GameFly, streaming in the US  (Photo: GameFly)

Now U.S homes can play streamed games directly on their TVs.

The largest video game rental service in the U.S is venturing into streaming games. GameFly is using the expertise of Playcast to accomplish this. GameFly recently announced plans to purchase the Israeli video streaming company in order to launch “GameFly Streaming”, a new stream service that will exclusively accessed through the Amazon Fire TV, owned by GameFly. The service might be available on other TVs or Devices depending on the success of the service. GameFly hopes to bring their Playcast technology to a larger demographic of players who normally rent games and game devices as well as those who casually active in social gaming and gambling.

GameFly efforts to reach different audiences through streaming

Although Sony and Microsoft offer streaming game services, their devices require TV in order to play their games, GameFly would like to expand their services to other devices that don’t require consoles. The rental company hopes that this will further reach more consumers. GameFly wishes to offer 35 games to a wider audience without consoles verses Sony and Microsoft who can only offer their larger selections to consumers with consoles.

GameFly, a common site in most U.S shopping centers and malls, would like to eventually move from physical rentals of games and equipment to streaming online. The technical dilemmas, besides online gaming security issues, involve streaming games which are different than streaming video because games cannot be streamed with compression. This may prove to be unpopular among gamers who expect the same high resolution that already exists on their Playstation and Xbox consoles.

The Israeli company Playcast takes games that have a high commercial appeal, Like Sega’s Sonic Generations, and make them playable by streaming them to televisions or other devices that don’t depend entirely on a console. In addition, Playcast will configure the games so they can be played using a mouse or gamepad that can directly be connect to the USB ports of a television.

(Photo: Playcast)

Playcast has experience in this market having already provided 70 games to owners of Samsung Smart TVs. Samsung vice president Young Chan Kim said that “with Playcast, we can provide our customers with the convenience and instant gratification of playing popular video games directly from their Samsung Smart TV. Playcast’s technology enables Samsung to get the best out of its screen, utilizing Playcast’s powerful cloud presence worldwide.”

Israel has created a dominant place in the gaming industry

Israel is at the forefront and center stage of the gaming technology world. With hundreds of gaming development companies, many Israeli firms are that top of their individual apertures. TabTale, a gaming company, has had its titles downloaded over 500,000 times in five years time. KidOz, a children’s tablet content provider, was loaded on 1.5 million devices last year.

(Photo: Tab Tale)

Funtactix is another software publisher, has provided games that have cinema themes such as The Hunger Games and Mission Impossible. Social gaming is a concept invented by Israeli start ups through social networks such as Facebook. Through the establishment the social gambling market, games stylized after casinos are responsible for hundreds of millions of people a day.

As a result, Israeli firms have been courted by companies such as Las Vegas gambling corporation Caesar’s Interactive Entertainment, the online gambling division of Caesar’s Entertainment, and Bally Technologies, the Research and Development wing of Bally. These major gambling corporations have seen the opportunities to attract people who are already accustomed to the casino games but have yet to put down actual money.

Games by Israeli firms Playtika, DragonPlay and Diwip regularly appear among the top slots lists on Facebook’s popular games lists. Social gaming, which involves people playing casino games without having to put down the money, has produced nearly 2 billion in revenue in 2012. Oded Sharon, CEO of Corbomite Games and Adventure Mob development firm, said “some of the biggest games are made by companies that got their start in Israel, and over the past few years the industry here has grown significantly.”

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Streamlined Gaming Coming from Israel to a U.S Home near You (part2)