Yep, his friend's PC would be doing most of the work.
Gaikai is a website you can play game demos (I think for 20/30 minutes each time, but you can play them over and over again.)
with the use of their network gaming PCs but the only problem is the lag and the quality just isn't the same as
actually having the game on your gaming PC.
It's fun for a rainy day, if you don't have a powerful PC or if you just want to try out some video games on max settings.
Try it out,
WARNING, contains 18+ rated games which require you to input your age.
http://gaikai.com