Triple-A comes to Facebook with new Gaikai app

Cloud gaming vendor Gaikai is now streaming select titles through its new Facebook app, the company has confirmed.

The Facebook application, currently in beta, will be the first serious test of whether triple-A games can exist and thrive on the social games platform.

Social gaming has fast become an industry phenomenon and the most successful games on Facebook so far have been more carefree and casual strategy games.

Gaikai will provide free high-end, console-quality game demos to Facebook through its video streaming technologies. Games are controlled on remote servers that feed gameplay video to an array of devices.

The Facebook Gaikai app is exclusively available in North America and Europe, which means it will be theoretically available to about 500 million of the social network’s user base, providing they each have an impressive internet connection and are viewing Facebook through a desktop device.

Games already available include THQ’s Saints Row The Third, Capcom’s Dead Rising 2 and CD Projekt’s The Witcher 2.

Some of these games are only available in the US.

“People don’t want to leave Facebook to play games – Zynga’s phenomenal success is proof of that,” said Gaikai CEO David Perry.

“Cloud Gaming means that the game doesn’t need to be downloaded and run on your computer, it literally means the game runs out on the internet, in the cloud, with the experience being streamed to the players. Most video game publishers are now seeking to grow their digital customer base and unlike movie and music services like Netflix and Spotify, Gaikai gives the game publishers relationships with the customers.”