OnLive Gaming Service
The GDG (Game Developers Conference) is going on this week and there are some exciting announcements coming out of it. Perhaps the most exciting for me is the announcement that OnLive is launching on June 17th of this year. If you don't know what OnLive is, I'll give a brief summary of the service now and you can go to their website to get all of the details.
http://www.onlive.com
OnLive is a cloud based gaming service that will allow its subscribers to play the latest and greatest games streamed to their PC, Mac, or to a mini-console connected to their TV. OnLive will handle the hardware for the games with the most powerful systems available, all you basically need is a good internet connection. OnLive says it will offer 1080p HD resolution running at 60 frames per second starting in 2011.
OnLive is a cloud based gaming service that will allow its subscribers to play the latest and greatest games streamed to their PC, Mac, or to a mini-console connected to their TV. OnLive will handle the hardware for the games with the most powerful systems available, all you basically need is a good internet connection. OnLive says it will offer 1080p HD resolution running at 60 frames per second starting in 2011.
The service will cost $14.95 per month. There is a promotion going on now that allows the first 25,000 qualified subscribers to get the first 3 months limited service for free. You'll still have to buy the games, the limited service just lets you have access to "demonstrations of games, user profiles, and community features, such as spectating and Brag Clips video capture and posting."
I am really pumped about this product because it will allow me to play games that I wouldn't have access to otherwise, particularly the new releases. I can demo games that don't have PC demos. It will also allow me to try out games that I wouldn't otherwise, like racing games or sports games.
Another great thing about this service is that my PC isn't that great but my internet connection is, so I can hopefully be able to play these high end games, like Crysis, seamlessly. No need to have a powerful computer when OnLive handles the processing for you (who am I kidding, the second I can afford it I'm going to buy a sweet high end PC gaming maching).
Here is the "mini-console" that connects to your TV.
A concern for me is that OnLive can't come through with their promise of providing seamless game play over the internet. My machine is choppy enough as it is, I don't need to be paying $15 per month to play more choppy games. I read a review a couple of months ago from a guy named Ryan Shrout from PC Perspective who got ahold of a beta subscription to OnLive (read it here). There were some real issues with lag during that review. OnLive specifically wrote a blog post to explain why there could be lag issues, particularly for people who weren't properly configured to play. I've seen other blogs refuting that beta review as well. I'm counting on OnLive to work out all the bugs for when it's go time for me.
Here's a fairly brief video from the CEO of OnLive giving more details and overall talking his product up.
I already pre-registered and am looking forward to seeing what OnLive has to offer. This may be the future of gaming. It may also kill the consoles or force them to take a radically different approach to gaming. I'm excited to find out.
