Gaikai delivered on its promise on Wednesday, launching the beta of a service that will allow several popular PC games to be tried out via Facebook.
Users who visit the Gaikai page on Facebook will be able to "try out" the games, from within the browser, offering a "demo" of the game. If the demos hove to Gaikai's existing practice, gamers will be able to play each game for 30 minutes, before being asked to buy and download a digital copy of the game to their PC or Mac.
The port to the Facebook platform has taken a little longer than originally anticipated; in February, Gaikai chief executive David Perry told PCMag that the games would be pushed to Facebook in two weeks, or sometime in March. However, the Facebook page also indicates that Perry's roadmap remains unchanged: after users have the ability to demo the games, full-game streaming will be arrive as well. That will put Gaikai more on par with OnLive, which offers both a la carte game purchases via its service, as well as a "PlayPack" monthly subscription.
Just a few games have been made available, although all but two are available to try on both Gaikai's European and American servers. Magicka, Sniper: Ghost Warrior, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, Orcs Must Die!, and Farming Simulator 2011 are all available in both regions. Two top-tier games, Saints Row: the Third, and Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, are only available in the United States.
Cloud gaming works on the principle that almost all of the complicated rendering of a complex 3D game is handled on a network of back-end servers, which streams the game down to the user like Netflix, for example, streams video. The player's motions and keypresses are transferred back over the Internet, modifying the game on the server. If the delay to send that information back and forth - the latency - is low enough, gamers can play the latest PC games without investing in the latest, most expensive hardware.
"People don't want to leave Facebook to play games – Zynga's phenomenal success is proof of that," said David Perry, chief executive of Gaikai, in a statement. "Cloud Gaming means that the game doesn't need to be downloaded and run on your computer, it literally means the game runs out on the Internet, in the cloud, with the experience being streamed to the players. Most video game publishers are now seeking to grow their digital customer base and unlike movie and music services like Netflix and Spotify, Gaikai gives the game publishers relationships with the customers."
"The Facebook social graph fuels our mantra 'Try it for free', 'Share it if you like it', 'Buy it if you love it'," Perry said.
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