The console era is over — or so a growing number of game-industry executives would have us believe. While social and mobile gaming have taken a sizable share of the video games market, there is room for growth for hardware, particularly in streaming technology and the emergence of open-source platforms. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The fate of cloud-gaming pioneer OnLive is in question following a report that most of the staff was laid off and the service was closing. The company has denied those reports but hasn’t provided further details. Read more »
Sony Computer Entertainment’s $380 million acquisition of cloud gaming provider Gaikai suggests Sony’s future may not be in any piece of proprietary hardware but in a cloud delivery platform that brings PlayStation games to any connected device. Read more »
G-cluster plans to enter the U.S. market with an on-demand gaming service. The company has secured an unnamed amount of funding from Intel and French mobile carrier SFR to expand its reach beyond home casual gaming and movie streaming into high-end gaming for tablets and smartphones. Read more »
Happy Cloud, a Cambridge, Mass. startup believes the key to accelerating online gaming of top titles is intelligent progressive downloads that leverage the cloud to make games playable within a few minutes. The goal is to make video game downloads as on-demand as videos on Netflix. Read more »
