Ed
04-09-2009, 02:12 PM
Article From: http://www.mobile-phones.co.uk/news/mobile-phones/how-playstation-games-will-end-up-on-mobiles_M10163.html
How Playstation games will end up on mobiles
By Peter White (Thursday, 9th April 2009)
An entirely new way of running gaming services has emerged from one of the inventors of the Apple Mac, and it could mean that super powerful games could soon be played on your mobile handset. The idea is obvious but fraught with technical difficulties - don't run the game on your remote PC, laptop or handset – run it on a central server and just show a streaming video representation on your portable device and use the broadband nework for your controls.
So far the company, OnLive, which has just put its gaming system onto Beta test among US users, is only targeting low powered PCs, laptops and Macs, but will almost certainly begin targeting Wi-Fi attached handsets later such as the iPhone. Imagine playing Halo 2 or Doom on something as small as a touch screen phone or these new tiny Netbooks, which cellular operators are increasingly looking to offer.
The tricky part is making sure that your commands in game play get all the way back to a central server in real time, change what's happening on the server loaded game, which then renders the resulting video and sends it back to the remote device.
If this was coming from the latest VC powered wonder boy you might think that it is a non-viable flash in the pan, but this system from OnLive comes from non-other than one of the key designers of the Apple Mac and Quicktime - Steve Perlman, an entrepreneur that has stood the test of time, moving from his early Mac work to file 80 of his own patents, and he has worked at PDA company General Magic, helped put gaming companies like Sega and Nintendo online with multi-player games, and built and sold WebTV Networks to Microsoft. Somewhere in there he also contributed to set top company Moxi Digital. Perlman has been quietly working on this concept at OnLive for seven years of secret "stealth" development.
The OnLive web site promises game spectating on a massive scale with thousands, perhaps millions watching live and classic games; instant community on an epic scale; something called Brag clips, where you can record and show your friend that legendary game you claimed you played at 3.00 am in the morning; the ability to try new games before you buy them, watch top players demonstrate games and get your hands on any game instantly. All of this is now possible without any huge downloads, or any requirement to own a monster PC. There's no great installation process and yet you can play high performance high-octane games.
The idea is so simple we could laugh at it. The world has spent almost 20 years working out how to create online gaming, but almost everyone has tried to work out how to send co-ordinates and the various map positions of players in a 3D gaming scene, with 6 degrees of freedom. All of them required the downloading of huge virtual worlds, rapid networking and super fast graphic rendering - but no more. Since networks can already stream video, the system just does that - streams accurate real time video to each device, making a best effort delivery for its processor and connection. The game play itself can just draw power from a bank of central servers.
The effect is so stunning that we are not surprised that EA, Ubisoft, Take Two Interactive, WEB Games, Eidos, THQ and Atari (and a few others) have all signed to make games available for the OnLive system. And for them it is easy, a PC designed game can play on the central servers so there is not much development required.
In effect this is a rival to Xbox and PlayStation and Nintendo Wii and no-one had to spend $billions building a box and an infrastructure. The next and obvious step is to put this on a phone, and cellular operators might soon be selling subscriptions to this on online attached Netbooks.
OnLive games will need no physical packaging, no retailers, no downloads, no friction and no middlemen. You can't pirate the game either and the way OnLive has implemented it the game owner can create their own business model - advertising driven, subscription or pay per play – and change it on a whim, dynamically. Or they can leave it all to OnLive which will launch the OnLive Game Service through a monthly subscription this Winter.
The company will also sell a cheap hardware MicroConsole dedicated to playing these games on a TV set, but it will need nothing much more than a screen, a processor powerful enough to serve the screen, and have a broadband connection. Which is why it is just about the size of a small pack of cards - or as we say - a mobile phone.
How Playstation games will end up on mobiles
By Peter White (Thursday, 9th April 2009)
An entirely new way of running gaming services has emerged from one of the inventors of the Apple Mac, and it could mean that super powerful games could soon be played on your mobile handset. The idea is obvious but fraught with technical difficulties - don't run the game on your remote PC, laptop or handset – run it on a central server and just show a streaming video representation on your portable device and use the broadband nework for your controls.
So far the company, OnLive, which has just put its gaming system onto Beta test among US users, is only targeting low powered PCs, laptops and Macs, but will almost certainly begin targeting Wi-Fi attached handsets later such as the iPhone. Imagine playing Halo 2 or Doom on something as small as a touch screen phone or these new tiny Netbooks, which cellular operators are increasingly looking to offer.
The tricky part is making sure that your commands in game play get all the way back to a central server in real time, change what's happening on the server loaded game, which then renders the resulting video and sends it back to the remote device.
If this was coming from the latest VC powered wonder boy you might think that it is a non-viable flash in the pan, but this system from OnLive comes from non-other than one of the key designers of the Apple Mac and Quicktime - Steve Perlman, an entrepreneur that has stood the test of time, moving from his early Mac work to file 80 of his own patents, and he has worked at PDA company General Magic, helped put gaming companies like Sega and Nintendo online with multi-player games, and built and sold WebTV Networks to Microsoft. Somewhere in there he also contributed to set top company Moxi Digital. Perlman has been quietly working on this concept at OnLive for seven years of secret "stealth" development.
The OnLive web site promises game spectating on a massive scale with thousands, perhaps millions watching live and classic games; instant community on an epic scale; something called Brag clips, where you can record and show your friend that legendary game you claimed you played at 3.00 am in the morning; the ability to try new games before you buy them, watch top players demonstrate games and get your hands on any game instantly. All of this is now possible without any huge downloads, or any requirement to own a monster PC. There's no great installation process and yet you can play high performance high-octane games.
The idea is so simple we could laugh at it. The world has spent almost 20 years working out how to create online gaming, but almost everyone has tried to work out how to send co-ordinates and the various map positions of players in a 3D gaming scene, with 6 degrees of freedom. All of them required the downloading of huge virtual worlds, rapid networking and super fast graphic rendering - but no more. Since networks can already stream video, the system just does that - streams accurate real time video to each device, making a best effort delivery for its processor and connection. The game play itself can just draw power from a bank of central servers.
The effect is so stunning that we are not surprised that EA, Ubisoft, Take Two Interactive, WEB Games, Eidos, THQ and Atari (and a few others) have all signed to make games available for the OnLive system. And for them it is easy, a PC designed game can play on the central servers so there is not much development required.
In effect this is a rival to Xbox and PlayStation and Nintendo Wii and no-one had to spend $billions building a box and an infrastructure. The next and obvious step is to put this on a phone, and cellular operators might soon be selling subscriptions to this on online attached Netbooks.
OnLive games will need no physical packaging, no retailers, no downloads, no friction and no middlemen. You can't pirate the game either and the way OnLive has implemented it the game owner can create their own business model - advertising driven, subscription or pay per play – and change it on a whim, dynamically. Or they can leave it all to OnLive which will launch the OnLive Game Service through a monthly subscription this Winter.
The company will also sell a cheap hardware MicroConsole dedicated to playing these games on a TV set, but it will need nothing much more than a screen, a processor powerful enough to serve the screen, and have a broadband connection. Which is why it is just about the size of a small pack of cards - or as we say - a mobile phone.