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Cloud gaming service Gaikai is teaming up with Facebook to offer demos of hardcore PC titles like World of Warcraft.
Speaking at Cloud Gaming Europe, GI.biz reports, Gaikai’s David Perry stated his plans to break down the barrier between online consumers and games:
“Bring the game to the gamer, don’t move people, move games,” he explained.
Turning to the success of social game developer Zynga, he went on to say:
“Zynga has figured out that you put the customer first, very aggressively. You click once and you get to play for free, you share it with your friends and then you pay Zynga if you love it. It’s as pro-consumer as you can get and that is why their valuation has skyrocketed.”
This differs from the process currently available through Valve’s Steam service, he goes on to say, which requires users to fill out forms, answer questionnaires about Internet speed, sign terms of service, and jump through a number of hoops before being able to access a game demo.
Perry then demoed World of Warcraft using Facebook, saying:
“Facebook already owns the category of casual gaming, we’re going to help them own core games. A click and boom, you’re playing World of Warcraft.”
The game streaming company recently predicted either Sony or Microsoft will discontinue their console manufacturing business after the current generation. While extremely unlikely, it does show their unwavering belief in their way of offering games to users.
Integrating World of Warcraft into Facebook would also open the game up to the social network’s collection of casual gamers, something that would follow in tune with Blizzard’s apparent attempt to get more casual fans into the game. Whether playing an MMO through the cloud would really be a reasonable option for users is another question, as latency would likely be a problem.
