Sony buying Gaikai might be the next big thing in video games

Matt Hawkins Contributing Writer, Video Games

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Over the weekend, Sony purchased Gaikai, a cloud-based gaming service. And yes, I know you’re probably sick to death of hearing anything related to “the cloud”. So does this news actually matter? Yes, it potentially could. A lot.

Remember a while ago, when I mentioned that one could play Dead Rising via any web browser, and on any kind of computer? That was Gaikai, and now Sony owns it. Why? Well…

Here’s the deal: the upcoming console wars is going to be messy for many reasons. At this point, we all own like 3 or 4 machines already, and it’s going to take a lot to convince anyone to buy another one. Especially when the graphical upgrades will be serviceable at best.

So with the exception of hardcore gamers, the general public is not thrilled with the idea of getting yet another console will be old news eventually. But when if the next PlayStation was something that would never succumb to advances of technology?

Remember, Gaikai allows you to play games that’s actually running on some far away machine that you never have to deal with. So what if the next PlayStation could constantly be upgraded, by Sony themselves, and at no real burden to the customer? And thus the hardware would never become obsolete?

Such a thing could truly revolutionize home gaming forever, and while it might sound way too fantastical and silly to some, so was the Kinect up until recently (well, it’s still pretty dumb, I’ll give you that).

Point being, things are moving fast in the world of games, which is currently in a state of mild panic. So such a radical idea might not be so radical after-all. And might be the thing that saves a lot of people’s asses.