Advertisement

Register for free to remove this ad

Sorry if this is in the wrong place, or already posted, but I thought it seemed too cool to not share.
Did anyone else see anything about this from any GDC coverage?

http://pc.ign.com/articles/965/965535p1.html

Very interesting

i just read the IGN article word for word like they asked me too (ha!).

Onlive sounds absolutely ing amazing. Very very interesting idea, brilliant even.

Oddly enough, about a year ago I wrote this...

http://www.gamewithabrain.com/2008/0...ting-to-gaming

I was wrong. It was sooner than I thought.

It will be riddled with every kind of DRM you can think of.

Once publishers have control over distribution, like this machine, they will be able to charge whatever they want - expect $60 DLC games.

This kind of thing is only being promoted, partially, to kill piracy, and largely to kill the used game market.

yeah... don't know what to think:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/47080.html

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/47082.html

My mind has asploded.

What the heck? The future is already here? I'll be adequately impressed if this works.

Why only 4 responses?This is huge.Like many of you I have my doubts but if this successful it could change the entire industry as we know it.What makes this exciting is that it will,hopefully,instant.You log on,you click on the game you want to play,BAM youre playing it.That gentleman is amazing.Let see how it goes.

I was going to go to sleep - but I thought I'd check out "this stupid onlive thing" first. And it has kept me up...

The guy is so nonchalant about it... almost like he is hiding something.

I really like the friends list that is constantly showing footage of what your friends are doing. I'm definitely going to try the beta and see if this is possible. This is pretty out of know-where.

This doesn't surprise me. Strangely enough I was just thinking about this idea today. The only problem is the fee would be unbelievable. Think about it, they have extreme upload fees, computer maintenance and upgrade costs, cooling the computers and servers etc.

This does seem possible for laptop using hardcore gamers though. However, I see it either being too expensive and no one buys it or that their selection of games dwindle do to the idea that you don't buy from the developers (Unless you have to buy the game AND rent the service)

Originally Posted by Hydro2Oxide This doesn't surprise me. Strangely enough I was just thinking about this idea today. The only problem is the fee would be unbelievable. Think about it, they have extreme upload fees, computer maintenance and upgrade costs, cooling the computers and servers etc. This does seem possible for laptop using hardcore gamers though. However, I see it either being too expensive and no one buys it or that their selection of games dwindle do to the idea that you don't buy from the developers (Unless you have to buy the game AND rent the service)

Youll be able to rent games.The service fee would be on par with Xbox Live.

I'm mostly interested in this for PC games that I would not be able to run on my machine normally (or at least not on the highest settings) but yeah, lets see how much this is going to cost before we get too excited. And lets hope this doesn't end up like the Phantom...

Originally Posted by aihuman Youll be able to rent games.The service fee would be on par with Xbox Live.

I'm willing to put it all on the line. I call BS. That's not in any way shape or form possible unless that's a base fee, then there's renting/purchasing games, if renting you only get XYZ number of game choices a month.

Well in the video he mentions an "access fee", which might be priced on par with Xbox Live, but then they will also charge for the games to buy or to rent on top of that. Anyway, publishers should love this since you can't pirate games this way, it will also increase sales since more people can play them that usually can't (like Crysis for example)

This is ing ridiculously stupid. It's not going to work. The video quality will be shit. There will be considerable lag. There will be issues due to the monthly bandwidth limits that most ISPs have in place. There will be situations where all of their render machines are filled up, and users will have to wait in line to be able to play a game. This company will be out of business within three years.

An hour of 720p video is typically going to occupy several gigabytes. Comcast, for instance, has a 250 gig per month cap (up and down). You'll be dedicating most of your monthly bandwidth to this service, if you do any large amount of gaming.

There will be lag. No, there is no way to send inputs, render a frame of graphics, encode it into a 720p video stream, and send it back to a user's screen, without noticeable lag. There is no magical technology they could possibly invent to compensate for this.

And while I'm not an expert on the subject, and can only make amateur speculation, I do not think that the business plan is feasible. Unless the service is exorbitantly expensive, then I just don't see how they will be able to pay for thousands of gameplay rendering boxes (all of which will require maintenance and periodic upgrades to keep up with the latest games), and all the bandwidth, and the expensive special licenses for the games. This makes no sense to me.

Three years, tops. This is an idea so stupid, that I'm willing to rate it as on par with the Phantom on the "All-Time Most Idiotic Videogame Service Start-up Plans." We will look back and laugh about this, as yet another failed alternative-delivery-method videogame startup.

And I won't even start on the insidious underbelly of this, which is obviously yet another ploy to increase the power of the publishers over everything.

Coffee, IMO the idea isn't stupid but I agree that it will be executed pretty weakly. To each his own though.

Also, another reason this idea sucks: Kiss mods and custom content goodbye!

Originally Posted by Hydro2Oxide Coffee, IMO the idea isn't stupid but I agree that it will be executed pretty weakly. To each his own though.

On a conceptual level, fine, maybe it would work for some people, somehow. But here in the real world, no, this will not work on a massive scale. This idea really isn't viable at all on a large-scale until there is a full blown worldwide internet infrastructure overhaul.

One way or another, I can guarantee that despite the hype in the initial dick-sucking gaming headlines (and the company's own press releases), no, this is not the future of gaming, and most certainly, will not be replacing most (or anything more than a tiny fraction of one percent) gamer's PCs, or their consoles.

Again, this is not the "The Death of Console and PC Gaming" that IGN is already insanely hyping it up as. It's just another failed experiment in the making.

I don't think I like this idea at all. I'm 100% positive the "service fee" will be for the privilege of paying for full games at $60 and rentals at $10 for 5 days or something. I like owning games and being able to sell them on eBay or trade them in so this whole thing sounds like it will suck ass. I'll believe it when I see it.

This is 10 years too early.

x ∞

Coffee is 100% on the ball. This is another Phantom.