Gaikai Technology Demo (JULY 1, 2009) on Vimeo

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1. Gaikai Technology Demo (JULY 1, 2009)

5 months ago

This is just a simple demo of our Gaikai video game streaming technology working in a Firefox browser with no installs, no plug-ins. These retail games (selected because we think they are cool) are all being played on a remote server with a 800 mile round trip to my PC.

The games are unmodified and are completely virtualized so we can run multiple different games on the same server at the same time. One of the reasons the iPhone has over a billion downloads now, is because they made access really easy (click to download, click to play), we have managed to get our technology down to just the single "click to play" so you can play anywhere on the web (home, work, school, on the road), and the games can come to you (on a Facebook canvas page, Myspace, Flash sites etc.)

We will start buying bulk servers soon and after that, we will begin closed beta in California, so make sure to sign up at: gaikai.com if you want to help us out. My blog is at: dperry.com

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Dmitry Kolpakov
2 months ago
Denis Fongue
3 months ago
paddy.ma
3 months ago
Collin Reisdorf
3 months ago
Galdric
3 months ago
Adam Kinney
4 months ago
Anders Moberg
4 months ago
Ray Capone
4 months ago
Carlos Barros
4 months ago
Francis P.
4 months ago
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Frederic Dreuilhe 5 months ago

This is amazing stuff!
Can you also do full screen?
What about mods?
David Perry 5 months ago

Yes, we can do full screen, but that's one thing that makes us different from OnLive, we want to reach a MUCH bigger (100x) audience. So we choose the size that makes the game play well, that keeps performance really high for many many more players around the world. That said, some players (like me) will insist on going full screen, and so we will offer them that option too.
5 months ago

haha dave, the best part is the desktop stacked with icons in the background

oh its so easy to get messy isnt it, the simple flawed desktop paradigm of last century haunts us even more than our forgotten innate messiness
David Perry 5 months ago

Hehe, well spotted, my desktop is a nightmare, I get sent so much stuff all day long, I just don't have time to file it all away. I do hope someone solves that problem someday, where it's just to easy to file as it is to let them collect.
5 months ago

Not playing the FPS by the end was conspicuous. But I understand and expect that this technology will work better with some things than others, given our internet bandwidth infrastracture.

Judging from the ease of building this system with commodity hardware and software, and the difficulty of deploying servers around the world as close as possible to customers, I expect the real business model here is in licensing out the technology designs to other companies. So you'd sell your technology to Blizzard, and they would deploy it right next to the actual WOW servers, all around the world.

Good luck and work hard!
David Perry 5 months ago

I will be doing an FPS video in the future. I plan to make more of these videos. We are currently planning the next one, and want to make sure each video shows really exciting stuff.

Blizzard listen to their gamers, if the gamers want tech like this, Blizzard will listen.
Baron Wombat 5 months ago

Lag resistant gameplay is certainly the key here. I am astounded at how you were able to perform short time frame actions effectively. The connection have for this demo is obviously great, but that will become the norm very shortly. This is very nice way for online games to be delivered. Nice work Dave!
David Perry 5 months ago

Thanks, yes I just had investors here in my house today playing. They saw the demo, contacted me and wanted to experience it for themselves. The response from them was incredible, to be honest, that kind of "WOW" feedback really fuels our team to work even harder. So we are jazzed today!
David Perry 5 months ago

Just about to hit 70,000 plays of the demo video! I'm looking forward to making the next one, as we have a more cool stuff to show.
Alican Çubukçuoğlu 5 months ago

Nice Midsummer action in WoW, but what if I want to use addons? I mean if people can't mod their games (models/sounds/configs/addons) they won't choose cloud gaming.

Also, could you please provide some bandwidth usage information? I can't even stream the video of the service, how am I going to stream a game? It should lag like usual unless you are doing something special. (Don't tell me it's a company secret :D)
David Perry 5 months ago

We will allow addons (approved by the publisher) you will just check boxes to turn them on, then you can set them up how you like.

Bandwidth averages 1.2Mbps. We bring the servers close to you, so time to communicate is really low.
Kay Jay 5 months ago

Will that be platform independent? Because this could fix the lack of playing games on some operation systems. Nice work anyway :)
Alican Çubukçuoğlu 5 months ago

Since it only requires Flash, it will work on any platform that supports Flash.
Johan Stechweij 5 months ago

I'm very excited about this technology. Not only will it solve all those hardware upgrades but I think it's also makes a big change in piracy of games. A drm will no longer be needed and pirates will buy the game here just to get the max out of it.
Croquet Florian 5 months ago

As I saw in Eurogamer , your business model seems very clever!

If you need a french man for your beta or a french employee for Gaikai FRANCE .. call me ->florian_croquet@hotmail.com !

Good work Gaikai !
David Perry 5 months ago

Thanks, just go ahead and sign up at gaikai.com, we will contact you when we get servers in your area.
Daniel Lopes 5 months ago

Hi, I'm a 32 year old game addict guy (since spectrum lol), close to finish the computer science degree while working.

Im still amazed. I was in EVE-Online beta testing, and I've always played the release version since february 2004. As my computer got outdated, and I participated on more and more fleet battles, I realised every 2 or so years, I need a hardware upgrade, time is coming now. This technology is great and will most likely change that.

Questions:
Will we be able to have an option to run fraps on background? This is one of the more demanding aplications.

How about if you have only, say 16Mbit conection, will it still work? I'd be interested in testing all of this
Alican Çubukçuoğlu 5 months ago

David said the average bandwidth usage is 1.2Mbps so you will be "really" fine with a 16Mbps connection.

He might have meant 1.2MBps though. In that case you will need at least a 6.9Mbps connection which is still fine for someone with a 16Mbps connection.
Francis P. 4 months ago

I'm an 18 Year old gamer from PA. I found out about Gaikai through Joystiq awhile back, not to mention Signed up for the upcoming beta should it head eastward to PA.

I see this as the best way to play video games if someone else is using a Xbox 360, PS3 or Wii to play if there is no TV set available or your away in a place like Orlando, FL for vacation and you want to unwind
paul barker 4 months ago

hey David Perry, im wondering if u know of any remote desktop software what i can use to play games via remote desktop or somthing simler.. just about all i look at are not for gaming and have utter low fps.

thanks if u can help :)
Carlos Barros 4 months ago

I ask myself, will this be the end of cheating? Will this give Electronic Sports an honest and fair competition/credibility, that a lot of people has been waiting for?

Looking forward to it!
Alican Çubukçuoğlu 4 months ago

Nice Q&A, I recommend you to read it:
dperry.com/archives/news/dp_blog/gamesindustrybi/
Mercurious 3 months ago

Excellent demonstration, David. You should probably be aware that the beta signup page seems reliant on a benchmark that's not loading right now, though. (Starting Benchmark in 1)

You'll probably get a lot more signups if that's fixed ;)
Philnolan3d 2 months ago

I'm really glad to see Photoshop on there. I had this idea when I first saw Onlive's demo. There're a few situations where I could use something like Boujou or other programs that cost thousands of dollars but certainly not enough that I could even dream of affording them. But if there was a way to use it via a subscription price it would be fantastic.