Crytek Taking on Onlive, Facebook with GFACE
Crytek is backing a small team of developers creating what seems to be a social platform that borrows from Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Xbox Live while adding the game streaming abilities of OnLive.
Crytek is taking on Steam, Skype, Onlive and Facebook in one swift fell swoop with the upcoming launch of a social platform called GFACE. Yes, that's really it's name thus far, geared for multiple devices, not just the PC, following OnLive's footsteps of supporting tablets and smartphones.
"Our mission is to design an innovative high quality social media publishing service. We are a small team with big ideas, but backed up by a well known critically acclaimed game studio: Crytek," the GFACE team states on the website. "We share not only technology and vision, but the commitment to deliver the highest possible quality."
GFACE will be based around friends lists and feature live video that will be embedded within the framework. It will also feature a drag-and-drop invite system similar to Battlefield's Battlelog, and a plug-in that allows users to stream PC games directly to their browser -- no external client or game installs required.
In sample images, GFACE shows one player on the PC playing in FPS mode as the soldier -- a live webcam feed of a tablet-based "commander" is seen to the left of the game screen. The Commander, playing the same game, also has a live webcam feed of the soldier. The mobile phone owner serving as air support doesn't see any live video feed, but merely the game screen. GFACE will consist of casual 2D games, casual 3D games. core 2D games and core 3D games.
In addition to the game streaming, users will be able to access GFACE friends lists and functionality while watching media, borrowing from Xbox LIVE. There are also tons of features similar to what we use on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter including Interest Groups and People Groups. To see a video demo of GFACE's Dropbar, head here.
GFACE is currently in closed beta, so stay tuned for more information. It's highly unlikely this will be a Facebook killer due to its seemingly overall gaming theme, but more of a contender to OnLive, Steam and others trying to establish a Facebook-like gamer community while also offering digital purchases.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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Parsian finally I know what that "GFace" logo is all about at the bottom of CryDev.net and mycrysis.com webpages.Reply -
NuclearShadow While I can see streaming services that are multi-platform being a huge part of our future, I simply cannot see it today due to bandwidth limitations. Media is also getting more and more demanding while the ISPs aren't doing much to resolve the issues that already exists.Reply -
Goldengoose NuclearShadowWhile I can see streaming services that are multi-platform being a huge part of our future, I simply cannot see it today due to bandwidth limitations. Media is also getting more and more demanding while the ISPs aren't doing much to resolve the issues that already exists.Home entertainment is definitely up to scratch. 5-6 years ago i remember aiming for a ping of around 120-180ms, anywhere between there was brilliant. Nowadays, loading LoL or playing an FPS i'll be seeing latency of around 30-40ms. Now your telling me there's been little to no improvement? I know i get a lot of downvotes from saying this in other comment sections, but i really do think onlive is a brilliant idea. True we all hate it as we see it as another desktop killer and i am included in the bunch who want to keep these machines alive but we can't stubbornly stand in the way of progress.Reply
On a separate note, they haven't got a chance of taking on steam, they have too many sales and have such a nice client i can't see anyone topping it.