We’ve seen more and more energy in the social and mobile games market, but if you’re looking for high-end games, you’ll still find them on consoles like the Xbox 360, mostly. A startup called Spawn Labs, which just debuted at the TechCrunch50 conference in San Francisco today, says it’s bringing the two worlds together.
The games themselves run on consoles like the Xbox and the Playstation 3, but you can play them on a computer with broadband Internet. For example, if you want to play your Xbox but someone else is watching television (stupid roommates!) no problem — you can just turn on your laptop and play that way. (Of course, the right DVD needs to be on the Xbox) Also, if you want to play a game with your friend, you could use Spawn Labs to give that friend access to your console, so they can play with you from their computer, even if they don’t own the game or even the console.
To a certain extent, the concept sounds similar to companies like OnLive, which let you stream technologically demanding games to your computer. But with OnLive the game is actually running on the company’s infrastructure, while Spawn Labs works on your own console, or your friends’.
Spawn Labs works through an appliance you attach to the console. The pricing for the appliance starts at $199.
Click here for more startup news coming out of the TechCrunch50 conference today.