Posted Tue Jan 17, 2012 at 09:30 AM PST by Dick Ward
This massive availability will lower the price of entry even further.
'World of Warcraft' is pretty danged big. It's the biggest MMO around in terms of a paid subscriber base and mainstream coverage and it doesn't look like anything can touch it. At least some of that popularity comes from the incredibly low cost of entry - you don't need a killer PC to handle the game.
Now, things are going to get even easier for players that want to jump into 'WoW' as cloud gaming company Gaikai is bringing the game to Facebook. The game will simply stream to your computer while you play on a gaming computer headquartered at Gaikai.
One of the nice things about 'World of Warcraft' as a streaming title is that it really doesn't require a lighting fast response time unless you're really serious about getting into PvP. It's also not graphically spectacular, so a drop in video quality while streaming might not be all that bad.
What this could mean to Blizzard is huge. The game is already free until level 20 and giving players the streaming option means that people without a decent PC can log onto the game and play without having to spend a dime on upgrades. It also makes the game a bit easier to play at work - not that we're suggesting anything.
Update: A Gaikai representative was quick to comment on the mistaken news. It turns out the company isn't actually bringing 'Warcraft' to Facebook at this point. It will be bringing cloud gaming to the social network in the future, but there are currently no plans to add 'WoW' into the mix. Based on the excitement this story has caused though, we're sure Gaikai is thinking it over long and hard.
Source: GameSpot
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