EA acquires GameFly subsidiary's cloud technology assets
The buy could boost Electronic Arts' streaming ambitions.
EA made an acquisition that looks to boost its streaming ambitions.
Electronic Arts has acquired the cloud-gaming technology and the employees of a subsidiary of GameFly, EA said Tuesday.
Terms of the deal for the Israel-based team weren't revealed. The acquisition is expected to increase EA's footprint in the streaming arena.
"Cloud gaming is an exciting frontier that will help us to give even more players the ability to experience games on any device from anywhere," EA CTO Ken Moss said in a statement.
EA said last year that it planned to launch an unannounced streaming service in the next two to three years. Microsoft is also working on an Xbox game-streaming service that could launch by 2020.
Streaming media has caught on with movies, thanks to Netflix, and music, thanks to Spotify and Pandora. Yet video-game streaming is still a tiny market, in no small part because of the delay between a user's controls and the action in the games, making for a less-than-enjoyable experience for players.
Sony already has a streaming service of its own, PlayStation Now, so it wouldn't be a surprise to see more companies like Microsoft and EA get involved in the space as well. With the rapid rise in digital gaming, a move to streaming could ultimately be more convenient for gamers, provided the online experience is robust enough.
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