The idea of the “cloud” is nothing new and has, in fact, been around for a number of years in one form or another. The concept goes back to the use of small “dumb” terminals that were nothing more than display devices for com putting done in a central location. After it became possible to put more power into the systems we used the cloud faded into the back ground. With the production of mobile devices that did not typically have the same power and capacity as a desktop the cloud returned. It had a major resurgence when the smartphone and tablet leaped onto the scene and now it seems that everything is trying to become cloud based; including gaming.

The company OnLive has launched CloudLift, a new cloud-gaming service that allows users to use the power of the cloud and play their favorite PC games purchased on one of the popular services for digital distribution of games - starting with steam, on any device.

Speaking at a recent press conference held in London, Microsoft's Phil Harrison explained that the future of their Xbox brand lies in the clouds, and explained that it is precisely this vision with which he came to Microsoft.

After we found out that OnLive faced financial disaster we expected that a new board would come to replace the one that led the company to bankruptcy, but looks like that is not the case. Steve Perlman get to keep his chair and remains CEO at OnLive. Their restructuring created a $40 million loss to HTC for what they invested in the company. I looks like the new investors believe that the former CEO can turn things around and make profit with their help.

There is certainly something going on in the software/gaming industry and from all of the information we have been able to get our hands on it is not looking good for the consumer. After showing you the reports that indicate a push for stronger control over mobile apps and that the US Government is becoming more and more interested in that space we are seeing  more companies cite fantastical numbers claiming rampant piracy. This time it is our friends over at Ubisoft and the claim is that 95% of their titles are pirated.

Quite a rumor is swirling around the tech world today. Supposedly EA is making preparatory efforts to sell their company. Furthermore, what adds credibility to this notion is that the “rumor” is being reported by the New York Post and not some random dime-a-dozen blog on the internet.

Cloud gaming platform, OnLive, was a very promising project, but never fulfilled its potential. The idea behind the project was to run all types of games on computers hosted in OnLive data centers and stream the video back to the end user. That way a customer can have a low-end PC and still play high-end games. The only thing required for it is to be able to play video and a decent internet connection (5 Mbit/s or faster). All games were available in 720p format, provided by over 50 publishers (Sega, Ubisoft, Epic Games, Atari, THQ, Eidos Interactive, Take-Two Interactive etc.).

It looks like Sony is gearing up to fight Microsoft head to head in the cloud gaming business. We have heard today that hot on the heels of Google’s I/O Developer conference Gaikai, Inc. is being bought out by Sony. For those of you that either missed Google I/O or have no idea who Gaikai is we can fill you in on a few details. Gaikai is a leading company in cloud based gaming. Cloud gaming is becoming a big push with many game publishing companies as they feel that it helps to cut down on piracy as well as capitalize on the revenue stream of monthly payments like Netflix, Hulu and even HBO are doing now.