OnLive, the future of video games?

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"Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, look out. Your traditional video game console business model may be in danger.

It's too early to tell how much danger, of course, but a start-up called OnLive announced a brand-new game distribution system Monday night that, if it works as planned, could change the games game forever.

OnLive, which was started by WebTV founder Steve Perlman and former Eidos CEO Mike McGarvey, is aiming to launch a system--seven years in the works--that will digitally distribute first-run, AAA games from publishers like Electronic Arts, Take-Two, Ubisoft, Atari, and others, all at the same time as those titles are released into retail channels. The system is designed to allow players to stream on-demand games at the highest quality onto any Intel-based Mac or PC running XP or Vista, regardless of how powerful the computer.

The system will also stream games directly to a TV via a small plug-in device, and players can use a custom wireless controller as well as VoIP headsets in conjunction with it. "

Sounds promising. I can see Nvidia, ATI, Intel etc not being too pleased by this.

Rest of the article can be found here: http://news.cnet.com/onlive-could-threa ... 3-and-wii/

Heard about it a while back, I think it's an interesting idea, but I'm too much of a detail snob...I'd much prefer my videogames to not be artifact ridden streaming web videos @_@ Plus, I like being able to actually hold in my hands a physical copy of the games that I own. I mean, even with Steam, it doesn't really feel like I own the game.

I like the idea of getting to try out game demos without having to download and install them, though. A couple of gigs just to play one short level is ridiculous.

Heard about this a while back, it sounds interesting but the bandwidth and latency of people's internet connections are going to be the major limiting factor. Internet speeds at present are just nowhere near fast enough to provide high definition streaming video on par with the video output our current generation of consoles give. On top of that it might not be any cheaper than having your own hardware to run games on when you consider the costs of the subscription and the increased broadband costs associated with streaming HD video to your house for extended periods of time.

It's also going to take a massive initial investment for the developers of Onlive as they will need to purchase expensive computer hardware en masse, one computer setup for each user simultaneously online - the costs of having a top of the line graphics card alone for each user alone would be astronomical, especially when considering the need for them to continually update their hardware. And the costs of having enough space to store all these computer setups in.

Doesn't sound all that promising to me.

Doesn't even sound that workable, I have Windows XP, but could I run something like that? If I wish for my computer to come to a screeching halt, sure. 'Regardless of how powerful the computer' <sarcasam>So, my 10+/- year old Dell has a shot at running this?</sarcasm>. Good point about wanting to hold an actual copy of the game, and I have to worry about what kind of protection will be on those games. Not like anyone can simply run and download it, someone might reverse engineer it.

I would be rather sure that they can count shared connections and Wi-Fi out, the bandwidth strain would be crazy. Internet Video Compression is still being worked on, and most online videos don't look pretty. Heck, they only look semi legible. And the list of companies listed in the initial post worries me.

'Hey, Big Three Consoles. Don't worry about us for a good long while, we did not plan to work with every single variable, and having to work around that would kill the company from the start, so we will go and hit the window like a bird. Only loudly.'

I also like my games portable. If anything, down loadable pay license content and other downloads are still testing the waters with positive results. Streaming live/not live 3-D? Not so much.

'Your server bill has surpassed the U.S. Nation Debt. Congratulations.'
Enough shooting, this could work. In the future. Otherwise, my verdict is at the moment: Yeah right!

It will only cost around 40 or 50 dollars but there will be a subscription fee. I think Microsoft and Sony will establish some kind of partnership with the creators. By the way, they have done years of research into this and I believe it really will work. People in the 90's would have never believed that the 360 would have been capable...

It will only cost around 40 or 50 dollars but there will be a subscription fee. I think Microsoft and Sony will establish some kind of partnership with the creators. By the way, they have done years of research into this and I believe it really will work. People in the 90's would have never believed that the 360 would have been capable...

It will only cost around 40 or 50 dollars but there will be a subscription fee. I think Microsoft and Sony will establish some kind of partnership with the creators. By the way, they have done years of research into this and I believe it really will work. People in the 90's would have never believed that the 360 would have been capable...

Yeah, video games evolve so rapidly, no one can really say what they will be like in seven years. And people laugh at most pitches in the industry when first presented. Remember when the Wii was first coming out? Everyone was like "What the hell is this?" Then it quickly became one of the most successful if not the most successful console ever.

This sounds a bit like GameTap doesn't it?

If it does end up being $40-50 a month ($480-$600 a year) as a previous poster mentioned then it will never take off. It isn't even competitive with current consoles. Consoles now cost that much, and you can expect them not to be superseded for a few years at least. And with consoles you don't have the associated broadband costs on top of that. In addition, you will never own and of the games you play on OnLive. If they close up shop, all your games are gone, no matter how much you've paid.

This is what we call an Investors Trap everyone.