Sony announced today that the service based on its acquisition of game streaming service Gaikai will be called PlayStation Now and will eventually stream PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3 games "from the cloud." Sony executive Andrew House made the announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show taking place this week in Las Vegas.

As part of its Tokyo Game Show press conference today Sony Computer Entertainment revealed that it will be launching the Gaikai cloud-streaming service in North America next year. The service will launch with a specific selection of PlayStation 3 games, playable on the PS4, PlayStation Vita TV, and PS Vita. The announcement was made by Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida, who compared the streaming games service to Netflix.

A new research report from ABI Research claims that new technologies like cloud-based streaming will not be a game changer for new consoles coming out this fall. In fact the research firm predicts that new console numbers will not be on par with the previous generation's retail sales number in the first five years. ABI Research says that the push to "market online video access in the new consoles is undermined by the availability of cheaper streaming devices from Roku, Netgear, WD, Apple and Seagate, among others."

One of the issues some players have with transitioning to a fancy new console is leaving behind a massive library of games because newer systems tend not to support backwards compatibility. Sony's new console is no exception because it has abandoned its old architecture in favor of a new one that is completely different from what the PS3 uses.

But Sony has found a round-about way of allowing players to enjoy their old games on their new system - even though it will likely cost consumers a little extra money for the pleasure of playing those old games.

While GREE made a lot of developers upset when it discontinued the OpenFeint platform in December of last year, the co-founder of the social mobile platform will soon have something to replace it. Late last year GREE shut down the OpenFeint platform, feeling that Apple's GameCenter was dominating the space. Much to the chagrin of developers using that platform, they were not given enough time to migrate their game data to another platform and lost a lot of the user data they were storing in the OpenFeint cloud.

You may remember that the development team behind the upcoming SimCity game held a Reddit AMA, and that the community there gave them a hard time for making the game use a DRM scheme that required players to be always connected to the Internet even when they are playing the single-player portion of the game.

Beginning today Microsoft will start rolling out over 40 apps around the world, with the process taking place between now and Spring 2013. Not all of the apps for Xbox Live will be available immediately and some are specific regions. For the United States those apps being released today include SkyDrive (a media sharing, cloud-based service), Deezer, Karaoke, Cnet, and Maxim.

Other apps coming to the United States include All3m, Ameba TV, CrunchyRoll, Flixster, GameTrailers, IndieFlix, Livesport.tv, MTV, Machinima, PBS, PopcornFlix, The CW Network, and Vimeo.

Multi-platform TV and movie streaming service Crackle today unveiled a new PlayStation 3 application, making its full suite of ad-supported, full-length movies, television series and original programming more easily accessible to all PlayStation 3 users in the United States and Canada. Along with the PS3 App, Crackle recently re-launched on Sony Entertainment Network (SEN), offering a "premium user-experience" to those accessing Crackle from Sony Connected Devices such as BRAVIA TVs and Blu-ray players.

LG and OnLive announced this morning that the cloud-based gaming service will be pre-loaded on all LG Smart TVs in its Google TV (G2) lines, with current set owners receiving the app over the air today. The app allows players to stream games on their TV and access save files on PC, Mac or Android devices. It also allows them to play online with other LG TV and compatible device owners.

Gaikai is being taken to court over the technology behind its game streaming services, GamesIndustry International reports. Last week, UK-based T5 Labs filed a lawsuit against Gaikai Inc. saying that the company's streaming game technology infringes on a patent it holds. Gaikai was acquired this year by Sony. Last year the company accused OnLive of violating its patents but court documents were either never filed or unobtainable at this time.

Here's an entry in the epilogue for OnLive - or at least what used to be OnLive - before it was sold to a holding company owned by Silicon Valley venture capitalist Gary Lauder. According to a report in the Mercury News, the cloud-based gaming service was sold to Lauder for a little under $5 million USD. Lauder reportedly paid $4.8 million for OnLive as part of an insolvency process this summer.

After the parties involved in the Megaupload case failed on multiple occasions to negotiate some way to relinquish legitimate and legal data to Megaupload users left in the lurch, a Federal judge has agreed to hold a hearing on the matter. The one caveat is that the parties involved must come up with a format and the judge has not set a definitive date. Still it's forward motion in a situation that has been stalled by trade groups like the MPAA and the U.S. government.

OnLive's newly appointed CEO Charles Jablonski says that the cloud-based game streaming service will undergo a "transition of size, scope and management" under his direction. Jablonski spoke at length about his plans to revive the company after it nearly collapsed in August. After the assets of the company were transferred to Lauder Partners, employees were fired, debts were written off and CEO Steve Perlman resigned.

A report from Bloomberg claims that a number of major U.S. cable operators are planning on offering cloud-based gaming as early as next year. The cable companies and service providers that want to get into the game - according to the report - include AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner, and Comcast.

While OnLive has had its share of challenges, it hasn't seemed to have affected the general consensus that cloud-based gaming is a good idea. Casual game maker Big Fish either didn't notice or didn't seem to care about OnLive's stumbles as it launches its Big Fish Unlimited for Android devices. The service is offering more than 100 casual games for free via Google Play.

Square Enix announced today that it is launching a new web-based gaming service that will allow consumers to play console quality, high definition games in their browser. The service is called CoreOnline, and will feature a micro transaction-based system.

The first titles released are Hitman: Blood Money and Mini Ninjas, with other games such as Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, Tomb Raider: Underworld, and others to follow at a later date to be determined.

Departing OnLive CEO and founder Steve Perlman offers some advice to the general public about his former company: give them a chance. That's what he said to a fan site about the could-based subscription gaming service recently acquired by venture capitalist Gary Lauder.

Cloud-based gaming subscription service company OnLive announced this evening that its founder and CEO Steve Perlman is leaving the company. In a press release issued by the company it was announced that Perlman was leaving to work on "other projects," and that lead investor Gary Lauder would be taking over as the company’s new chairman. Charlie Jablonski, the Vice President of Operations, will serve as the company's COO and acting CEO.

The Mercury News offers a little background on why executives at the cloud-based gaming subscription service OnLive decided to pull the trigger last Friday. The company fired staff and decided to go with an "assignment for the benefit of creditors" (commonly referred to as ABC). The paper claims that the company owed $30 - $40 million dollars to various creditors and had little money to pay them anything.

Cloud-based game streaming service OnLive confirmed today via its official blog that it will be available on the OUYA console. The Android-based $99 console will have the benefit of OnLive's streaming services which will bring a massive library of PC games to OUYA users. The service will be available on day one of the console's launch to boot.