OnLive to make your PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii obsolete?
Many of us have long held out hope of an end to the consoles wars in favor of one universal console. Not everyone loves the idea but most can at least see the benefits. OnLive may be about to make that dream come true, but instead of using the power of a console, uses cloud computing instead, delivering games over the Internet in real time.
The Internet is now more important to gamers than ever. No, not because it enables you to read Blorge (although that is an added bonus) but because online gaming is a huge part of the experience. OnLive takes the idea of playing online one stage further by not only allowing a multiplayer experience but also a single player experience using nothing but a Broadband connection.
In essence, OnLive delivers games to a computer or television directly from servers, eschewing the need for any kind of hardware in the home. Think of how we now stream movies and watch them at the same time and imagine the same thing happening with video games.
The games would never be downloaded, being streamed and played from a dedicated server. It would turn hardware from being the defining element of a generation to an obsolete relic fit only for a museum. Nice idea, as I’m sure you’ll agree, but how the hell is it even possible?
VentureBeat has the full scoop, but essentially the data needed for each video game would be computed on powerful servers and then delivered to you in real-time, rather than the current model of being delivered to you and then computed by whichever piece of hardware; PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, that you have in your home.
The idea is made workable by two things: powerful compression technology allowing masses of data to be delivered over the Internet, and faster Broadband connection speeds. OnLive is able to compress data 200-fold and deliver it via Broadband running at at least 1.5 mbps. That speed enable standard definition play, with 720p requiring a 5 mbps connection and 1080p requiring 10 mbps.
At the user’s end, any kind of PC will do the job, so long as it is running Windows XP or Vista. There will also be a set-top box available which will hook up to a television and do the job your console currently does. The difference being it will merely act as a conduit for the games to be delivered via the Internet rather than being anything special in its own right.
OnLive has many benefits over the system we currently have. Rather than needing to issue a patch to every game, just one patch would be required. Piracy would become a thing of the past with no hard copy to pirate. Games developers would see more of the money from sales due to retailers being completely taken out of the equation. And most obvious of all, consumers would never have to buy another piece of hardware again as the system would be 100 percent future-proof.
This sounds too good to be true, but OnLive is promising to silence the doubters when it demos the system at GDC 2009 this week. Electronic Arts, THQ, Take-Two Interactive, Codemasters, Eidos, Atari, Warner Bros., Epic Games, and Ubisoft have all already agreed to distribute their games through the service. If successful, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo could even follow suit. After all, consoles are notoriously unprofitable with all profits coming from the software.
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29 Responses to “OnLive to make your PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii obsolete?”
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March 24th, 2009
hahahahahah
sigh…
well.. back to work…
March 24th, 2009
This is the way it’s all probably gonna go, but this thing is at least two generations ahead of its time.
March 24th, 2009
Hate the idea…..what happens when servers go down, ISP’s go down ect,etc. What happens when you change ISP’s and there is a waiting period for them to activate your line……no gaming in the mean time. Crap idea.
I like having the media local so I can play, when ever I want and know that I can play without worrying about drop outs and so fourth.
March 24th, 2009
I think its just too soon for this.
I posted this on IGN, but if you take an average gamer who plays maybe 3 hours a night and 4 hours a night on weekends at 720p (because if you’re a PC gamer you wouldn’t want to downgrade to 480p now would you?) , then you use about 135gigs of bandwidth a month.
That is a alot of bandwidth, shaw cable caps me at 100GB/month but has never chased me up when I went over it, I know some ISP’s are not so friendly however.
On top of this, I believe that the ‘lag free’ gaming that they showed at GDC would take a massive dump once they host this thing in the center of the US and someone on either coast tries to play it with a nice 150ms ping to the server…
I guess we will see, but one thing that comes to mind is the Phantom (a different kind of service of course). Look how it turned out.
March 25th, 2009
Sounds great but it will kill jobs. I’m not for job killing. Technology sometime is not the greatest thing because it ruins lives.
March 25th, 2009
Nothing will ever make the Game Cube…. Err… I mean Wii obsolete!
March 25th, 2009
Barnabe your probably right about that is The Wii offers something different.
March 25th, 2009
“…something different than video games.”
That was the rest of your sentence, right CAD?
-Arvis
March 25th, 2009
Who wants a monopoly on video consoles?
I pay enough now.
March 25th, 2009
I was talking about the Motion control aspect. By the way the 360 is getting Motion Control this fall. It was announced at GDC. The PS3 will get one next year.
March 25th, 2009
CAD,
Please tell me you’re joking… *weeps*
-Arvis
March 25th, 2009
Take it from someone who owns a Wii.
Motion control is over rated.
Its not as good as you think its going to be, and ‘waggle’ controls within games are general lame. They’re only really handy if you in a REALLY lazy mood and can’t be bothered to stretch your finger to press a button, then you can just waggle to remote. Tilt control is a little better and actually has a few applications, but again, over rated as it has a delay and doesn’t seem very precise…
March 25th, 2009
Arvis no I’m not.
Just add the www
crunchgear.com/2009/03/25/wiimote-like-xbox-360-controller-coming-this-fall-ps3-version-next-year/
March 25th, 2009
*weeps profusely*
My gaming… my beloved gaming…
Hopefully nobody buys it. Come on Xbox fans! Boycott that stupid Wii controller!
-Arvis
March 25th, 2009
I forgot to add that the IR capability is nice…
March 25th, 2009
That’s going to chew my bandwidth like a motherfucker.
March 25th, 2009
Thats not the only thing you chew like a mofo ….. soggy sayo’s come to mind ….. lol
March 25th, 2009
They’re not chewey, you can eat that shit with a straw.
March 26th, 2009
dont fret people… its exclusive to north america… for now… I signed up for the beta…
March 26th, 2009
Eeeeeeewwww !!!!!
March 26th, 2009
Um… CAD the sixaxis is motion controlled. Welcome to the party.
March 26th, 2009
Really Barnabe, I wonder why I did not know that…..DUUUUHHHHHH.
March 26th, 2009
Personlly I think and hope the Motion Control will be perfect for Shooter.
March 26th, 2009
On the rails shooters are so early 90s. If you’re lucky you’ll get a breast jiggling mini game like MGS4 had.
March 26th, 2009
They would need to set it up like metroid prime. Where by ‘looking’ is achieved by targetting the edges of the screen.
March 26th, 2009
…which is annoying to anyone who’s played any shooters…
-Arvis
March 26th, 2009
Well, I’m not saying its great control. In my onpinion analgue sticks don’t work for first person shooters either, give me a mouse any day of the week.
The system does work for metroid prime but only because its augmented with the lock on system.
March 27th, 2009
I hope not.
I have a wii and it needs to stay there and not on my PS3. Six Axis is nothing like the wiimote.
March 27th, 2009
Ah, ncaissie, I see you decided to come back after all. I knew you couldn’t stay away! =)
-Arvis