David Perry's OnLive Rival Detailed

Not to be outdone by the hubbub surrounding the Game Developers Conference unveiling of OnLive's cloud-based gaming service, David Perry (of recent Acclaim fame) has been interviewed about his rival service, which is to be called Gaikai. GI talked with Perry, who boldly states that his company's service "is arguably better than anything OnLive has."

"...our solution is arguably better than anything OnLive has. But of course I'm biased. I'll tell you the reason why, and there's one reason why we're better than them... they're never going to be able to beat us on this. They have to download one megabyte and install it on your computer.

What does that mean? It means that everyone in schools, or any kind of uptight or professional business location is not going to be able to download some random game via the Internet and install it. And they'll have to go through patches and updates and everything else. Ours has no download. That's the difference."

The rash of cloud computing technology talk has come under heavy criticism from the industry in general; the biggest unknown remains one of high costs on the server side and the need for a stable high-speed broadband connection on the user side. Gaikai's beta website is now open for business.

Bryn says: I read through the Gaikai beta site's copy just as I did with OnLive's a little over a week ago. There's excitement in the back of mind at the potential that these services offer, and I'd like nothing more than to think that I would never have to spend money again on a new console or PC in order to be able to play state-of-the-art games.

But I've also read the criticisms leveled at these services, and I'm still not sure exactly how feasible cloud-based gaming will be for the average Joe on the street.

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