Cloud gaming service Gaika, and European games retailer The Game Group, have announced a new agreement which will see the retailer offer streaming demos of games to European consumers from its website beginning this coming spring.
Yesterday, news abounded that The Game Group’s shares lost 5% after it was announced that it wouldn’t be stocking the forthcoming Mass Effect 3 game, following a dispute with publisher Electronic Arts. So now that Game is adopting a multichannel strategy to grow revenues beyond its bricks-and-mortar stores, this will be welcomed by many.
“We are extremely pleased to be working with Game across Europe to help them expand their digital presence and engagement with online consumers by streaming Gaikai’s portfolio of high quality content,” said Robert Stevenson, EVP at Gaikai. “As gamers continue to increase their digital consumption of the industry’s best games, Game will be well positioned to lead the way.”
Game is one of Europe’s preeminent video-game retailers, with more than 1,300 stores and websites across the UK, Ireland, Scandinavia, Iberia and the Czech Republic, whilst it has a presence in Australia too.
“Gaikai’s ground-breaking game streaming technology fits in well with our strategy of delivering the very best range of games and gaming products to our customers,” added Ian Shepherd, Game CEO. “We are thrilled to offer our consumers the ability to instantly preview game titles right at that critical moment of the purchase decision-making and checkout process.”
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Over the past three years, California-based Gaikai has been steadily growing its interactive cloud gaming network to deliver games without the need for any custom hardware or software. It has sought relationships with top video game manufacturers and platforms around the world to bring a range of titles to gamers on any Internet connected device.
Whilst introducing streaming functionality to its website is certainly a step forward for Game, this will only do so much to allay fears that the retailer could be in turmoil. Last month, it announced it was closing 35 stores, plus its gameplay.co.uk website which has now merged with Gamestation.co.uk. There’s also rumors that US retailers GameStop is interested in acquiring the company.
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