Onlive will be awesome. I'm a little skeptical
to see if they can keep the streaming live
without any lag once there are a zillion people
playing.
Ed - http://OnLiveFans.com
Streaming games players emerging from the clouds
Summary
OnLive threw the gaming world into a tizzy this last Tuesday, and since then other names started crawling out of the woodwork.
Topics
OnLive threw the gaming world into a tizzy this last Tuesday, and since then other names started crawling out of the woodwork.In case you haven't heard, OnLive just announced a subscription-based streaming games service. The company claims that by using either a web plugin, or their MicroConsole, you will be able to run the newest PC games at HDTV resolutions with no downloads, and all on the most pathetic of computer hardware. We have a detailed look at the service in our feature over here .
If that wasn't astounding enough, David Perry of Acclaim (formerly of Shiny Entertainment) runs out and says me too! His company, an outfit by the name of GaiKai, just popped into public existence. Apparently he was planning on holding out until E3. Gaikai offers a similar service, except without the MicroConsole aspect that OnLive has(or at least until Perry says they have a little box as well). GaiKai calls their service Streaming Worlds and it only requires a web browser with Flash installed.
Then, we spoke with Jules Urbach, CEO of OTOY and Lightwave. His company basically offers up cloud computing to the highest bidder. Essentially a mercenary computing outfit of sorts, that has the side benefit of being able to stream games as well. In our conversation with him, he stated that his company is in talks with publishers and a whole host of other outfits that want to use the service.
If you're confused, you're not alone. All of these companies have a ways to go before we see them at a consumer level. There's a million questions out there and few answers to go with them. Now I'm just waiting for Valve to announce that Steam will henceforth be known as Stream. We've still got one more day - it could happen.
This article was originally posted on GameSpot.
Talkback Most Recent of 9 Talkback(s)
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Edwhit27th Mar 2009 -
RE: Streaming games players emerging from the clouds
These companies make me even happier that I didn't build my high performance desktop for gaming, why install the games locally when I can play them anywhere, on anything. I think this is a technology that has been a long time coming.
aopiehl27th Mar 2009 -
RE: Streaming games players emerging from the clouds
The key is going to be who holds the cards for the ""wireless last-mile"".
00randy at gee male dot commmm
RandyFillat@...28th Mar 2009 -
I don't see how this is practical for the games of today
How fast broadband internet is in America? It's very slow here in the UK. Files download at a maximum of 700kbps for myself and I'm on a 8mbps connection.
On my computer...
Hitman is 4GB
Crysis is 6.5GB
even Sam & Max is 1.4GB
How is this viable to download every time?
Or ever bother to do? Why would we wait hours to play the game
Obviously with these games it will also have to run locally or else there would be serious lag
neonDog29th Mar 2009 -
It's streaming, not downloading
I'm not saying it will be practical because it's too early to know how well it will go. But they just stream video down to you and you stream your control input and maybe voice if you have chat up to their server. It's not like you are downloading the actual game. It's cloud, off site processing of the data and graphics, you just get the display and control part.
drakoes1st Apr 2009 -
RE: Streaming games players emerging from the clouds
It simple, the move by "Onlive" is perfect, it tells the big guys, like xbox, and wii, to stop stalling in order to milk the gamers, and finally provide the technology that has been available for years but has been with-held from the gamers. As long as this technology is suppressed from the gaming world, by phony excuses about limitations of the internet and broadband, they can just keep pumping out those consoles with little tidbit of improvements and a lot of accessories to upgrade them. The only thing that can keep "Onlive" from giving the gaming world what they have announced is Microsoft disinformation to discredit "Onlive". "Xboxlive" could have given us this 1 1/2 years ago, but that would have meant no further need for "Xbox360" nor whatever they have in the works to call the next console. Milk, milk, milk, hat all that microsoft has been doing with its console bull. This is why in the next couple of months, these guys will feel the whole weight of the console giants on them as they try to convince the gaming world that the technology is not available, until maybe 2 future consoles from now. If these guys from Onlive make it through this time and give us, the online gamers a multiplayer platform that takes the cheaters hand out of the equation, on-line play will be simply outstanding. So to Onlive, more speed to you and your endeavor, make the grave for the cheaters and consoles right next to each other. Peace.
oo7maverick29th Mar 2009 -
RE: Streaming games players emerging from the clouds
Looking forward to that! Can also recommend the combination with a pair of video glasses to increase the excitement level to extreme hights. I bought one pair at http://www.orangedwarf.com while some interesting stuff is offered at http://www.ckbody.com to make sure you do that in excellent shape and fitness!
With that combi I am ready for the next level.
Other interesting combo's?
Orangedwarf30th Mar 2009 -
RE: Streaming games players emerging from the clouds
Incredible. Cloud gaming just seems too good to be true, but 7 years of development is probably worth mentioning. Can't wait for OnLive.
-Alex
OnLive Info & Forum http://www.onlive1.com
alexbarbie30th Mar 2009 -
vaporware.
While is possible to mix online games and stream videos, but truly they will need a lot of horsepower to achieve it, and the only advantage is customer will not need to buy a (currently cheap) console and they will not need to purchase and/or download a game.
I think it will fail, not because it is or not possible but the business model.
magallanes31st Mar 2009
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