Sony Computer Entertainment announced today they've purchased streaming game service Gaikai for approximately $380 million. The purchase will allow Sony to use Gaikai's technology to build a new cloud-based system for streaming AAA games. Gaikai is designed to work on variety of platforms, including PCs, tablets and, very soon, Google TV.
"By combining Gaikai's resources including its technological strength and engineering talent with SCE's extensive game platform knowledge and experience, SCE will provide users with unparalleled cloud entertainment experiences," said Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House.
According to Fortune, Gaikai has been looking for a buyer for the last month or so. Word was the company was looking for offers over $500 million. At the same time, Sony has expressed serious interest in cloud-based gaming, calling the transition from traditional consoles to streaming services like Gaikai "absolutely inevitable".
Sony hasn't explicitly detailed how they plan to integrate Gaikai's streaming service into the PlayStation family of gaming device, or if they plan to at all. Recent rumors claimed that Sony has been working with Gaikai to bring a streaming back-catalog of PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games to a wide array platforms.
Access to a streaming library of retro games sounds like a pretty great feature for PlayStation Plus... Just throwing it out there, Sony.
[Via Polygon]
