Gaikai’s New Cloud Gaming Partner Is Samsung, Not Sony

The Samsung Cloud Gaming service was developed in partnership with Gaikai and “will stream a mix of family-friendly and AAA video games directly” to owners of the 2012 line of Samsung LED 7000 series and up Smart TVs in the U.S., Samsung said. Consumers with one of those TVs and a good Internet connection will be able to access the service directly through Samsung’s Smart Hub, it said. Consumers will be able to try the games for free and only pay for games they really want, making it “the most gamer-friendly service possible,” Samsung said. Those using the service will get “instant access to some of the video game industry’s biggest titles, without any need to download, install or patch/update games,” it said. In “under a minute, consumers can find and start playing” the game content, Samsung said.

Samsung Cloud Gaming will “greatly expand the reach of the best games our industry can provide, then make them just as accessible as movies, TV shows and music,” said Gaikai CEO David Perry. Gaikai is demonstrating Samsung Cloud Gaming on Samsung Smart TVs at E3. Samsung was taking part in the demos at the show with Gaikai. The manufacturer has been at E3 before to tout its mobile devices.

Gaikai also said at E3 that publisher En Masse Entertainment’s massively multiplayer online role-playing game Tera was made available across Gaikai’s cloud streaming network. Players can “instantly” play the action combat MMO in a timed demo that Gaikai said “requires no downloads or installations.” The game, En Masse’s first action MMORPG, was developed by Bluehole Studio and launched May 1 in North America and Europe.

E3 Notebook

The Wii U will support up to two GamePad controllers (CED June 6 p6), but using a second GamePad will “significantly impact the performance” of a title using it, Katsuya Eguchi, manager and producer for Nintendo’s Entertainment Analysis and Development division, said at E3 Tuesday. Speaking via a translator, the Wii U software producer said it “takes processing power” to create an image on just one screen, and still more resources are required from the hardware when adding a second screen, such as the one on a GamePad, and implementing a third screen on a second GamePad will require even more resources from the hardware. The Wii U has only one processor and graphics chip to display HD graphics on a TV. Nintendo didn’t put separate processors and graphics chips into the GamePads. Eguchi said he didn’t know if the title Nintendo Land, which Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said will ship this holiday season, will come bundled with each Wii U console. Wii Sports was bundled with each Wii in the U.S., but wasn’t included with each console in Japan, Eguchi noted. Nintendo Land is similar to Wii Sports in that they are both collections of mini games that make full use of the unique features of their respective consoles. He also said there will be a system for moderating game spoilers in the Wii U’s Miiverse network communication system. Nintendo will also be “aggressively” weeding out other kinds of comments there, including profanity, because the company wants Miiverse to be a “pleasant environment” -- a place where gamers “don’t feel threatened,” he said.

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THQ has been “aware for quite some time about” the heavy emphasis planned by the videogame console makers on connectivity between devices, such as what Microsoft demonstrated with SmartGlass on Monday (CED June 5 p2), THQ CEO Brian Farrell said at an E3 investor meeting. THQ’s future games will take “full advantage” of that connectivity, but the titles it’s demonstrating at E3 this week will not, he said. What THQ is “not contemplating at the current time, based on what we know, is any dedicated tablet and mobile game,” he said. But “as these markets develop and as that connectivity becomes more clear, we may shift our viewpoint,” he said. The technology is “not available today,” despite the announcements at E3, said new THQ President Jason Rubin. He said the Wii U is the only new console that THQ is “currently developing for publicly.” Microsoft and Sony haven’t announced plans for their next home consoles. THQ’s “strategy is to be both early and reasonably aggressive” in supporting the new consoles in the new cycle that kicks off with the Wii U, Farrell said. In the last cycle, THQ didn’t place a major emphasis on releasing games at the launch of each new system, he said. That was in the days when much of THQ’s focus was on licensed titles for young gamers. It said early this year it’s exiting the kids’ licensed games category to focus on its core game franchises and developing digital initiatives (CED Jan 26 p10). Coming THQ games that it’s touting at E3 this week include Darksiders II, which Rich Williams, senior vice president of global marketing, said will ship in August for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PCs. A Wii U version is in development and details on that will come later, he said. Pre-orders on the sequel are running “more than five times” what they were for the first game, he said. There’s “double the awareness” of the game and THQ has made “more than double the investment” on the new title, he said.

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South Korean developer WeMade Entertainment is looking to significantly boost its presence in the U.S. market with a new line of games for mobile devices, Chief Financial Officer Gene Kim said at a news briefing Tuesday. The company’s goal is to be a global gaming company, he said. It started in 2000 and opened a U.S. division in 2008. Its focus had been on massively multiplayer online games for PCs, including the Mir series. Two years ago, company executives had an “epiphany,” projecting that mobile devices would soon dominate the game space, so it entered that sector, Kim said. The company touted eight mobile titles for iOS and Android devices at the briefing: The massively multiplayer online role-playing game (RPG) Project Dragon: The Roar from the Dungeon, the real-time strategy defense game Chaos & Defense Online (this month), the combination action-role playing game and social network title Viking Island (July), the social network game Pet Island, the action online RPG Goblin Mobile, the fighting social network game with the “tentative” title Friend Fighter, the combination RPG and social network game Hero Square and the dance game Rhythm Scandal. WeMade didn’t give release dates for most of the games. The company has a “deep pipeline” of games in development, said Kim.

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Retailers will continue to play “an important role” in the game industry despite the growing shift to digital distribution, which is driving much of the industry’s growth, David Cole, CEO of research company DFC Intelligence, predicted during the Global Gaming Industry Forum held during E3. He also released new research projecting that global revenue from videogame software will grow from $52 billion in 2011 to $70 billion in 2017. The growth will be split among three broad platforms: PCs, with 39 percent of revenue; TV-based console systems, with 36 percent; and mobile devices, with 25 percent, DFC said. The research firm predicted that by 2017, 66 percent of game software will be delivered digitally, with packaged games accounting for about 33 percent. The game industry is “expanding on all fronts with new demographic groups playing games on a regular basis,” Cole said. But he said the “core consumer still remains male, age 12 to 30.” If their spending patterns change, it could have a “huge impact” on the industry, he said. Gamers typically make game purchases “several times a year in bulk sums of around $20 to $50,” Cole said. A successful game “should count on an average paying consumer spending $75 a year for two years,” he said. DFC’s latest survey indicated core gamers are “embracing mobile devices in growing numbers, [but] they are not satisfied” with the games in social networks including Facebook. DFC estimated that games in browser and social networks will top $8 billion in revenue by 2017, and that growth is “dependent on having stronger appeal to core gamers.” Cole said the “bottom line” is that “core gamers spend money on products they like, and right now the game offerings on sites like Facebook are simply not appealing to that demographic.” Also at the forum, Chris Petrovic, general manager of digital ventures at GameStop, said there seems to be a panic among some developers when they opt to focus on one platform and it doesn’t pan out. They too often go the complete opposite route, supporting every platform there is, he said. Daniel Offner, an attorney at Loeb & Loeb with clients in the game sector, said the best move for developers is to make the best game they can, no matter the platform, and make sure that it works “impeccably.”