Square Enix has announced a new cloud gaming service called Coreonline, which will bring "high definition" gaming to browsers. Specifically, the service will "allows users to easily play popular, console quality games on the web." Coreonline will be accessible via Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer thanks to "a combination of Google and Square Enix's proprietary technology."

Currently there are only two titles available, Mini Ninjas and Hitman: Blood Money. In the case of Mini Ninjas, the Coreonline site merely redirects users to the Chrome Web Store, where a streaming version of Mini Ninjas has already be available for some time. Blood Money, on the other hand, will play directly in the Coreonline store. We loaded the game, at which point we were asked to watch an ad, which "earned" us 10 minutes of play time. Ads can be skipped by purchasing individual levels or entire games, according to Square Enix.

Lara Croft: Guardian of Light will be released on the service in October. Gyromancer and Tomb Raider: Underworld are also in development. At present, Mini Ninjas, Blood Money and Lara Croft support Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer 8 on Windows 7. On Mac, Lara Croft and Mini Ninjas will only work in Chrome, while Blood Money does not currently support Mac at all.