Older games? (registering and avalibility)

[dragonsowl]

I have read all the arguments for and against Onlive, and i really don't care for that debate. I am hopeful it comes out, as it would be amazingly awesome!

I do have one small inquiry though, what about older games? Does anyone know if they will even be posting them up on onlive? I have searched through all the media, video, interviews, and they never mention it, which scares me a bit.

I would automaticly switch to Onlive without any hesitation at all if they had a system where one could enter an access key for a game they had bought before, in a box, then play it anywhere on any machine.

If they didn't, I probably wouldn't get Onlive until a game came out that I really wanted to buy. I think most others would, so they wouldn't need to pay the monthely fee, and that would hurt Onlive business, and lead to its deteration, which i don't want to happen.

Sorry If im being incoherent, its 1:10 am here.

In short,

1) Anyone know if they will even have old games up for sale.

2) If they did, does anyone know if you could use the serial numbers to allow access to the games because it was already purchased (a bit like steam, where one can put up all the games they play on the client).

3) Your thoughts on this.

[Reykjavik]

That is a very good question. I doubt that you will be able to just punch in the serial number, or the product key or whatever; but it would be a huge mistake not to sell old games as well. If they have age of empire II, I would totally buy that for 20$

[rasmasyean]

I would guess so.

Look at Hulu and Jooste. They got shows so old there that you either never heard of...or will make you melt with nostalgia if your that age. That's the only way these 100 year copyright holders can still milk some drops of money out of age old archives because otherwise, no respectable network would play them.

How many stores are going to stock thier shelves with missle command? ;)
I'm sure that's a major reason why Atari is on that list. Oh gee, remeber the Atari days? lol

[Aph0ticShield]

Hey, it's up to the devs, but I heard that it is something they will not be specifically supporting or something like that. Hope that helps:D

[Alfrayer]

How old are you talking? I mean... I think they will put current generation games on the service dating back from 7th gen console releases (i.e. uploading the whole of EAs back catalogue). The serial code thing would never happen - but thats not too bad for me.

I however would love them to give us a full back catalogue of different systems but make the retro ones really cheap. If one person can play 1 full HD game on 1 server. One server would be enough to support ALL the people wanting to play a certain PS1 game for instance.. Lets make that about 10 PS1 games.

Square Enix are buying Eidos... Eidos were supporting OnLive... Square Enix might support OnLive... Anyone see where im going with this? Not only Final Fantasy 13 but a complete back catalogue, (From 7-12 since we never had any before 7 here in europe other than on re release).

[B1553r]

@Alfrayer

The problem with that is this... The game industry has new titles coming out all the time. They are gonna limit access to old titles because they want to sell the new titles. In a year or so, they will have games in all the major genras of gaming. Also, the micro-console concept means that the genras of PC gameing will possibly grow? I would love to play Soul Calibur 5 on a PC!!!! Or a Dynasty Warrior game where you can actually have thousands and thousands of soldiers on the field, instead of the cardboard cutouts that they use this generation.

Plus, you have the whole problem of the horrible long tail for games. Most video games make all the money they are ever gonna make in the first couple of months of release. I don't see this company back porting games the way Gametap did because... Well we already know that business model doesn't work.

So, they will probably have the games that they showed at GDC08 and forward. I wouldnt expect any backwards compat...

[rasmasyean]

@Alfrayer

The problem with that is this... The game industry has new titles coming out all the time. They are gonna limit access to old titles because they want to sell the new titles. In a year or so, they will have games in all the major genras of gaming. Also, the micro-console concept means that the genras of PC gameing will possibly grow? I would love to play Soul Calibur 5 on a PC!!!! Or a Dynasty Warrior game where you can actually have thousands and thousands of soldiers on the field, instead of the cardboard cutouts that they use this generation.

Plus, you have the whole problem of the horrible long tail for games. Most video games make all the money they are ever gonna make in the first couple of months of release. I don't see this company back porting games the way Gametap did because... Well we already know that business model doesn't work.

So, they will probably have the games that they showed at GDC08 and forward. I wouldnt expect any backwards compat...

I think the flaw in that thought is that you would assume that people would “settle” for playing old games if they want to play a new one. The internet allows you to order practically any game (i.e. ebay) and some at pretty good bargains. But people still play World of Warcraft and Call of Duty at the high prices.

I too have fired up an “emulator” even and played a couple of childhood memories…but that’s not something I do on a regular basis.

[B1553r]

rasmasyean,

The flaw in your thinking is that people can already play those games on cheap, probably came with their $500 computer video cards.

On live is about PREMIUM gaming, and doing things that could not be done before. Like play Crysis on the highest setting (which my 9800GT still will not do now with good fps) in a LAN party type environment.

It is about doing things that couldn't be done before now. Like a game with Gears Of Wars fidelity, but with user generated content like Second Life.

All the old games before 2007 or so, you can already play on your cheap off the shelf computer that you already have...

OnLive is about doing things that can't be done in the current system.

[rasmasyean]

rasmasyean,

The flaw in your thinking is that people can already play those games on cheap, probably came with their $500 computer video cards.

On live is about PREMIUM gaming, and doing things that could not be done before. Like play Crysis on the highest setting (which my 9800GT still will not do now with good fps) in a LAN party type environment.

It is about doing things that couldn't be done before now. Like a game with Gears Of Wars fidelity, but with user generated content like Second Life.

All the old games before 2007 or so, you can already play on your cheap off the shelf computer that you already have...

OnLive is about doing things that can't be done in the current system.

No it's not about that. It's about playing games via content delivery and joining a community while doing so. The clips you see in the conference where just their RL "brag clips" for marketing purposes and demonstrates the potential of the offering. You think Atari is in it just to deliver all thier "premium HD supergames"? Don't be surprised if pokemon makes it to one of these types of services. I don't think they need a supreme graphics engine to play those games.