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New OnLive Gaming Service Makes PC Upgrades Extinct

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In one of my regular visit to Kotaku recently, this item caught my attention. OnLive is a new video games on demand service that may just change the way you play PC games. The brainchild of Rearden Studios founder Steve Perlman, formerly of Atari, Apple, WebTV and more, and Mike McGarvey, formerly of Eidos, the technology looks to revolutionise the way computer games are brought home. Instead of spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on the latest video game hardware that will make games like Crysis playable at nearly maxed settings, let OnLive's servers handle the processing. All that's required is a low cost "micro console" or a low end PC and a broadband internet connection.

 

The concept is simple. Your controller input isn't going from your hand to the controller to the machine in front of you, it's going from your hand to the controller through the internet to OnLive's machines then back again as streamed video. Whether you're using a USB gamepad, Bluetooth wireless controller, or tried and true keyboard and mouse, the processing and output happens on OnLive's side, then is fed back to your terminal, with the game "perceptually" played locally.

 

Major publishers, including EA, THQ, Codemasters, Ubisoft, Atari, Warner Bros., Take-Two, and Epic Games have all expressed interest in this. Could this new way to play games revolutionise the industry. Will it have an impact on the massive market share currently occupied by our consoles like the Xbox 360 and PS3. Anyway, Kotaku have the full details.

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This sounds very interesting, although i can see lag being a real issue with streaming video.

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i can see lag being a real issue with streaming video.

First thoughts that came to me...

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Apparently, lag is not a problem....

 

What about lag, you say? OnLive's technology "incubator" Rearden Studios claims that its servers will deliver video feeds that have a ping of less than one millisecond. Its patented video compression technique is also advertised as blazing fast, with video compression taking about one millisecond to process.

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Yeah right. I'll believe it when I see it. :P

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Yeah. The server is only part of it. There will still be lag. It's impossible to prevent...

 

They're blowing smoke up your asses. This is probably one of the _worst_ ideas I've seen in a long time.

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Hmm, not like ISP are already made at heavy video on-demand traffic. What could possibly go wrong?!

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It'll be fine in some areas where they have nice big fat internet connections. But everywhere else. Nope.

 

But I can see it catching on, just not any time soon. :P

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Will such a new feature cause a lower demand of high end Nvidia and ATI graphics cards ?

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Well if the system took off, the only reason you'd get high end cards is if you were into video editing and such. Otherwise there wouldn't be much need for em', as all your gaming hardware would be their problem.

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Will such a new feature cause a lower demand of high end Nvidia and ATI graphics cards ?

Essentially yes. If this became the new way to play games it would be disastrous for the likes of Nvidia and ATI.

 

While I find this very interesting I just don't seeing becoming the way games are played. You will still be buying your games on DVD based media for a while yet. Hell, digital distribution will be even more wide spread by the time this new thing even becomes a blip on the radar.

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They couldn't. Not everyone has the bandwidth to support this and if it took off, ISPs would cap transfers even tighter than they already are. This isn't a very feasible idea to be quite honest.

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I guessed the only concern for this new concept is the lagging concern, especially those with low bandwidth.

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Its feasible but only in some places and in some countries. So it wouldn't be a very global thing. At best it would go off in some parts of the States and Europe, and parts of Asia. But everywhere else, lol.

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As a glimpse into the future, this approach seems likely.

Interactive broadcast tv basically... now we just have to wait for technology to catch up with the vision.

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Second Life sort of does this already. Data such as the collision/physics/interaction is processed on their servers, almost all object information and profile information is stored on their servers, and then streamed to the home client software.

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As a glimpse into the future, this approach seems likely.

Interactive broadcast tv basically... now we just have to wait for technology to catch up with the vision.

 

Its all down to the matter of cost.

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Interestingly enough, while browsing Kotaku, I read this little piece. It is OnLive defending its service:

 

Steve Perlman, one of the founders of the OnLive streaming video game service unveiled at last week's GDC, has defended the innovations powering the PC gaming service, dismissing articles calling the technology "unworkable" as "ignorant."

 

While Perlman used that term specifically in regard to a Eurogamer editorial—"Why OnLive Can't Possibly Work"—the outlet isn't the only one questioning whether OnLive can deliver high-definition, perceptually real-time video game experiences without a console or PC. He tells the BBC that critics have not yet used the system, nor do they understand the technology behind it.

 

"We have nine of the largest game publishers in world signed up," Perlman said. "They have spent several years in some cases actually going and reviewing our technology before allowing us to associate with their company names and allowing us to have access to their first-tier franchises."

 

But then, about a day later, this piece comes up. Crytek, the company that made the Crysis game and the Cry engine, said the Internet isn't ready.

 

Crysis developer Crytek reveals that they have done research into providing streaming game services like the ones Onlive is promising, only to conclude that the internet wouldn't be ready for them until at least 2013.

 

According to Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli, the company began research the potential of a service that allowed games played on high-end servers to be controlled remotely via an internet connection back in 2005, only to stop in 2007, having determined that such a service wasn't feasible yet.

 

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I still don't see it feasible by 2013. The way the ISPs are operating, caps are coming. Maybe companies that stream videos like OnLive, Google, etc, will lobby against caps but if they don't, caps will kill any idea like this. Not to mention that in many other countries that aren't America, caps are already and have been in place.

 

We can only hope while most of the ISPs here in America head towards caps, companies like Verizon will not cap anything and become the ISP leader. The other companies then might have to cave and take away caps to compete with companies like Verizon. But caps, traffic shaping, etc, all affect ideas and innovations like OnLive. This is why Net Neutrality is needed.

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Without caps, there isn't anything stopping some one from going through hundreds of gigs of bandwidth each month.

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I actually don't have a cap on my bandwith use :P

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