Sony buys Gakai, the streaming game service.
This has potentially major ramifications. I've been saying for years that DRM that actually works IS hypothetically possible (for games and no other medium) if you set up a streaming model where the client is a dumb black box that just takes outputs, transmits them, receives video, and renders it. Then -- and ONLY then -- you have a model that prevents a game being copied, because it's never transferred into local memory in the first place.
Latency is, of course, the major problem. Expect this to be more immediately useful for passive entertainment and games that don't require split-second responsiveness. Long-term? I think they'll work out the delay issues.
I don't think we're ever going to live in a world where ALL games are streamed and none are stored locally. But we could be approaching one where all CONSOLE games are.
