Sony Buys Gaikai, Also: The Future

Sony has purchased Gaikai for $380 million (£243m/3.11 billion South African rands), the streaming games service, in what could go down as the least surprising thing that has ever happened anywhere ever.

Well, unless you believed Dave Perry and Sony saying the deal wasn’t happening a couple of weeks ago, in which case more fool you.

So it seems the future is now here – or the future is at least on its way, full steam ahead. The PlayStation 4 will see Gaikai integration (if it doesn’t, we’ll eat.. umm.. your dinner? Or something), Sony televisions will see Gaikai integration. PS Vita will see Gaikai integration. Every Sony thing you have with a screen and the ability to connect to the internet will see Gaikai integration.

Alright, none of this is confirmed at all, but it does seem the rather logical step.

But focusing on the PS4 angle: would this be the end of the next generation for Sony as we know it? Will the company release their next console as a set-top box rather than another expensive experiment ala PS3? I’d say no.

This is guesswork, but hey, what’s good for Pachter is good for me. I’d say Sony will still release a ‘full’ gaming console in the shape of PlayStation 4 – just with Gaikai connectivity built in. It still feels too soon to rely entirely on a streaming-based solution to playing games, and Sony isn’t a company that’s about to give up on pushing technology to ridiculous levels.

Then there’s the fact Sony is still in bed with bricks-n-mortar retailers, so needs to have physical copies of games out there to be sold, to keep everyone happy.

It’ll be a combo-console, and judging by the thoughts coming out of my brain that have very little basis in reality, it’ll be a damn fine combo-console.

Plus a TV with Gaikai built in just excites me. We live in the future, damn it!