OnLive to Take Over PS3 and 360?

"OnLive is a recently announced video game service that allows you to purchase games that are on a server and play them without buying a disk or a console. You will need a TV and/or a computer for this to work, but most people who would be interested in this already has either one or both. All you will need other than either a TV or a computer is to purchase a set top box called the OnLive Microconsole and a controller that you will obviously either purchase or lease from OnLive. Believe it or not, a friend of mine talked about something like this about six months ago. We are just regular guys without money or programming experience, but the idea seemed like it would work and now an entrepreneur by the name of Steve Pearlman has manifested this idea into reality. Many publishers have already signed on to allow their games to be played using the OnLive service including, but not limited to, Electronic Arts, THQ, Take-Two Interactive, Codemasters, Eidos, Atari, Warner Bros., Epic Games and Ubisoft."

-TheGamerAccess.com

[Zeus Lee]

No.

[Press_Agree]

This "OnLive" is a cheap way to make money... please DO NOT BUY THIS. its a waste of money. Press Agree.

[Sukebe_Gamer]

isn't this what ms had in mind? this isn't really my cup of tea, i prefer physical media not digital.

[chaosatom]

The service hasn't even lauched yet. geez.

[crck]

Yep this reminds me of the launch of the iphone game store. How many "will iphone kill ds/psp?" articles did we get? I'm cool though. Have no interest in this thing. I don't think my roommates would appreciate me sucking up bandwidth for offline/single player games (which is 90% of my gaming time).

[ChozenWoan]

... only if ISP drop their bandwidth caps. Fat chance of that happening anytime soon. lolololololololololol

[MNicholas]

1) Anyone who has set up and used Citrix and VMWare environments know that this is just a tangle of problems waiting to happen, from lag, to dropped connections, etc.... Making it scalable and robust is a serious problem that vastly less demanding applications like those above have not solved. One that requires such high continuous bandwidth is going to be a nightmare.

2) It's bloody expensive to host something like this.

3) Their best bet is to sell it off to Comcast, Verizon, etc... Only the companies that control bandwidth to the consumer will be the ones who can make money off it because if this becomes even moderately successful they will simply block it on their network.

-----------

I should add that the concept, while not new (server side game rendering is an old idea, actually) is actually quite compelling. Imagine sitting at your TV picking a game using voice chat with your friend in another country and both playing a co-op campaign in 1080P 7.1 surround sound right away. The problem is that the technology and infrastructure simply aren't there yet ... kind of like flying cars.

[morganfell]

HERE COMES THE PHANTOM! Seriously, these sites like gameraccess really need to go away.

When did the question mark become such a central part of creative writing? I say creative writing not out of deference to the author but because they are just making up anything and throwing it against the wall like Gallagher doing a chocolate test.

And this is a duplicate article.

[prunchess]

Yeah, some gamers might think it's the dogs dangley bits but in truth all us console owners will be on a further next gen console by the time this is up and running. If I gave you a choice of watching a movie on blu ray or streaming it from netflix, what would you choose?

Other issues that will plague this service will be bandwidth, connection speeds and the usual host of problems attached with online gaming.

Nice idea but I remained a bit sceptical about this service, it will have to rely on a number of other service providers and factors for it to be a success. A bridge too far maybe?

[silvacrest]

i dont no where you are in the world
but in the UK there are a few ISP that have no caps and no slow downs during peak time

this service isnt for everyone but there are those who can make use of it although, this will never take over consoles because of these reasons:

not everyone has broadband
average speed in the UK alone is 2mb so HD gaming is a no no
hard copy loyalists
if your internet goes down theres no alternative
peak time slow downs will hurt if you already have a slow conection

i could go on but there is hope, i no for a fact (no links sorry) the UK and US are upgrading there telephone cable infastructure to fibre optic within a couple of years

by then this service may seem like a godsend

[- Ghost of Sparta -]

This is just getting ridiculous now. How many more of these "OnLive to take over" blah blah articles do we need to see before everyone realizes how fast this service will fail? The PS3 and 360 aren't going anywhere and when they do, the PS4 and the next Xbox will be there. For once, PS3 & 360 fanboys should unite and take a huge dump on OnLive's face.

[morganfell]

Ha ha, what a joke and a step backwards. They want me to give up:

1 - 1080p
2 - The ability to trade in crappy games. Maybe we'll just sue Live online for our money back.
3 - Portability.
4 - Media hub capability
5 - A device that still works without the internet.

Do I even need to keep going? And for those that want to use the tired argument that we won't need to trade games because without physical media they will be cheaper. ALRIGHTY Mr dreamer!

You always need to trade a crappy title.

$49 (average price at DL sites like Direct2Drive) is still too much for a game I can't trade. I rarely, almost never trade games but most people are not like that. There is a reason more and more companies such as Amazon are pushing into the used games market. There is money in it and a great many people buy and sell used games.

Don't try the "you still own it" comment either because in reality it is rent to use when ever you are connected to Broadband.

[Major_Tom]

I'm buying it day one. Will it replace my PS3? Definitely not. Will I be able to play any multi-platform game on demand? Sure as hell.

[Mogabu]

You mean PC only games. This service only plays PC based games, it's not like they have 360's and PS3's linked together. They have PC's handling the processing power of (get this) PC games. Bioshock, Crysis, etc, all great games in and of themselves, but when you add in the lag factor and the shoddy compression effects, no thanks. What, some of the "hardcore" gamers that don't even like to play on wireless 802.11 connections are going to suddenly think input lag isn't a big deal?

Maybe this will be a hit for bored wives looking to play some Bejeweled or Solitaire or whatnot, but the hardcore crowd isn't going to go for it with the hindrances there are right now.

This product is a good 5-10 years off from being a real alternative to localized processing due to the fact that the bandwidth just isn't there for this to be feasible.

[Doomster1971]

I live in the UK (Scotland/ Aberdeen). I am on a sky max 16 meg connection & I do get the full connection speed at all times of the day. Add the fact that the sky max broadband package has no usage cap and is the only broadband package in the uk with no FUP I think this would work great for me. Also sky are upgrading me to 24 meg soon (which I will get as I live across the road from my exchange). This is a win win for me. The question now is how long will it take to come to the uk?

[Major_Tom]

I don't have a bandwidth cap and they are confirming streaming Xbox360/PS3 multi-platform games and PC as well I think you might have missed that part. It's not for everybody but I'm getting it for sure.

[BulletToothtony]

you can always get some money back if you sell them, but you're stuck with downloads..

games would have to be 1/2 price for me to pay for downloads.. and i know MS and Sony wouldn't let that happen..

Nonetheless i'm tired of these speculations before anything has even been shown about this new product..

Iphone killer? Playstation killer? Honda killer... just shut up and wait.. cause most of these new products are all hype and no fun.

[DragonWarrior46534]

Thats the whole thing. You dont download anything. Zero downloads. You stream games , voice chat, and video chat straight from their servers. The lag is down to a millisecond. BTW, I too am getting this day one. I signed up for the beta earlier and I will probably have access to it even earlier then most of you. I have high hopes for this service.

[zag]

No way would it be 1ms for lag you'd need a home network to get that.

The lowest lag I've ever gotten was 10ms between 2 cities 1000klms apart, that was a 10mbps(1meg) connection via the ISPs own backbone your licing in dream land to get that sort of MS over the net.

Then the amount of bandwidth required is quite huge, on PC you can do this very same thing easy via your own network but you need a gigabit network to get rock steady 800x600 streaming video, then with movement it'll ramp up majorly in bandwidth and then you need heaps of CPU power to keep up with the processing of capping the screens then sending it away and checking the network.

Then for voice chat ventrollio chews up 90kbit per second to send your voice to other people, and that crappy telephone/mobile sound at that.

I know because I had a 100mbps (10meg) home network and video would stutter trying to process BT plus do the video streaming no audio just video.

To be honest Sky in the UK already have this service on it's cable boxes as they have games on them, but nothing more than basic arcade games.

[thebudgetgamer]

then a one console gen or whatever they call it.

:(

[FCOLitsjustagame]

Doesnt this already exist? whats the difference between this and Steam and a dozen other PC gamer site?

[Mogabu]

the difference in Steam vs this is with Steam you still at least download the game itself on your own PC and your PC does all of the processing to play the game. With this, the controller they give you send the signals to their computers over the internet and they essentially send you a video feed of the game being played. You do none of the processing of playing the game, they do.

[Nick212004]

This concept sounds cool, but I prefer to own a hard copy ANY day.

[truehunter]

OnLive isnt worth it.

1st with this hitting, by the time Onlive dies there will be no Rare games.
2nd Having Hands on Copies of the game feels better.
3rd Collection of Games in your grasp is better then stuck on some HDD.

[CrippleH]

It's all streaming though.
Not even have files stuck in your computer but their servers.

That will make it worst for people who likes ownership because you don't own anything with this service, not even the files.

[BrothaDave]

the internet has too much inconsistency world wide and people like to "own" things for real not virtually. its the reason I don't buy expensive games from the psn store. If I want GT5P then I will buy it for the same price on Blu ray, end of story. Any problems with your internet will render games unplayable or cause problems plus people will be hesitant to switch over that fast. If it does work it will take about 10 years to do big numbers and be a major factor in gaming for hard core gamers. Casual gamers might catch on to it but the Wii has it locked so I still think they have a problem.

[KingKionic]

lets not specualate...what if this service does? lol then will all be like how the hell that happen.

[IzKyD1331]

OMFG, just shut up with this OnLive crap. When it releases and *if* it is a success, THEN start writing articles about the fate of consoles, but before that, everyone needs to just STFU

[no-spin]

useless articles, can they show reality instead of fantasy?

[Reibooi]

Just like digital downloads wont take over Onlive will not take over. There are still ALOT of people in the US with No or incredibly slow internet and it's quite clear what they are trying to do here requires a speedy connection which not everyone has.

On top of that just like the digital downloads issue there will always be people who prefer to have the physical disc something you will not get with the Onlive service.

On the whole Onlive will be a nice alternative to those who cannot afford a nice PC but otherwise I don't see it taking over anything anytime soon.

[Kamikaze135]

Most people don't have a good enough connection. Lol, there's no way this can take over console gaming. I doubt it can even take over PC gaming. Though it'll be something nice to have. Even if I had the best connection, I wouldn't make this my main source for video games since I love having a physical collection =D

[PotNoodle]

If it does take off, then maybe. But ken kutaragi said a while back that he see's the playstation taking on cloud gaming in the future and infact the cell processor is built to be adapted to do this.

If ken says it is possible! It is! :p

While i doubt it, but if it does take down the PS3 and 360, at least the "playstation" will be prepared to dodge the left jab from onlive and come back with a right uppercut with the next playstation.

[jerethdagryphon]

cload computing or dumb terminals which is all it really is is an old idea.

server does the wrok outputs it to dumb terminals, old as hell efective on data and such.

but paying a subscriptipon service, per monhs weather you play or not, then , its effectivly renting a ondemand video. then not watching it.

dropped connections line issues virtualization glitches , to much can go wrong, to easily

however.
sony should work on distributed net gaming, especially for mmorpg.

unlike normal games where the more on a server the slower it gets.

tin distributed net computing, the mroe the aster everything goes.
imagine home running like that
instead on 1 pc running and linking to a server it links directly to 10s o thousands of others all working as one to run the game smoother faster gameplay

[HDgamer]

I really doubt it, bandwidth caps and well to get even near some of the HD like graphics you have to have a very good connection. 60% of the USA has the internet.

[sonic989]

how about a ps3 distribution service like FOLDING@HOME
and then sony can use all this power to run a massive game that cant be achieved by any HI END computer they are using at onlive and since the onlive device doesn't do processing ( its just a crap cheap toy ( for idiots) ) then TEH CELL FTW

[xbollox]

hilarious, what they call "revolutionary" and "out of the box" is basically going back to the mainframe of the 70s: great idea!

now we're gonna live in constant traffic jam between gigs of movies DD, gaming graphics and audio clogging the tubes.

i am calling bullsh!t on their claim of 1ms latency for HD video + surround audio encoding/transmission/decoding .

plus, what's the point of watching crysis gorgeousness butchered by a video codec: have you seen cable compression? it's disgusting

[SprSynJn]

Not unless they start to offer Blu-ray streaming purchases, allow me to listen to my 10+ gigs of music and look at my 2+ gigs of pictures. I didn't just buy the PS3 for the games you know.

[Aclay]

I think it's ridiculous to even make such claims that OnLive will possibly take over the PS3 and 360 whenever this OnLive thing hasn't even been released yet and it hasn't made any impact at all.

Playstation and Xbox are established brands, and something like OnLive isn't going to just take them down without a fight.

OnLive sounds like it's something a little ahead of it's time because it's all digital, and then there's the Bandwidth issue.... something like OnLive sounds a little more realistic next-generation and it's going to be really tough to compete against 3 giants in the gaming industry like Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo with a brand new product like OnLive.... personally I don't think it'll last.

[TheTick]

Its the sega channel updated,
Man that lasted a long time, lol

[tawak]

now open, recruiting onlive fanboys
please fall in line and repeat after me

"I (name) onlive fanboys will solemnly swear....."

[BrianC6234]

onLive looks like a joke. I think it's someone's April Fool's joke. That isn't until next week.

[anti-gamer]

my money will go to sony & microsoft

[al_manadi]

this looks and seems fake. but if its' real...

this is atleast 5 to 10 years off. by then sony, microsoft or nintendo will find a way to copy or counter this.

[Too_Hyped]

This is the new defense for xbots :

Ok 360 is doomed and we have no exclusive bu bu but... PS3 is doomed too because of OnLive.

Hilarious.