MW: One concern is something that has kept the PC community so strong: mods. Will the games still have that capability?

LC: Well, it’s ultimately up to the publisher, but there’s no reason why not. The system allows for local file storage, and the nice thing is that it’s stored locally and on the cloud, so people can make modifications and it will be echoed. So you can make your own version of the game and then log on to somebody else’s system and play that version of the game. We’ve had talks like that with a number of developers, and there’s nothing to prevent people from allowing them.

MW: Do you think the way your system introduces a game by playing the first 30 minutes will kill demos?  

LC:  A demo is like a movie trailer. You show the best parts in order to give players something they would like. In a lot of ways demos and trailers are really big liars; you play the demo and love it, and when you pick up the game, you realize those were the only good parts and say, “Well, that was a big waste of my money”. But we’re allowing publishers to do it however they like. They can show you as little and as much as they would like, and we’re hoping they create content that will grab the player and that the market will decide what the best way is to go about it.

MW: Is the ultimate goal of this system to carry graphically heavy titles like Crysis and other big games?

LC: The system was designed specifically to deliver premium content through a browser to anyone who is capable of running it. And if you don’t, there is the fallback of the Gaikai system to still allow you to play it. It offers both solutions. My viewpoint is that we will have a large number of consumers who will want to play it natively on their machine using 100 percent of the power that they bought with that machine. Now, there will be people who don’t want to spend a ton of money on those large systems, and for them we’ll allow to play on a per-use basis. We support both models.

To that extent as well, we’re not an exclusive platform; anyone who wants to make a game for InstantAction can, and while there will be perks that exclusive publishers will receive -- something we hope to showcase soon -- you can bring your game over from any other platform.

MW: Are there any dates for a big, official launch?

LC: Well, right now a lot of the publishers we’re working with want to do closed trials to actually test the system and make sure we can handle their games. So we certainly don’t have any problem with doing that; I think it’s important. So I don’t have a date; that’s up to the publishers. As soon as they give us the green light, we’ll be good to go. It’s a bit more difficult to predict because it isn’t our own content, so we’re relying on the developers being completely ready.

The launch will be an incremental launch, and every title won’t be flooding the market all at once. It’s a big risk, and their games are their crown jewels; we want it to work perfectly and they want it to as well.

MW: Will publishers receive the full set of tools to use at launch?

LC: Definitely, absolutely. We will be happy to work with any publisher on our full suite of features and more as we add them into the system. What’s nice here is that we can constantly fix things on the game if something goes wrong through its lifespan. There’s no sense of “upgrading” when there’s a new version it will be ready to go for both the publisher and the players.

MW: Most platforms and games now have achievements or accolades of some sort; will InstantAction feature them as well?

LC: Absolutely. The system’s backend is already built to handle them, and the publishers can add them in. As far as meta-achievements -- how many games you’ve played, achievements you’ve earned -- we’ll have to have a library before we start work on that.

InstantAction has offline play, possible portable incarnations, and tons of interesting ideas and concepts that will hopefully be announced soon to the waiting public. If this system performs as admirably as Castle's admiration for it suggests, we could be looking at a new way to play our games without a lot of the fuss many developers have recently gotten bad press for.

I've got to say that I'm looking forward to the idea that I can bring my games (modified or not) with me anywhere there's a browser or a client. I also like the renting option, allowing someone with a near-archaic computer --or a Mac-- to play titles they would have never been able to otherwise. While I'll still be a bit skeptic until I see a solid lineup of games, the ideas surrounding it and what have been showcased so far do seem extremely promising.