OnLive and Gaikai are pretty silly names. I mean, OnLive is a made-up word that rolls off the tongue far better than it does the brain, and Gaikai actually refers to the ocean, which is sort of the opposite of the clouds. So when I saw “Nvidia” and “cloud gaming” in the same sentence, I was thrilled. What would a graphics hardware manufacturer with a history of impressively impenetrable names do when matched against this caliber of peer? “Grid,” as it turns out. Well, er, OK. Man, that’s not ridiculous at all. In consolation, it’s promising latency that’s “comparable, if not better, than gaming on a console at home.” I guess that’s something.

Alternative headline: Hawken Is Going To Be Playable First Over Gaikai.(more…)