Square Enix has just announced Project FLARE, a new way of delivering game content to users through the cloud by using super computers to create game worlds.
Streaming services like Onlive work by having console data centres miles away that process your input and send the video feed back to your device. Square Enix believes that older streaming services like this didn't work very well because the games that were offered weren't built in the cloud or even with the cloud in mind. Project FLARE aims to build game worlds on super computers and then offer each player a window into the same world rather than trying to re create the same world multiple times for multiple users. [yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb1aTkgbZPE']
This concept video shows off Deus EX Human Revolution running with a lot of in game objects around, this video is supposed to show off the enhanced physics capabilities and amount of in game objects that can be rendered. Getting more resources on the screen can give developers the opportunity to create massive fight scenes and in game events, Square Enix has said that with this technology they could create scenes as epic as those found in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
This project is still in the early stages of development so we won't be playing around with it any time soon. Square Enix currently only has Ubisoft as a partner but with this presentation the company hopes to get a few more. The company hopes to have a game built for this new technology and ready for beta testing in North America within the next 2 years.
Kitguru Says: We won't be seeing a finished product for quite a while but I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a few more demo's over the next year or two while games are starting to be developed. This technology could be quite exciting, what do you guys think?