• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, July 2, 2012

Because there’s room for everybody in the booming cloud-based content space, Sony has scooped up streaming game service Gaikai for $380 million.
 
“Sony is purchasing the Aliso Viejo-based company as part of a move to disrupt the gaming business,” writes VentureBeat. “What this acquisition means for partnerships that companies like Samsung, LG, Walmart, and others have with Gaikai is unclear, but the potential benefits for Sony are huge.”
 
With Gaikai’s service, “Consumers never need to download the games, and don't need advanced PCs to play because the content is running across the Web,” The Guardian explains.
 
As such, “The acquisition will help Sony ramp up its online content offerings,” CNet notes.
 
More broadly, “the move is a sign of how console-based companies are feeling the pressure to offer other, cheaper routes to accessing games content via other devices, as revenues from hardware-based services decline,” TechCrunch explains. “Sony, makers of the PlayStation, says that as a result of the deal, it will establish a new cloud gaming service, as yet unnamed.”
 
For its part, “The move into the cloud business marks a significant shift for [Sony], a company best known for its PlayStation console gaming systems,” AllThingsD writes.
 
Sony boss Andrew House promised that Gaikai's "engineering talent" combined with Sony’s "game platform knowledge" would lead to "unparalleled cloud entertainment experiences."
 
However, as Engadget writes: “None of this sheds much light on precisely what the Japanese giant will do with its new acquisition, or how it'll deal with the potential (imaginary?) awkwardness of supplying a service direct to TV rivals like Samsung and LG.”