Gaikai, the cloud gaming service headed up by Dave Perry, has signed deals with social network Facebook to bring the game demos to the platform. GI.biz reports that Perry, speaking at Cloud Gaming Europe, also mentioned further partner deals with YouTube, Best Buy, and Walmart.
“Our next big launch is on Facebook and we've been working with them for some time," said Perry. "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."
Perry has already shown Gaikai-streamed titles running on Facebook at E3 last year. He believes Gaikai can help Facebook dominate the hardcore game scene by shortening the barrier between the gamers and the game. Perry cites the fact that players needs more than 40 clicks before they can play a demo on Steam.
"Bring the game to the gamer, don't move people, move games," he added. "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 a pro-consumer as you can get and that why their valuation has skyrocketed. Some of the traditional publishers who have ignored all of this are falling off a cliff. Look at their stock prices, it's not good.”
Perry also noted that consoles are going to be in a tough spot as TV manufacturers as more smart features to their future product.
"Consoles are in an interesting place right now. If you look at Sony it has a saying that 'It Only Does Everything'. I think that one statement says that consoles are going to go away. This next cycle you're going to see them turn into media devices, media boxes, I don't even think they're going to be called consoles. They won't want to be associated with that word because it just means games. "
"Steve Jobs showed that the trick is not to make money of the hardware but to monetize the devices. Everyone that pays for stuff on their iPhone makes more and more money for Apple. Why should I buy a $1000 TV and then a $500 box when all I need is a TV? By revealing what their goals are they're basically setting the end game for consoles as we know it," he said.
