IndustryGamers - Informing the Games Industry

GameStop Embracing Digital Has 'Really Impressed' Gaikai's David Perry

Posted April 7, 2011 by James Brightman

GameStop has been making a big play recently to safeguard its future by purchasing two digital-focused companies: Impulse and Spawn Labs. There have been mixed opinions on what this really means for the retailer's business, but industry veteran David Perry (CEO of cloud gaming firm Gaikai), who's not been afraid to slam GameStop in the past, is actually encouraged to see GameStop embracing digital now.

Perry shared his comments on GameStop with IndustryGamers, while also espousing the benefits of his Gaikai technology; we're posting his reply in full below.

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By GameStop investing into cloud gaming it's yet another great validation that this technology can really help the future of online (digital) retail. GameStop will be focused on broadcasting game discs for individuals, while Gaikai is about helping video game publishers reach as wide an audience as technically possible, across all websites. (Very different strategies.)

There are numerous tech companies saying they can stream video from one place to another. To help really understand this space you must always ask "Have you stood up a self-managing low-latency global INTERACTIVE network?" That’s where everyone will start tap-dancing. 

Only two companies have done this, Gaikai owns the only "open" cloud gaming platform and due to two years of careful traffic shaping we now have the fastest cloud platform. (It’s been independently verified as being the lowest latency interactive network in existence.) 

We didn't build this network for any single company; frankly we are like “Switzerland” as we are not in competition with anyone and have built the network for everyone that wants to take advantage of instant gaming. We enable them to do business using this incredibly low friction technology.

Our company focus now is to deploy a layer of 2nd generation servers across our network by E3 which can support the most demanding hardcore games like Crysis 2 at 60 frames per second (without any modification.) We also can stream games in Stereo 3D.

That's our investment. We are doing it for the gamers; by putting them first it makes every decision an easy one. Success is defined as countless millions more gamers trying games, as 93% of them will tell you how important experiencing a product is in making the buy decision. We are focused on having the best quality games, the fastest network and the widest reach. We are executing very aggressively on all three fronts.

I’m at the MI6 conference (video game marketing) now. Our marketing solution is 100% pure, as today a lot of marketing is done based on hoping gamers will act upon seeing a gaming message somewhere. With Gaikai if we don’t get people to play and make a decision, our service costs nothing at all. So every single cent spent on marketing becomes pure, as every cent results in a gamer playing the game.

Frankly, as gamers, we love the idea of trying every good game that comes out, and if that becomes completely effortless, we expect to fundamentally change the reach of games today. 

So GameStop have really impressed us; they're embracing the fundamental change to “digital” head-on.

James Brightman has been covering the games industry since 2003 and has been an avid gamer ever since the days of Atari and Intellivision. He was previously the EIC of GameDaily Biz.