With Gaikai's technology, as is probably planned for the Xbox Cloud, or whatever it will be called, allows gameplay by streaming the content from the cloud servers. That allows most of the heavy lifting to be done by remote computers and the client itself can remain agile, if you will.
Thus for example smartphones and tablets are able to provide gameplay that otherwise wouldn't be accessible with performance levels provided with mobile technology. Sony calls this feature PlayStation Now.
Nvidia believes in the same type of future as well. Their service, called GeForce NOW, is currently looking for beta testers for Mac, and is available for PC users as well.
Microsoft's Kareem Choudhry says they are looking to bring entertainment to all 2 billion future gamers, no matter the platform.