EA has bought video game rental service GameFly’s cloud streaming technology and hired some of its employees in a drive to boost its own games streaming service.
Although the two portions of GameFly’s business are a large chunk of its entire set-up, EA won’t own the company’s streaming division, which will continue to operate independently.
It’s not clear exactly how EA will integrate the technology into its platform, but the company has hinted that it hopes to launch its own games streaming service within three years. This would ensure it can keep up with some of its developer competitors, as well as other games streaming platforms like Sony’s PlayStation Now.
“Cloud gaming is an exciting frontier that will help us to give even more players the ability to experience games on any device from anywhere,” said EA chief technology officer Ken Mosssaid. “We’re thrilled to bring this talented team’s expertise into EA as we continue to innovate and expand the future of games and play.”
Neither company commented on how much the deal is worth or when the acquisition is expected to close.
Although games streaming is a natural progression for the cloud, no one has really managed to make it work yet for consoles because the broadband speeds needed to make it work aren’t widely available yet.
Playstation Now has had a limited amount of success, but only because it was able to buy tech firm OnLive’s patents when it decided not to pursue streaming efforts. OnLive folded just five years after launching in 2015. Microsoft is also looking to launch a games streaming service for its XBox console, which is due to launch by 2020.
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