14 DAY TRIAL // Retail giant Walmart and cloud gaming service Gaikai have announced that they have entered into a partnership aimed at allowing players to get trial versions of PC based video games from publisher Electronic Arts.
There are now free Gaikai maintained links to trial versions of EA titles, labeled “Play Now”, on the Game Center page from Walmart.
At the moment there are demos offered for such titles as Dead Space 2 or Mass Effect 2, both a bit old but both very good games.
They require those interested to have good Internet connections that can support the significant amount of data needed to play video games through Gaikai.
Gaikai does not install anything on the system of the player and the title chosen runs remote on a server, with the player generated input sent to the game and the video and audio streamed back to the machine of the gamer.
Players then have the option to buy the games they have tried out, either picking up physical boxes or getting digital versions.
It seems that Walmart will be paying Gaikai based on the number of minutes that players use the modes for.
It seems that Walmart and Gaikai are also working on bringing another 20 publishers beside EA to the new trial program.
David Perry, who is one of the co-founders of Gaikai, has stated, “Over the next 12 months, when people see a video game on TV and want to try it out, they can be sure the fastest way will be on Walmart’s website. It’s an exciting time and you’ll see more sites around the world doing these stealth launches with us.”
Gaikai is now available for PC gamers who have the Internet connection required and the company is aiming to also launch a service based around television sets before the end of 2012.