impressive no less. Still, in my skeptical eyes a bit unfeasable maybe.

  • Darkjinxter #26 3 years ago

    Chronicles of Spellborn down the pan as expected......hmm.....what pie in the sky can I hype up now?...........Aha.......

  • Spekingur #27 3 years ago

    They are using some damn alien technology most likely!

  • m0thr4 #28 3 years ago

    @sneetch

    @m0thr4

    You do seem to need a PC for this as it requires a browser. Set top boxes may be an option though.

    Thanks, but it plays fine on my Mac and my iPhone (haven't tried my PS3 yet). It'll be a cold day in Hell before I buy a PC.

    ;-)
    Edited by 2 at 02/07/09 @ 13:43

  • ukslim #29 3 years ago

    @sneetch: Then lets see this when the "normal" number of people are using the server (I presume they're not going to have a single server per player after all).

    OnLive claim they are, for games that need it. For less demanding games, they share a server.

  • cherryuk #30 3 years ago

    Is this Dave Perry of Gamesmaster fame?