OnLive - Say goodbye to consoles and graphics cards

[gokuDX7 2,871]

Not sure if anyone else saw the OnLive Keynote at Game Developer Conference 2009 but I'm really impressed. I might actually use this as apposed to upgradding my PC anymore or buying a next next gen console.

In staid of writing a wall of text explaining what it is I'll just do a quick Q&A type thing.

What's OnLive?

In short it allows you to play video games "on demand" via your browser by streaming them.

Why should I care?

- You can play the latest video games the second they're publicly released without having to reserve them.

- You will never need to buy a game console or upgrade your computer's GPU again. Yes you heard me right, you can play top of the line games on a shitty computer that's using a graphics card from 5 years ago.

- Try the game before you buy it. OnLive allows you to try any of the games in a demo form before you decide to buy them.

Hows it work?

By using a computer (currently just PC or Mac) or TV (using their little micro console) you connect to their cluster of servers via a web browser. When you find a game you like just click play and it opens up in your browser. The great thing is there's no downloading or installing involved. When you play a game it streams in real time via your browser so obviously this whole system is meant for people with high speed Internet (DSL, Cable, Fiber..etc) which most of us have.

Is it out yet?

It's in private beta right now but they plan to release it sometime this winter. You can sign up for beta on their site.

Their site: http://www.onlive.com/

Heres some videos

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nZfEWYt1fA]YouTube - GDC 2009: OnLive (PART 1/6) [What is OnLive?][/ame]

Crysis running on a shitty laptop

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Lqkz5UJHbY]YouTube - GDC 09: OnLive Video Gemo - Crysis[/ame]

[Camron 1,058]

Old news, but still interesting. I'm curious how well this will work in practice.

It's a great idea but from the reviews I heard there was noticeable lag. But it does work for the most part. -- I'd like to see this idea of cloud computing really take off. They'll need the funds to build well located computer farms to reduce the lag as much as possible though and if it doesn't get off the ground quickly then it might fade away..

[Eppy 3,446]

yeah it is pretty old news...known about it for about a year now....its a nice idea but i dont see it happening/working for atleast another 5 years if it doesnt fall to pieces

[Kite 3,263]

wont that eat Bandwidth??

[Myk JL 1,731]

I don't know whether to be excited or disappointed with Cloud Computing. Sure it'll reduce, if not eliminate piracy. But I'm just too use to owning my electronic media. In what shape or form do we even own these games if buy them? Or does the whole gaming industry turn into some kind of rental service?

Other than Onlive I had heard of Otoy where it stated it used Cloud Computing to play a Xbox 360 Game on a handheld device.

I think PS4 might be my last console... Guessing that the next Xbox uses Cloud Computing... & Nintendo does... well what ever Nintendo does.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

An interesting concept. It still leaves out everyone that doesn't have high speed internet. Which a lot of people still don't surprisingly. Even those that do, the up and down speeds are capped, and don't always provide the most reliable gaming experience. It definitely is the future of gaming though.

Myk JL is correct, Microsoft wont come out and fully admit it, but their goal for XBL is to become a service much like OnLIVE.

I personally like the way gaming is now. I wouldn't want to pay a monthly fee (which I am sure will be the case with OnLIVE) to play games, when I don't have time to play games every month. The games I play regularly like Call of Duty have lasted me 1-2 years and I payed a one time fee for them. Thats just the kind of gamer I am though.

[Kite 3,263]

A lot of people suffer from internet congestion where speeds nose dive at peak hours and the tech support are in India and don't know the difference between uploading and horse riding

with shitty upload you lagg to hell, even with an 8mb download

WoW used to lag a lot for me even with a great graphics card because my upload is capped to 0.3mb

[gokuDX7 2,871]

An interesting concept. It still leaves out everyone that doesn't have high speed internet. Which a lot of people still don't surprisingly. Even those that do, the up and down speeds are capped, and don't always provide the most reliable gaming experience. It definitely is the future of gaming though.

Myk JL is correct, Microsoft wont come out and fully admit it, but their goal for XBL is to become a service much like OnLIVE.

I personally like the way gaming is now. I wouldn't want to pay a monthly fee (which I am sure will be the case with OnLIVE) to play games, when I don't have time to play games every month. The games I play regularly like Call of Duty have lasted me 1-2 years and I payed a one time fee for them. Thats just the kind of gamer I am though.

There's actually three methods to the pay process.

1) Monthly fee for the service (which they are reconsidering since most people are rejecting the idea).

2) You can rent a game for x number of days for a low price. Any progress you make in the game will be saved on their servers so if you ever buy or rent the game again you can pick back up where you left off.

3) You can buy the game for the same price as what you would pay in the store. Some games are close to free due to their age.

So sure, you can still "own" a game. You just wont own a physical copy of it. I'd much rather own a physical copy too but I think their method of payment is pretty reasonable.

As for the lag, there hasn't been any complains in the beta testing about lag. At least not from the people that are within the US. Since OnLive doesn't have any overseas clusters yet it's obvious that anyone in the beta that's not in the US would notice substantial lag.

Oh and as for bandwidth. OnLive can run on just 1mb down and 756kb up so people using DSL or in the middle of peak hours shouldn't have that big of a problem.

I think if they keep the service free it may become something big.

Edited July 25, 2009 by gokuDX7

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

As for the lag, there hasn't been any complains in the beta testing about lag. At least not from the people that are within the US. Since OnLive doesn't have any overseas clusters yet it's obvious that anyone in the beta that's not in the US would notice substantial lag.

Oh and as for bandwidth. OnLive can run on just 1mb down and 756kb up so people using DSL or in the middle of peak hours shouldn't have that big of a problem.

I think if they keep the service free it may become something big.

Thats just it. There are rarely lag problems in beta testing for anything. It never is a problem until the masses start using it. As with ever new service, it will have its problems upon initial launch. How they are able to deal with it is the key.

[Kite 3,263]

a lot of companies dont offer unlimited bandwidth / download data

wont this eat through bandwidth?

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

a lot of companies dont offer unlimited bandwidth / download data

wont this eat through bandwidth?

Hmm, I wonder what the ratio is between unlimited to limited nationwide. I was under the impression that the overwhelming majority of people had access to unlimited. I know I have unlimited bandwidth.

[gokuDX7 2,871]

I have Comcast and they recently put a 250GB/month cap on everyone. Downloading anime (normally 350mb big each, 6 eps a day) daily and host a pretty big web server is barley enough to even hit 100GB/month for me. I doubt people will have much of a problem as long as they have a cap as big or bigger then 100GB. For the rest I fear they will probably be screwed.

@[ame=http://forums.ancientclan.com/member.php?u=4]DeathscytheX[/COLO"]Ancient Clan Forums - View Profile: DeathscytheX@@AMEPARAM@@View Profile: DeathscytheX</title>@@AMEPARAM@@DeathscytheX[/ame] - ya we wont know how well OnLive will work till the beta is over. I hope their new method of utilizing bandwidth really works. If it does it could mean a lot for streaming video sites.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

If it is indeed a success, this is the very thing PC gaming needs as its savior. But at the same time it will be a crushing blow to price gouging companies such as Alienware.

[Dubird 6,815]

There's also the problem of cable or high speed not being avalaible in all areas, espically rural areas. Hell, at work we have DSL because cable isn't an option and FIOS is still too expensive at the moment. My uncle lives in a little town about an hour away from any decently-sized town, and all he can get is dial-up. Which would mean he's screwed because he plays a lot of console games. The idea is good in concept, I just don't think it's viable for the entire market at this point in time, not to mention countries overseas that won't be able to use it due to limited connections or what have you.

[Kite 3,263]

i agree with Dx, PC gaming needs this or it will die,

currently PC gaming is only good for MMO's and RTS imo,

[gokuDX7 2,871]

If it is indeed a success, this is the very thing PC gaming needs as its savior. But at the same time it will be a crushing blow to price gouging companies such as Alienware.

Not necessarily. I'm pretty sure Alienware put the nail in their own coffin already. I don't know anyone that buys Alienware anymore. Their prices are far to high for something you could build for a fraction of the price. That's pretty much what everyone is doing now. They buy one system and just keep upgrading the graphics card and ram.

@Dubird - I already mentioned that OnLive runs on as little as 1mb down 756kb up. DSL supports that and above, so people using it shouldn't have a problem. Really the only thing people have to worry about is bandwidth caps and throttling.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

Even then, the price of the hottest new cards are outrageous. It will definitely cause a stir in the market for computer parts.

[Camron 1,058]

Did you just invest in this gokuDX7? Im just curious. I just get the impression that you're trying to defend/promote it like you have some personal stake in it.

as for computer parts.. they've been on the fall for years now. (Which is why I lost my job.) We've reached a point where people don't actually need too much raw power for their home machines. Most people could get by with a netbook...

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

Personally, I'm not stoked or even really on board with this idea. I did all the research during GDC this year (by reading, had a chance to go but could not afford the tickets or hotel. Going next year though). I think this is a bad move and will cause more harm to game companies then good (my personal take as my future depends on the current state of the industry) and would be a pretty major blow to the industry (I'm a console gamer and I really don't want to see consoles disappear yet, the industry thrives on the competition between rival console companies which this effectively kills). My real beef is the fact that it kills physical copies, which I prefer to have over digital (I always keep digital copies of my games as well but I prefer physical over digital). Digital is far easier to corrupt if you don't watch yourself (yes, physical copies are easy to destroy/harm but I prefer them).

I'm curious to see how this will play out though. In the long run this is a good thing for PC gaming, it's needed something to bring it back to the forefront (I agree with Kite, PC gaming really only shines with MMO's and RTS's). In retrospect it could kill the console industry if it actually does get off the ground (which part of me doubts, theres quite a bit that could go wrong down the line) which I don't want to see happen, as both a console gamer and someone who's livelihood will be determined by the beast in a year or so. Time will tell but I really don't like what OnLive has to offer.

[Camron 1,058]

I think FPS is still better on the PC. Keyboard and mouse win.

Consoles have USB ports though.. so what the f?

[Kite 3,263]

this will help eliminate piracy which is massive for PC games

[Sledgstone 8,672]

I could see this working, but at the same time I don't. The amount of game servers they'd need to run would be huge. Its one thing with MMOs, everyone's computers are running a good chunk of the game, but this will have all the processing power running on the game servers. If enough people sign up for their service, they would need shit tons of game servers in different locations of the world for optimal performance. And my internet is time warner road runner. I can only imagine my internet speed once all my neighbors or all the gamers in the city all hook up to onlive. My internet speed will drop to a crawl as will everyone elses. This would then give TW or other ISPs an excuse to raise prices or cap everyone.

Hmm, I wonder what the ratio is between unlimited to limited nationwide. I was under the impression that the overwhelming majority of people had access to unlimited. I know I have unlimited bandwidth.

I think the majority of the countries in the world all have caps or limited bandwidth. I remember reading something about how the U.S. is one of the few countries where bandwidth is 'unlimited' and needs to be reigned in... and thats why Time Warner was going to dick everyone with Road Runner until the masses overwhelmed them with complaints and hate mail.

There's also the problem of cable or high speed not being avalaible in all areas, espically rural areas. Hell, at work we have DSL because cable isn't an option and FIOS is still too expensive at the moment. My uncle lives in a little town about an hour away from any decently-sized town, and all he can get is dial-up. Which would mean he's screwed because he plays a lot of console games. The idea is good in concept, I just don't think it's viable for the entire market at this point in time, not to mention countries overseas that won't be able to use it due to limited connections or what have you.

Once BPL (broadband over power lines) is finished, high speed internet should be available just about everywhere.

Did you just invest in this gokuDX7? Im just curious. I just get the impression that you're trying to defend/promote it like you have some personal stake in it.

lmao. X'D

[Myk JL 1,731]

Once BPL (broadband over power lines) is finished, high speed Internet should be available just about everywhere.

I had completely forgotten about BPL... Once I no longer lived away from cable Internet I think I started wondering about Fiber Optic Internet.

[Kite 3,263]

most unlimited policies have a fair usage policy,

generally though peak hours means my internet nose dives, i cant play wow properly, and im running most of the stuff off my HD, it might need only 1mb,

but ther are times my net slows to slower then dialup........... (currently on 8mb)

ill be moving house soon and gettin 24mb

[gokuDX7 2,871]

Did you just invest in this gokuDX7? Im just curious. I just get the impression that you're trying to defend/promote it like you have some personal stake in it.

as for computer parts.. they've been on the fall for years now. (Which is why I lost my job.) We've reached a point where people don't actually need too much raw power for their home machines. Most people could get by with a netbook...

Na, but I probably will if I start to see this become popular once it goes public. I'm not really defending it per say. If it ends up sucking then I'll be the first to say it . I just like the idea and support it right now. If they can keep the service free I'm all for it. If not then I'll probably never use it.