Gaming In The Clouds click of a mouse. Just stick your files into Cyberspace, and worry about them later. With supercomputers and data centers hosting Peta-Bytes worth of data, it seems kind of silly that you have to install your favorite game onto your computer, or every computer that you want to play it on. You can do it with video, why not video games?

Think about it for a sec, why fill up your hard drive with titles dependent on your computers hardware, and every time the newest Crysis inception is released you have to upgrade that hardware? What if there was a place where all the files, updates, and patches were stored and you could play these titles at the click of a mouse, with limitless power? Let's call this unicorn filled magical valley "The Cloud".

The closest "Cloud" built network to this Utopian idea is Valve's Steam. Completely wiping out the need to go outside, you can download hundreds of titles directly to your computer, and only limited by your bandwidth. You could be playing the latest Torchlight title within an hour. Hooray, no more sunlight! Still, the Steam client locally installs the copy of the game on your computer, while managing patches and updates through it's software. Still eating away at your valuable space which you covet like Gollum and the one ring (precious?). Well in this Media hungry world there is hope. A few companies are tackling this issue by creating game streams. With the only requirement for your computer is a browser, Flash plug-in and an internet connection. Gamers will be able to link up to a gaming data center where they will be able to play their favorite titles from anywhere that they can get online. Take that Corporate world!

Let's take a look at two of these companies out on the market right now, and getting ready to apply the above concept.

Remember the names of David Perry from Shiny Entertainment (Earthworm Jim!), Andrew Gault, and Rui Pereira? These three guys are taking gaming to the next level. You may remember them from streaming World of Warcraft on an iPad using there new service called Gaikai. Gaikai is offering a Streaming World environment where:

All you need is a broadband internet connection, a web browser, and the latest Adobe Flash player (which you almost certainly already have). Nothing is installed, no clutter is left behind, and you don’t need to be an administrator on the computer.

Of course everyone has Flash. Well maybe not Apple, but everyone else! Gaikai is boasting that the games will be streamed in it's native resolution without using any of your machine's hardware. This is a great opportunity for gamers that may not have the latest and greatest processor/video card/memory to run current titles on there PC. Lag is limited by streaming the audio and video of the title directly to the users computer in milliseconds, with the cursor locally rendered and displaying no signs of latency. No pricing plan has been announced yet. How soon until we see this technology in full effect is the question, but with beta sign ups already available on their website, it might not be that far off.

OnLive on the other hand has been under construction for the past eight years, and there ready to come out of the gates swinging. Announcing that they will be going live On June 17th, 2010 at E3. OnLive is not joking around. With a pricing plan in place (14.95/month) to use there software, OnLive is taking a page out of Valve's Steam book and gamers will be able to purchase titles individually, for instant play anywhere. These guys are already partnered with a powerhouse of gaming companies like EA, Ubisoft, Take 2 interactive and Atari. Just to name a few. OnLive will also be multi-platform, so if you have a PC or a Mac it won't matter. Hell if you really want you can play it on your TV!

Steve Pearlman, Founder and CEO of OnLive has this to say about OnLive gaming:

OnLive fundamentally transforms the way users experience games and interact with each other, and in time, will transform the way games are developed and marketed. By distilling specialized game hardware out of the equation, OnLive will allow games to be played as a pure media experience on virtually any device, with the same flexibility and instant-play experience that we’ve come to expect from online video and music.

Great news! Glad to hear it! But what about the power hungry gamers? The PvP gamers where Latency is not an option? Promises of minimal Lag, and powerful performance on any computer is like a dream come true. Or is it just a dream all together? I'm expecting to see a lot of these companies to start popping up in the next two years. With OnLive's announcement at E3 this year, I wouldn't be surprised that more companies jump on the virtual wagon fairly quickly.

Is this the future of gaming? Is hardware becoming obsolete? What about Consoles, how will they compete? What say you Aggrogamer community, would you subscribe to a service like this (and which one?) Or do you prefer picking up your games at your local game store?