Ed
04-15-2009, 05:02 PM
Article From: http://tigerweekly.com/article/04-15-2009/10937
OnLive could change gaming as we know it
By Ryan Burns
Let's say you don't own a PS3, 360, Wii or a PC good enough for gaming, but you still want to play some of the incredible games that have been released for those systems. Usually you'd be out of luck. Not if OnLive, Inc. has anything to say about it. The way they see it, you never needed any of them in the first place.
OnLive, Inc. is producing a console that bears the same name as the company, and will deliver brand new games on-demand. Which games are available depends on which developers use OnLive to distribute their games.
For PC users who run XP or Vista, as well as Intel-based Mac users, OnLive will allow gamers to use "entry level" machines to play games that normally have astronomical system requirements. A tiny 1 megabyte plugin for a browser is all it takes to run the games offered through a computer. For example, using OnLive, a very basic PC or Mac can play Crysis, a game wildly hailed as having insanely high system requirements.
"You can run any game that is made available on the platform by the publisher, so it's certainly very easy to take a PC title for a publisher and a couple weeks of work and make it run on OnLive," said Steve Pearlman, President and CEO of Onlive, Inc. in an interview at the 2009 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
"It's also not difficult to port over an Xbox 360 game, maybe just a little more difficult to port over a PS3 game. And then once on the service, it runs the same games on a PC, Mac or a television seamlessly [...] They all run just as well as they would on a totally tricked-out gamer PC, 'cause that's what's really running the service, on all of the platforms."
The way it is possible to play new games without a console works like this: Users pay an initial activation fee to use OnLive, then other fees depending on what they want to do. If they want to play a demo, it will be free, if the want to "rent" a game, there will be a set price, and so on.
Games are not downloaded; they originate from OnLive's servers, which Pearlman says are so advanced they will not lag. The servers send the game to users in tiny increments, and the user's input is sent back. This happens so fast that it is, according to Pearlman, as if the game were running at home. This also means it is impossible to play a game without a broadband connection, and users never own a physical copy of the game.
The actual console is a small, unassuming black box that hooks into a TV, PC or Mac. It comes with two USB ports for connecting a keyboard and mouse, or controllers if the user is playing through a TV. Pearlman stated that any controller that would work on a PC would be usable through OnLive. OnLive, Inc. will also sell wireless controllers, which allow up to four players at once.
OnLive already has nine well-known companies that have joined the service. Since OnLive, Inc. is a third-party company competing with the established "big three" in the gaming world (Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo), do not expect first party games like Mario or Halo to be on the list of available games for a while, if ever.
OnLive is an insanely ambitious project, and brags that it will be the "most powerful game system ever." It is scheduled for release this winter, with beta testing opening for the summer. After that, only time will tell if it's impact will be as big as its mouth.
OnLive could change gaming as we know it
By Ryan Burns
Let's say you don't own a PS3, 360, Wii or a PC good enough for gaming, but you still want to play some of the incredible games that have been released for those systems. Usually you'd be out of luck. Not if OnLive, Inc. has anything to say about it. The way they see it, you never needed any of them in the first place.
OnLive, Inc. is producing a console that bears the same name as the company, and will deliver brand new games on-demand. Which games are available depends on which developers use OnLive to distribute their games.
For PC users who run XP or Vista, as well as Intel-based Mac users, OnLive will allow gamers to use "entry level" machines to play games that normally have astronomical system requirements. A tiny 1 megabyte plugin for a browser is all it takes to run the games offered through a computer. For example, using OnLive, a very basic PC or Mac can play Crysis, a game wildly hailed as having insanely high system requirements.
"You can run any game that is made available on the platform by the publisher, so it's certainly very easy to take a PC title for a publisher and a couple weeks of work and make it run on OnLive," said Steve Pearlman, President and CEO of Onlive, Inc. in an interview at the 2009 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
"It's also not difficult to port over an Xbox 360 game, maybe just a little more difficult to port over a PS3 game. And then once on the service, it runs the same games on a PC, Mac or a television seamlessly [...] They all run just as well as they would on a totally tricked-out gamer PC, 'cause that's what's really running the service, on all of the platforms."
The way it is possible to play new games without a console works like this: Users pay an initial activation fee to use OnLive, then other fees depending on what they want to do. If they want to play a demo, it will be free, if the want to "rent" a game, there will be a set price, and so on.
Games are not downloaded; they originate from OnLive's servers, which Pearlman says are so advanced they will not lag. The servers send the game to users in tiny increments, and the user's input is sent back. This happens so fast that it is, according to Pearlman, as if the game were running at home. This also means it is impossible to play a game without a broadband connection, and users never own a physical copy of the game.
The actual console is a small, unassuming black box that hooks into a TV, PC or Mac. It comes with two USB ports for connecting a keyboard and mouse, or controllers if the user is playing through a TV. Pearlman stated that any controller that would work on a PC would be usable through OnLive. OnLive, Inc. will also sell wireless controllers, which allow up to four players at once.
OnLive already has nine well-known companies that have joined the service. Since OnLive, Inc. is a third-party company competing with the established "big three" in the gaming world (Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo), do not expect first party games like Mario or Halo to be on the list of available games for a while, if ever.
OnLive is an insanely ambitious project, and brags that it will be the "most powerful game system ever." It is scheduled for release this winter, with beta testing opening for the summer. After that, only time will tell if it's impact will be as big as its mouth.