Amazon Launches GameCircle

JULY 11, 2012 • Moving to make its Kindle Fire tablet platform a more accessible and friendly destination for game playing, Amazon.com launched a new service called GameCircle. Kindle owners now have access to new features such as achievements, leaderboards, and cloud-based sync between Kindle devices that saves gameplay progress that can be made available to separate Kindles. More social features are to be added later. Also released were a series of APIs to hel.....

Sony Acquires Gaikai

JULY 2, 2012 • A month removed from the Electronic Entertainment Expo one of the bigger rumors from the show has come to pass: Sony Computer Entertainment has acquired cloud streaming service Gaikai for $380 million. With plenty of electronic devices that can benefit from Gakai’s network, the acquisition is clear win for Sony at a modest cost investment. Sony fully intends to utilize Gaikai as the foundation of its own cloud delivery service. What Sony wil.....

Xbox Live Adds AAA TV Content

MARCH 27, 2012 ● Xbox Live Gold members now have access to three new major content providers: HBO’s GO on demand service that can deliver the cable channel’s entire catalog, MLB.TV (Major League Baseball), and Comcast’s Xfinity on-demand content service. Impact: In the new DFC Intelligence report Consoles as Entertainment Hubs, we noted that in March 2012 Microsoft announced .....

A New Xbox TV Platform

SEPT. 15, 2011 • At a financial analyst meeting in Anaheim, Calif., Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said a new Xbox TV platform will launch this holiday season. Content will include live TV, video on demand, and content from hundreds of video suppliers. Ballmer said the service use the Bing search engine and voice input to make programming selections easy. Impact: Long-term this is where the futur.....

GameStop Tests Spawn Labs Service

MAY 19, 2011 • GameStop is beta testing a cloud-based distribution service fulfilled through game streaming startup Spawn Labs that was acquired by the retailer last March. The internal testing is available to GameStop employees only. Impact: GameStop has made it clear that they are going on a dual-pronged approach where they remain a leader in physical distribution while also capitalizing on .....

Netflix Top Online Subscription Video Provider

APRIL 28, 2011 • Netflix is now the largest provider of online subscription video content in the U.S. Thanks to its increasingly popular video streaming service, Netflix saw its global subscriber base increase 70% to 23.6 million during the past year. In the process, Netflix jumped ahead of Comcast in the U.S. with more than 7% of Americans now subscribing to Netflix. Impact: Cable television .....

HTC Invests in OnLive

FEB. 8, 2011 • Taiwan-based mobile phone manufacturer HTC invested $40 million in cloud streaming game service Onlive Inc. The investment gives HTC 5.3 million preferential shares of OnLive, each share priced at $7.50. The move was speculated to support content for HTC’s .....