Sony Acquires Cloud Gaming Provider Gaikai for $380 Million

Cloud gaming has scored a major success today, with Sony announcing that it will be acquiring leading provider Gaikai for a staggering $380 million. With that sort of value, Sony has proven that cloud gaming has a strong future, much like Netflix proved with video. The acquisition will no doubt lead to a new or integrated PlayStation product, but now the speculation begins to guess whether Sony might be planning a separate cloud gaming console, or integrate support into the PS4.

Because cloud gaming in effect just streams a video feed to an end-user, Sony could technically release a special PSP model that supports cloud gaming as well, allowing for very advanced graphics to be used on the device. Whatever its plans, $380 million confirms the company’s strong interest in removing the media equation from our gaming.

As a side note, this acquisition also proves to be a major success for NVIDIA, as the company has been heavily invested in Gaikai and has plans to work with the company to help roll out its GeForce GRID graphics cards later this year. NVIDIA’s bet on this company proved to be a smart one.