Cloud-based online gaming startup Gaikai has raised $5 million in a first round of funding, per an SEC filing. The company declined to comment, but the filing lists Benchmark Capital’s Mitch Lasky as a director.
Gaikai plans to let people play high-quality games on any computer without needing to install software. The company handles the hosting, system updates and tech issues, and just “streams” the content as if it were a Flash video.
Gaikai calls it “streaming worlds,” though the idea of cloud-based, connected gameplay is similar to Steve Perlman’s forthcoming OnLive. Based in the Netherlands, it was founded in 2009 by a trio of game vets: GDC advisory board member David Perry, Andrew Gault and Rui Pereira.
