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OnLive intends to take videogames out of your house
A new technology called OnLive is getting a fair amount of buzz at this week's Game Developers Conference. Think of it as a way to play games over the internet without actually having the games or even the hardware needed to run them. When you play a videogame, here's how it works: you send inputs via a game controller, they go into a console system or a PC where all that fancy hardware interprets your inputs, and then images are sent out to your television or monitor. You use the game controller according and send more input. It's a great feedback loop with you at one end and the hardware running the game at the other. What OnLive supposes is this: What if the console system or PC was located somewhere across the internet? What if you had only the two pieces you really need, the game controller and the monitor?
You might ask, "What's the point?" The creators of OnLive would answer something about how awesome it is that you wouldn't ever have to upgrade your computer, or you don't need to bother going to the store to buy a game, or you'll never have to put a disk in a drive again. They'll try to sell you on the money saved and the added convenience. But the real point of OnLive is that it gives total control over what's played and who's playing it to a third party. Don't be fooled by how this new technology is couched in terms of convenience to you. This is really built to be sold to publishers.
But is it even technologically feasible? Loyd Case's coverage on Extreme Tech offers a good overview. OnLive is scheduled to go into beta this summer and to launch by the end of the year.
By TH4T6UY at 11:08 AM ON 03/26/09
It seems like a cool idea in concept but I doubt the implementation will be all it's made up to be. I seriously doubt they'll be able to keep the system lag free. Also, I doubt the experience will be as good as it is playing at a well-built local machine. I remember seeing a video where they said they had to build the protocols and stuff, and as someone in IT I wonder what they did? And as this is "low latency video" they more than likely went with a connectionless "best effort" type of system, but, won't that allow for some form of error? Sure it's quicker, but it's not as reliable and will more than likely result in dropped frames and digital distortions and tearing. Also, with bandwidth caps becoming more and more popular with ISPs, I think they might have a shit fit about the amount of network utilization that this will cause. Streaming the video from a server farm to the client will undoubtedly 1. be expensive and intensive as far as maintaining said server farm and 2. be prohibitively priced due to that. It's an interesting idea but I can't see this making me throw out my consoles or make me stop upgrading my PC. I've got much more faith in a machine that I build and maintain than a machine that I can't see and that exists within the cloud.
By Pstonie at 12:42 PM ON 03/26/09
Thank you for saying that. This will be the perfect platform to milk the consumers with pay-per-play, because selling a product to someone just once is an ancient concept from an honest age long past.
By Lizard Dude at 7:04 PM ON 03/26/09
I like how they named the controller buttons.
By Mihos at 7:23 PM ON 03/26/09
The idea is novel, and I know digital distrobution is the future and all that... but I still prefer to own my games.
By Seanbtwo at 9:10 PM ON 03/26/09
AMEN! It's about time for gamers to be liberated from the wallet imploding cost of buying a new game system every few years - or even worse, if you play on a pc, constant never ending upgrades that cost way more than you can afford. Also, it's more than past time that those frakking used video game stores got theirs - they have been leeching off of the gaming public for too long; no more need to trade in games or consoles for barely any money or trade!
By TH4T6UY at 10:27 PM ON 03/26/09
Something else that just hit me about OnLive: You'll be paying a subscription to be able to have the service and then you'll pay to rent games? Seriously?
By TH4T6UY at 10:52 PM ON 03/26/09
Sorry, I just realized that I made a mistake, you can buy games, but you'll still pay a subscription fee to the OnLive service.
TH4T6UY:
Sorry, I just realized that I made a mistake, you can buy games, but you'll still pay a subscription fee to the OnL...More »