| Mail |

You might also like: WoW Insider, Massively, and more

More Sites You Might Like

Gaikai is live with streaming demos of Mass Effect 2, Dead Space 2 and more

by Randy Nelson on Feb 28th 2011 4:25PM

Following more than a year of media demos and beta testing, cloud gaming startup Gaikai is letting the public try out the fruits of its efforts: Demos of Mass Effect 2, Dead Space 2, Spore and The Sims 3 are all playable from within your web browser. That is, if you have the bandwidth -- we don't, apparently. (Granted, we're on gratis Wi-Fi here at GDC.)

You might have better luck at home: You can visit Gaikai's site where you'll be prompted to launch Mass Effect 2. "Just wait and if your connection quality to our Server is fast enough," instructs CEO David Perry, "one of several pop-up designs will appear."

Additionally, taking a survey about the service will grant you access to the Dead Space 2 demo. Spore and The Sims 3 trials can be found here and here, respectively.

Via: David Perry
Source: Gaikai

Tags: browser, browser-based, cloud-gaming, david-perry, dead-space-2, demo, gaikai, game-streaming, mac, Mass-Effect-2, pc, spore, the-sims-3

Reader Comments (34)

Tips on hyperlinking and comment snarkiness can be found here and here, respectively.

@shabby329 aw ya fixed it randy, now i look insane

I don't know what he fixed, but the Source link still doesn't point to the right place.
Also, is there a way to test on their site to see if my internet is good enough? I don't want to sign up etc and THEN find out I can't use it...

So it's basically OnLive in your browser..? That's...cool, I guess

@The Cole Train No, actually. OnLive is a whole game system, where Gaikai is just demos meant for advertising. OnLive also has more features and performs MUCH better than Gaikai, from what I've experienced.

Oh snap! It's that thing I beta tested for! XD Guys, I seriously recommend trying this. It. Was. AWESOME.

It's a shame Gaikai will only be used to demos, I believe. If they had the server power to have people launch full PC games, right off of Gaikai, they could possibly end pc piracy. (given that all future PC games are released in a similar fashion)

@The Only Girl
Get rid of piracy. The only way that could happen is if it were free.

says none of my 4 PC's meet the system requirements...one of which plays Crysis at max setting with ease.....something fishy here....

@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi
It's not your PC specs, it's your internet connection. And if you have any ports blocked on your router, you could be restraining yourself from your connection's full capabilities.

Check your interwebz speed on
http://www.speedtest.net/.

@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi
It only checks bandwidth. Your system specs don't matter. The beauty of cloud computing.

@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi

I think one of the system requirements is having a recent version of java runtime installed. which you may or may not have.

@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi

Thanks guys....I need them to say internet speed and not system requirements then....

tip us

Would be nice to actually play one of those demos, if it would stop telling me my internet is to slow :(

@GundamMKII I have a 16mb cable connection and I'm not able to play it, apparently. Seems like BS to me.

@NewEraBlood

I'm on a pretty fat pipe too (that's what she said), and it's telling me I'm not up to spec. Maybe it's based on your ping to wherever their limited servers are. I'm sitting in Missouri, which I have absolutely no reason to believe they would place a server near.

Just used it to play ME2. I can't believe it actually works as well as it does.

@TehPeanut
I can't find ME:2 anywhere, whats up =/.

@Shiv Thrice
Just sit on the homepage for a bit and it should pop up. I needed to refresh to actually get it to show up.

@Shiv Thrice
Try this http://www.beta.gaikai.com/beta/me2_demo/RBDFHrrK5rK8597H27HjyD03013

Didn't even read the headlines other than "demo."

Just saw the picture of Shepard and, knowing today is the start of GDC, got really excited, and then really disappointed.

Anybody else get in? I'm pretty surprised I did, I only get 15mb down.

You "only" get 15 mbit/s? Wish I was you. My connection barely makes 2 mbit/s.

@Spartan117458
I meant "only 15mb" in the sense that I expected Gaikai to require an insanely fast connection, like 50mb fibre-optic. The beta sign-up even says they only want to test the fastest connections. Honestly, even on mine ME2 is a little laggy.

@Spartan117458
You live in a third world country? Here where I live (Sweden) less than 24 Mbit/s is unacceptable.

@Anciegher

No, I live in Ohio, but I have the basic tier of Time Warner Cable Roadrunner. And actually, the advertised speed is 1.5 mbit/s, but I get around 2.

Also, it's a lot easier and cheaper to upgrade networks when 85% of people in your country live in urban areas and those people amount to roughly the population of New York City. So I can see why anything less than 24 mbit/s would be unacceptable. Time Warner is only just now rolling out their DOCSIS 3.0 50 mbit/s service in limited areas around here, and it's really pricey.

Oh snap! I'm gonna try this when I get home. Should work 25/MB down. Excited!!!!

@Marco le Polo

Wasn't able to play... :( Here's the link for Dead Space 2 for those who want to give it a shot.

http://www.beta.gaikai.com/beta/deadspace2/XKHX5mHRKFKrHg5K897H27HjyD03017

Passed the connection test, but it's saying I have to wait until more invites are available.

@PersonOfSorts
You don't need to wait for an invite, just go back to the main page and a 'Mass Effect 2: play now' pop-up should appear.

Gaikai is an interesting idea for advertising, but it doesn't really work all that well right now. The video quality isn't that good, and the games are laggy. I'm going to happily return to OnLive now.

50 Megabit line reporting. Well, on WiFi, only get about 14Mbit with a peak download at around 2MB/sec and peak upload around 250KB/sec. Also based in the UK. Amazingly, it all streamed very well. Got a great FPS, much higher than what I could expect my laptop to dish out if it were running the game off it's own GPU.

I have my reservations about video game streaming, but this is a very strong and compelling introduction to it. Much like how I had my reservations about the 3DS until I held and saw one in the flesh... Or perhaps I'm just a sucker for shiny new technology. Who knows? Who cares? Gaikai is pretty cool.

Either their test is borked, system is inefficient, or servers are too far, because I can play OnLive perfectly fine with my 15 Mbps down connection but I don't pass Gaikai's mysterious and inscrutable test.

"In general, if your plan offers download speeds of 10 mbps, you should have more than enough bandwidth to play games on Gaikai. However, if you read the fine print of your plan, you'll see that it probably offers speeds up to 10 mpbs ... which means you'll usually get less. Sometimes way less. For that reason, your safest bet is to sign up for the highest bandwidth plan available."

Breaking News

Mass Effect 2

Gaikai is live with streaming demos of Mass Effect 2, Dead Space 2 and more

Reader Comments (34)

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 4:30PM shabby329 said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 4:50PM shabby329 said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 5:11PM Indefinite Implosion said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 4:38PM The Cole Train said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 6:20PM stickzman said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 4:45PM The Only Girl said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 7:30PM Alavan said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 4:46PM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 4:59PM The Only Girl said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 5:00PM Sylath said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 5:17PM xanthome said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 6:26PM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 4:57PM Friv0lous said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 4:59PM GundamMKII said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 5:11PM NewEraBlood said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 9:11PM heypaul said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 5:13PM TehPeanut said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 5:26PM Shiv Thrice said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 6:57PM TehPeanut said

Posted: Mar 1st 2011 5:26AM Ringot said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 5:16PM LaurenIsSoMosh said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 5:24PM CynicalStrike said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 5:33PM Spartan117458 said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 6:04PM CynicalStrike said

Posted: Mar 1st 2011 2:31AM Anciegher said

Posted: Mar 2nd 2011 11:50AM Spartan117458 said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 5:48PM Marco le Polo said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 7:52PM Marco le Polo said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 6:08PM PersonOfSorts said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 6:39PM CynicalStrike said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 6:23PM stickzman said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 6:57PM SSUK said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 7:32PM PointlessPuppies said

Posted: Feb 28th 2011 8:31PM Flapjackal said

Mass Effect 2 Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

WB conjures up Harry Potter for Kinect this fall

Featured Stories

Silver Lining: I Am Alive's unfeeling world

Game Of Thrones and the paradoxes of adaptation

Super Joystiq Podcast 004: 38 Studios meltdown, Gravity Rush, Civilization 5: Gods & Kings, Dragon's Dogma

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW