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Gaikai�s technology is pretty good. Unlike his rivals at OnLive, Perry has always been careful to downplay where cloud gaming is right now � he doesn�t trumpet it as a way to replace consoles or gaming PCs, but rather as a way to deliver gaming in new ways and to new devices. Gaikai runs in a browser, without needing any dedicated hardware or software, and it�s perfect for things like running fully functional game demos on websites, or logging in to an MMO from a tablet device that�s not powerful enough to run the actual game client. You can play full games on it too, of course, but Gaikai shies away from the dubious claims of lag-free, crystal-clear HD perfection with which OnLive has become associated.
That probably tells you something about how Sony views cloud gaming. The Gaikai vision, which I suspect is shared at Sony, is of cloud gaming as a supplement to the gaming you do already. It�s not going to replace a next-generation PlayStation packed with custom hardware and aimed at providing the ultimate console gaming experience from games distributed digitally or on Blu-Ray discs � instead, it�s going to give you extra gaming options on a variety of different devices.
That, I think, is how the Gaikai future will look. Not a replacement for your home console, but rather, more PlayStation in more places � an execution of a strategy that Sony�s been struggling to get its head around for the best part of a decade. Of course, there�s also one final reason why Sony bought Gaikai right now. It wanted to stop anyone else from doing it, and you can be sure that as well as Samsung, Gaikai was talking to plenty of other firms Sony considers to be rivals.