Silicon Knights founder and Too Human brainmaster Denis Dyack thinks that programs like OnLive and Gaikai may well change the games industry as we know it – forever.
Speaking at GDC Europe, Dyack talked about the future of gaming, and how it might be affected “cloud computing” services such as OnLive and Gaikai. While many have expressed doubts that the services will be able to deliver what they claim – even a small amount of input lag might render games unplayable – Dyack expressed support by the idea, and claimed that in twenty years, cloud computing would be the dominant paradigm in the industry, reports Gamespot.
Specifically addressing the lag issue, Dyack said that he didn’t think it would be a problem: “If I were one of these companies, I’d be looking at putting hardware into every major city, which would completely eradicate any lag problems.” With the lag problem solved, then, these services are poised to take over the industry – and end the “console market” as we know it: “2009 may be the end of the golden era of video games as the first cloud models for games are announced.”
Okay, I see what Dyack is saying, and on some level I agree – even if OnLive and Gaikai suffer from tech problems now, sooner or later the technology will exist to make this possible. Once that happens, everything is out the window – not only will developers and publishers support these services as they make games effectively impossible to pirate and make the second-hand market significantly less viable, but the cloud concept removes the hardware side from the equation.
Still, if Dyack is as big a supporter of cloud gaming as he claims, it’s an odd choice of words: “End of the golden era” sort of implies that these will be detrimental to the games industry, doesn’t it?
Either way, Silicon Knights isn’t ready to just abandon consoles just yet. “Silicon Knights will continue to do console games as long as they’re profitable,” says Dyack.
(Via Edge)
Published: Aug 18, 2009 03:46 pm