Gaikai partly inspired by MMO entry barriers

Dave Perry's experience with the MMO world can be credited with the later founding of streaming games service Gaikai.

Speaking to Massively at GDC 2012, Perry said he became interested in the Asian free-to-play market, which adopted the successful business model literally more than ten years before the west caught on.

Trying to sell western developers on free to play wasn't easy, but Perry got involved in porting existing games, gaining valuable experience on the way. One of his key observations was that the more people try a game, the better it will perform.

Having to download an enormous client and set up an account puts punters off trying out a new title, which made Perry wonder if there was some way to deliver games with "minimal friction".

Gaikai's cloud-based gaming was the answer to that question.

"We bet the farm on this idea - can we get games to everyone?" Perry said.

Gaikai has since signed up with companies like Turbine to test download-free trials which don't require an account sign-up. Unlike other streaming services like OnLive, Gaikai is positioned as a marketing tool, powering demos and trials directly from client's websites. GAME, Eurogamer and YouTube have all played host to the service.