Ed
04-16-2009, 02:53 PM
Article From: http://www.examiner.com/x-8134-SF-Gadgets-Examiner~y2009m4d15-OnLive-may-decide-gaming-industry-future (http://www.examiner.com/x-8134-SF-Gadgets-Examiner%7Ey2009m4d15-OnLive-may-decide-gaming-industry-future)
OnLive may decide gaming industry future
April 15, 4:10 PM
OnLive: Become familiar with this logo.
Think back to the days when gaming consoles were first introduced to the world. I vividly remember receiving the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System, for the gaming impaired) for Christmas and discovering that this little box would soon eat up quite a bit of my childhood.
From this little rectangular piece of hardware I was able to make things appear on my screen that I could control with the press of a button and boy, was that exciting. I also remember several instances where my face probably appeared blue as I tried to blow on the cartridges to make them work. My, how far we have come.
Fast-forward to the present and we now have ‘boxes’ that serve our gaming livelihood in more ways than an 8 megabyte pixel changing into a raccoon to fly or jumping on top of a flagpole to complete a level. We have consoles that serve as a gateway into a world of media and networking that, as a child, I never thought to be possible. Better yet, we have computer’s that serve as an even greater portal into discovering this beautiful digital world.
For a lot of us, our PC’s serve as a way to communicate with the world, do our taxes, watch movies and so on. For others, they also serve as gaming behemoth’s, a collection of hard drives, processors and graphics cards that let us play our videogames at the highest possible performance level against competition all over the world. But what about everybody else? You know, the people with a love for videogames but a PC that can barely run solitaire. Computer hardware isn’t cheap, and I know a fair share of people that shun PC gaming because it costs too much to run the high end newer games that are coming out on a regular basis. Well, my friends, the day that you exchange your controller for a keyboard and a mouse might actually have arrived. (You can use a controller for those who refuse to give them up.)
Steve Perlman, the guy who helped developed QuickTime and WebTV , and his team over at OnLive have secretly over the past 7 years, created something that may or may not revolutionize how we play our videogames.
OnLive is a service that brings all the high end videogame content to your PC, Mac or TV regardless of your hardware set up. Over a simple home broadband connection, users will be able to play the games they have always wanted to without heavy downloading or installation times. This little black box only needs an internet connection (a fast one is recommended, but 56k is all but extinct and DSL is becoming obsolete) and you are set to not only play games, but to compete against others around the world. No ridiculous graphics cards, no need for 8 gigabytes of memory and more importantly, if you wish, no need for a controller ever again.
I know of course, that this will probably not sit well with the masses. A majority of people are still comfortable with their home consoles but I believe that they will eventually be swayed when they realize they don’t need a ridiculously upgraded computer to access their favorite games.
Think about it.
No more CD’s that you accidentally left out getting scratched and becoming useless.
No need to obsessively organize your game collection onto shelves in your living room proclaiming your nerdiness to the world.
And most importantly, no more spending hordes of money on computer parts that will become obsolete the day you buy them. That little gray box that gave me so much happiness as a kid is now a thing of the past. A sleek, black box called OnLive is now, the thing of the future.
(I will be frequently updating my page with upcoming developments, so stay tuned).
OnLive may decide gaming industry future
April 15, 4:10 PM
OnLive: Become familiar with this logo.
Think back to the days when gaming consoles were first introduced to the world. I vividly remember receiving the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System, for the gaming impaired) for Christmas and discovering that this little box would soon eat up quite a bit of my childhood.
From this little rectangular piece of hardware I was able to make things appear on my screen that I could control with the press of a button and boy, was that exciting. I also remember several instances where my face probably appeared blue as I tried to blow on the cartridges to make them work. My, how far we have come.
Fast-forward to the present and we now have ‘boxes’ that serve our gaming livelihood in more ways than an 8 megabyte pixel changing into a raccoon to fly or jumping on top of a flagpole to complete a level. We have consoles that serve as a gateway into a world of media and networking that, as a child, I never thought to be possible. Better yet, we have computer’s that serve as an even greater portal into discovering this beautiful digital world.
For a lot of us, our PC’s serve as a way to communicate with the world, do our taxes, watch movies and so on. For others, they also serve as gaming behemoth’s, a collection of hard drives, processors and graphics cards that let us play our videogames at the highest possible performance level against competition all over the world. But what about everybody else? You know, the people with a love for videogames but a PC that can barely run solitaire. Computer hardware isn’t cheap, and I know a fair share of people that shun PC gaming because it costs too much to run the high end newer games that are coming out on a regular basis. Well, my friends, the day that you exchange your controller for a keyboard and a mouse might actually have arrived. (You can use a controller for those who refuse to give them up.)
Steve Perlman, the guy who helped developed QuickTime and WebTV , and his team over at OnLive have secretly over the past 7 years, created something that may or may not revolutionize how we play our videogames.
OnLive is a service that brings all the high end videogame content to your PC, Mac or TV regardless of your hardware set up. Over a simple home broadband connection, users will be able to play the games they have always wanted to without heavy downloading or installation times. This little black box only needs an internet connection (a fast one is recommended, but 56k is all but extinct and DSL is becoming obsolete) and you are set to not only play games, but to compete against others around the world. No ridiculous graphics cards, no need for 8 gigabytes of memory and more importantly, if you wish, no need for a controller ever again.
I know of course, that this will probably not sit well with the masses. A majority of people are still comfortable with their home consoles but I believe that they will eventually be swayed when they realize they don’t need a ridiculously upgraded computer to access their favorite games.
Think about it.
No more CD’s that you accidentally left out getting scratched and becoming useless.
No need to obsessively organize your game collection onto shelves in your living room proclaiming your nerdiness to the world.
And most importantly, no more spending hordes of money on computer parts that will become obsolete the day you buy them. That little gray box that gave me so much happiness as a kid is now a thing of the past. A sleek, black box called OnLive is now, the thing of the future.
(I will be frequently updating my page with upcoming developments, so stay tuned).