was an American company which provides technology for the streaming of high-end video games. Its technology has multiple applications, including in-home streaming over a local wired or wireless network (as in Remote Play between the

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

and

PlayStation Vita The PlayStation Vita (PS Vita) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 17, 2011, then in other international territories on February 22, 2012, and was produced ...

), as well as cloud-based gaming where video games are rendered on remote servers and delivered to end users via internet streaming (such as the PlayStation Now game streaming service.) Founded and registered in Netherlands in 2008 as "Gaikai B.V.", it was acquired by

Sony Interactive Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE) is an American video game and digital entertainment company that is a major subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony, Sony Group Corporation. It primarily operates the PlayStation brand of video game co ...

in 2012. As a startup, before its acquisition by Sony, the company announced many partners using the technology from 2010 through 2012 including game publishers, web portals, retailers and consumer electronics manufacturers. On July 2, 2012, Sony announced that a formal agreement had been reached to acquire the company for US$380 million with plans of establishing their own new cloud-based gaming service, as well as integrating streaming technology built by Gaikai into

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

products, resulting in PlayStation Now and Remote Play.

History

Gaikai was initially (pre-Sony acquisition) funded by

Intel Capital Intel Capital Corporation started off as the investment arm of Intel Corporation in 1991 and in January 2025, it spun off as a standalone investment fund. Intel Capital makes equity investments in a range of technology startups and companies off ...

, Limelight Networks, Rustic Canyon Partners,

Benchmark Capital Benchmark is a venture capital firm founded in 1995 by Bob Kagle, Bruce Dunlevie, Andy Rachleff, Kevin Harvey, and Val Vaden. The firm is known for its equal partnership structure and focus on early-stage investing, typically leading the firs ...

, TriplePoint Capital, NEA and

Qualcomm Qualcomm Incorporated () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software and services related to wireless techn ...

. Its streaming service was embedded on game-related websites and microsites, social media site such as

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

, and within specific products (such as smart mobile devices or digital TVs), as determined by the publisher. Users did not need to navigate to an online registration portal or download any software to access the games. Gaikai recommended an Internet connection of 5 Mbit/s or faster, and a 3 Mbit/s connection met the minimum system requirements. Gaikai's proprietary technology ran inside web browsers, in part, by using previously installed plug-ins such as

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a mostly discontinuedAlthough it is discontinued by Adobe Inc., for the Chinese market it is developed by Zhongcheng and for the international enterprise market it is developed by Ha ...

, or alternately without using any plug-ins, as demonstrated at

Google I/O Google I/O, or simply I/O, is an annual developer conference held by Google in Mountain View, California. The name "I/O" is taken from the number googol, with the "I" representing the first digit "1" in a googol and the "O" representing the s ...

2012, where Gaikai showed a version of the service using the

Google Native Client Google Native Client (NaCl) is a discontinued sandboxing technology for running either a subset of Intel x86, ARM, or MIPS native code, or a portable executable, in a sandbox. It allows safely running native code from a web browser, independ ...

(NaCl). A demo video early on in the service, at GDC San Francisco 2010, showed '' Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare'', ''

World of Warcraft ''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a 2004 massively multiplayer online role-playing (MMORPG) video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Windows and Mac OS X. Set in the '' Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of War ...

'', '' EVE Online'', ''

Spore In biology, a spore is a unit of sexual reproduction, sexual (in fungi) or asexual reproduction that may be adapted for biological dispersal, dispersal and for survival, often for extended periods of time, in unfavourable conditions. Spores fo ...

'', '' Mario Kart 64'' and

Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc., Adobe for Microsoft Windows, Windows and macOS. It was created in 1987 by Thomas Knoll, Thomas and John Knoll. It is the most used tool for professional digital ...

all running in Adobe Flash player. In May 2010, Gaikai demonstrated ''World of Warcraft'' running on the iPad using its game streaming technology. Gaikai's technology officially came out of a public Beta test and launched internationally on February 27, 2011, with ''

Dead Space 2 ''Dead Space 2'' is a 2011 survival horror game developed by Visceral Games and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for PlayStation 3, Windows, and Xbox 360 in January. The second mainline entry in the ''Dead Space'' series, set on the ...

'', '' The Sims 3'', ''

'', and '' Mass Effect 2''.

Services

Gaikai operated two business models for its cloud gaming services before the acquisition: Ad Network and Open Platform. In the Ad Network model, at the end of the demo the customer was given the option to purchase the game or product from a local retailer, online store or direct-to-drive download service. The Ad Network included the Gaikai Affiliate Network which launched on June 2, 2011 reaching over 10 million

monthly active users Active users is a software performance metric that is commonly used to measure the level of engagement for a particular software product or object, by quantifying the number of active interactions from users or visitors within a relevant range ...

by late 2011. Websites which joined the network were able to stream high-end PC games as embedded advertising, and in exchange received a share of the marketing revenue generated from games streamed to consumers, who played the demos free of charge. Gaikai-enabled games had been integrated into

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

, EA's Origin, and Ubisoft's UBIShop in late 2011. In April 2012, Gaikai launched its service embedded inside

, allowing games to be streamed directly in the Facebook canvas. Meanwhile, the Open Platform model allowed streaming full games to PCs, digital TVs, tablets and smart mobile devices. The first mobile partnership came in May 2012, streaming games to the Wikipad tablet. In June 2012,

Samsung Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...

announced a cloud gaming service powered by Gaikai to stream AAA games to its high end LED Smart TVs.

Acquisition by Sony Interactive Entertainment

On July 2, 2012, shortly after rumors on the Internet started to appear,

announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire the cloud-based service for US$380 million. Gaikai launched their revamped website in October 2012, teasing top PlayStation branded titles including ''

God of War A war god in mythology associated with war, combat, or bloodshed. They occur commonly in polytheism, polytheistic religions. Unlike most gods and goddesses in polytheistic religions, monotheistic deities have traditionally been portrayed in their ...

'', '' Infamous'' and ''

LittleBigPlanet ''LittleBigPlanet'' (''LBP''; stylised as ''LittleBIGPlanet'') is a Puzzle video game, puzzle platform video game series created and produced by British developer Media Molecule and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Most games in th ...

'' among other titles. At some point this company became fully integrated into Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Products

Remote Play

On February 20, 2013, Gaikai was announced to be developing the next generation of Remote Play, streaming games from the

to the

. Remote Play between the PS Vita and PS4 launched with the PS4 in November 2013.

Share Play

In late 2014, Share Play was launched, allowing users to play with a friend as if you were in the same room. This system enables users to play as they were watching the same screen remotely, and even virtually handing the controller to their friends.

PlayStation Now

At the January 2014

Consumer Electronics Show CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...

, Sony announced the PlayStation Now (PS Now) game streaming service, powered by technology from Gaikai. The service was initially discussed in February 2013, when it was revealed that

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

, and

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). It is the successor to the PlayStation 2, and both are part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. The PS3 was first released on ...

titles would be made available for Sony's upcoming

console via a new cloud gaming service. At

E3 2013 The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2013 (E3 2013) was the 19th E3 held. The event took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California, with many press conferences taking place at nearby venues including the Microsoft Theate ...

, Sony had announced that the new game streaming service would launch in 2014. At CES it was revealed that in addition to PlayStation platforms (PS4 and PS3 systems, followed by PS Vita), PlayStation Now would come to most 2014 US models of Sony's BRAVIA TV.

Announced partnerships

* June 17, 2010:

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

* July 20, 2010:

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

* July 20, 2010: Limelight Networks * March 8, 2011: Video Games Blogger * April 5, 2011: Bigfoot Networks * June 2, 2011: The Escapist * June 8, 2011
Gamer4Eva
* June 8, 2011:

Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 alongside parent company Gamer Network. In 2008, it started in the formerly eponymous trade fair EGX (Eurogamer Expo until 2013) organised by its parent company. Fr ...

* June 21, 2011:

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...

* July 5, 2011:

Capcom is a Japanese video game company. It has created a number of critically acclaimed and List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil'', ''Monster ...

* August 22, 2011:

CD Projekt CD Projekt S.A. () is a Polish video game company based in Warsaw, founded in May 1994 by Marcin Iwiński and Michał Kiciński. Iwiński and Kiciński were video game retailers before they founded the company, which initially acted as ...

* October 11, 2011:

Level 3 Communications Level 3 Communications, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications and Internet service provider company headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado. It ultimately became a part of CenturyLink (now Lumen Technologies), where Level 3 Pres ...

* October 20, 2011:

* January 4, 2012:

Best Buy Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was r ...

* January 4, 2012:

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Anno'', '' Assassin's Creed'', ' ...

* January 10, 2012:

LG Electronics LG Electronics Inc. () is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational major appliance and consumer electronics corporation headquartered in Yeouido-dong, Seoul, South Korea. LG Electronics is a part of LG, LG Corporation, the fourth ...

* January 12, 2012: Green Man Gaming * March 2, 2012:

GAME A game is a structured type of play usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or video games) or art ...

* March 8, 2012:

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

* April 30, 2012: Gamesload * May 2, 2012: WikiPad * May 15, 2012:

Nvidia Nvidia Corporation ( ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and incorporated in Delaware. Founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang (president and CEO), Chris Malachowsky, and Curti ...

* May 15, 2012: Meteor Entertainment * May 22, 2012:

Autodesk Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that provides software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquarte ...

* June 4, 2012: En Masse Entertainment * June 5, 2012:

* June 6, 2012: Machinima, Inc. * July 2, 2012:

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gaikai American companies established in 2008 Video game companies established in 2008 Cloud gaming companies First-party video game developers Sony Interactive Entertainment Video game companies of the United States 2012 mergers and acquisitions Companies based in Aliso Viejo, California 2008 establishments in California