Instant Action goes live...

...And no, it’s not some kinda porn thing, but further to some of my earlier posts on online software distribution, InstantAction went live today (http://ht.ly/1FaQN ) with one of the first streamed games distributions services. So now we have Gakai, OnLive and InstantAction at various stages of capability.

Somewhat tellingly, I visited the IA site from the browser on my PS3 and got a barf message (need FF3 and WinXP to access the site). I wonder if this is a conscious decision from the vendor not to step on Sony’s toes?

Additionally, I wonder if the clever people behind sites like ps3iplayer.com will manage to fool the browser detection tech used to allow the use of PS3/Xbox360/Wii browsers to start accessing these new online distribution models? It’s not clear how much code gets streamed to the PC (a la App-V or Thinstall) and how much is runtime in the browser. Either way, this has got to have the major’s in a pant-soiling frenzy of excitement given the inexorable rise of some of the digital distribution and flash playmodes that are going to eat into the existing distribution models.

Oh and btw, I’m not just talking about the traditional games models here. The first game that IA has released is ‘The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition’, available from IA at $9.99, or from Steam at £6.99, but soon to be available on the PS3 store at $9.99. ‘So what?’ you might ask, ‘it’s all much of a muchness’ in terms of price...

Well, the biggie here is that PSN ties you to the PS3/PSP platforms and that Steam ties you to a particular PC(s) that the Steam client is installed on, the IA mechanism appears to allow you to use your identity from any net-connected PC, increasing the decoupling from the client experience and (theoretically) allowing execution from any net-connected device (iPad/phone, gPad/phone, HPPad/phone).

Now I like this, but the publishers of new games must be gnawing their own legs off with worry that we wont be charged to access our content everytime someone refreshes their hardware platform (I have bought Monkey Island twice already, I don’t want to have to buy it *again*!). Hence the continual references in the media to the dangers of the digital distribution infrastructure (http://ht.ly/1FbSW, http://ht.ly/1FbWd)

WYT?

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Onlive and Gakai search for the business model

Interesting post here: http://ow.ly/1mV2u (free registration required) with Onlive and Gakai vie-ing for the business model that's going to work in the new world of subscription computing for games. Personally, I think that consumer choice will drive everything Gakai's way, but a lot is going to depend on timing of product releases. If the world has to wait 12 months or so for Gakai's release, then there's going to be a hell of a lot of ground to make up.

…but there's an interesting twist to this article too. David Perry is on the management team at Gakai (and who, somewhat visionarily predicted gaming's mass movement to the cloud in as early as Feb 09 http://ow.ly/1mVmg ) and clearly states in this article his ambitions to get this technology onto anything with a browser (including consoles).

Notwithstanding I share the view that this approach is right (see previous entries Onlive tech revealed? and Gaikai raises venture capital of $5 million // News) it'll be interesting to see the reaction from Sony and MS as this effectively becomes a mechanism to treat their under-telly hardware as just another compute device, rather than the room-ruling convergence system they currently pitch it at.

The challenge is that if PS3 and Xbox implementations of Flash and HTML5 become accessible then how will the console makers continue to clawback the losses on the boxes? If the software effectively bypasses the licensing mechanisms that get them revenue share every time a game is sold, that's gotta leave a big hole in the finances…

WYT?

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Integrated web social networking tools

A while back, I wrote an entry on the evolution of web-based tools to access your stuff without having to install apps on your computer. One of my bugbears on social/professional networking has been the need to install Tweetdeck (www.tweetdeck.com) on every machine and configure it on every one (no central identity management) to access Twitter/FB/LinkedIn.

I’ve been (casually, very casually) using Brizzly (www.brizzly.com) to do a very ‘lite’ integration of FB and Twitter, but it doesn’t cover off LinkedIn and the interface is a bit cumbersome for my liking – I like my key streams in one place and I really like the UI in Tweetdeck.

So I read with interest the Techradar/V3 entry on web-based social networking tools (http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/6-of-the-best-web-based-twitter-clients-671253) and signed up with Hootsuite (http://hootsuite.com) and am pleased to say that after only one day of usage, I’ll be happy to bin Tweetdeck (perhaps only on a trial basis). The UI is simple and clean and with enough controllability that I can set the display up simply and easily without too much configuration.

I’ll report back in a while, but this has to be another application area where the flexibility of access to information from a web-based platform beats the installed app hands down. Now, if only Spotify (www.spotify.com) would release a web-based approach to streaming (a la http://Last.fm).

WYT?

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CIOZone predictions for 2010 comms market

See link for CIOZone 2010 predictions:

http://www.ciozone.com/index.php/Tools/11-Communications-Trends-to-Watch-in-2010.html

Personally, I think there’s some key messages in here for customers:

1.       Mobile access (from SMS to full smartphone) is/should be a key plank of Customer Access Strategy

2.       Netbooks are important (I disagree with the ‘disappoint’ tag as intel’s new processor/gfx stack comes onstream Q1 ’10)

3.       Mobile contracts should allow flexibility of device with appropriate usage and security controls imposed/enforced via proxy mechanisms, rather than on-device security

4.       Cloud continues to rise – device independence / divorce from corporate space continues.

5.       I disagree with the innovation drying up – all this dependence on wireless infrastructure is going to drive innovation. As more people come to depend on the wire-less infrastructure, there’ll be a huge strain on the existing networks – the ones who come up with innovative bandwith sharing and 3.5/4g ubiquity first will be the winners (IMO)

All just my 2c – WYT?

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Gaikai raises venture capital of $5 million // News

via gamesindustry.biz

More and more cloud based services coming our way...

This is a classic sneaky wee paradigm shift sliding in under the radar - I'l be betting that we'll see more and more of these after the CES2010 madness.

Question is, can MS and Sony capitalise on the existing furniture under the telly to deliver these services using existing hardware - I think they'd be foolish to ignore it and not license the software from these pioneers (inc OnLive).

wyt?

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