In a recent talk at GDC China (as detailed on Gamasutra) Microsoft's Brian Prince said that cloud-based streaming services such as Onlive and Gaikai are leading the way into the future of the industry. Prince, who some call a "cloud evangelist" for Microsoft, claims that these services provide a roadmap for where gaming is headed.
"These are really gaming platforms as a service," he said. "There are some limitations here, but I really do think this is the distant future of gaming in the cloud."
The limitations Prince mentions is the focus on "AAA PC game titles," to the point where developers working outside of that market won't attract much interest. He also compared the role of a service like OnLive to that of a traditional publisher. "Sometimes publishers are a dream, but it's another contract you have to sign," he said.
Despite his concerns, OnLive and Gaikai are proving to be a viable alternative to the rather expensive process of developing a proprietary cloud-based infrastructure. Microsoft's Azure cloud service required billions of dollars to develop, with six servers that costs an estimated $2.5 billion. Prince did not talk about Microsoft's plans for cloud gaming on consoles, but he did say that consumers "will be seeing things in the Xbox platform that's cloud-specific."
"I'm already doing it, it's really exciting, but I can't tell you about it or else I'll get fired."
Source: GI.biz
