Xbox 720 and OnLive - What If Microsoft Brought OnLive to The Xbox? [Editorial]

With OnLive, you practically eliminate the need to upgrade your hardware. There is no waiting for the "next-generation" since everything would be implemented server side. Given that the Xbox is primarily a game console, the only thing missing is a game streaming capability. It would be a boon to us gamers, flat monthly fee for unlimited games without the need to upgrade your hardware.

[Droid Control]

If it works, i see this as a great tool

[talltony]

atleast not any time soon.

[nycredude]

Sorry no buy here. I like to collect physical discs when I pay for them. I already feel ripped off paying for cable, which this is exactly the same as, except in game form.

[Hellsvacancy]

Anythin Microsoft tries fails miserable, this will b no different

[beans]

This service sounds like something Sony needs to purchase to get on even playing grounds with live.

[mauleriscool]

If anybody can jump in on this they have a gold mine for the future.....if it works 100% perfect.

[Blaze929]

More like "What If Microsoft Bought OnLive for the Xbox?"

But seriously, that would be hella sweet. Whoever jumps on this will be smart

[StanLee]

You know, I wrote an article about this months ago. Given Steve Perlman's past relationship with Microsoft, it's plausible but I think Microsoft would be much more inclined to evolve XBox Live into a similar service rather than buying OnLive since Cloud gaming isn't restricted by patent. I think Sony is developing their own model as well.

[JhawkFootball06]

I wish gaming never comes to this. I actually really like having physical media. I rather take physical media over anything anyday. If gaming comes to having playing games through an online service, or downloading games.. then i will miss being able to bring that game over to a friends house, or having that excitement coming out of the store with the physical game in my hand

[anh_duong]

on-live or on-lag will not work in a real environment. internet speed not up to scratch yet.

[ThanatosDMC]

I wonder how it'll look graphically when it's being streamed.

[D4RkNIKON]

You can bring it to a friends house. You can essentially play anywhere there is an internet connection. PC will play the games through the internet and the onlive console is for connecting to the TV. Bring the tv adapter or just use your friends computer. The thing is you will need a good internet connection for lag less gaming, but your PC doesn't have to be top notch because the processing is done else where via cloud.

@anh_duong - The key word there is... you guessed it "yet". This will be the future of gaming and it will open up doors for sure. The question is how soon will we get it.

[darthv72]

the games will always be limited to whatever level of hardware is being used for the duration of the service. While it would make it basically like cable tv, games are an evolving medium. Requiring new hardware to get better and better image quality and details.

Cable tv is cable tv. There is no evolution to that other than resolution from SD to HD and soon 3D. All onlive does is simplify the delivery of new content but you will still be required to upgrade the "box" at some point to keep pace with evolving programming of the developers.

Unless we all want the current image quality to be the norm for the next 15-20 years? Even sony and their "10 year" plan is stretching it. Without the ps3 and 360 would we really be happy with PS2 level of graphics even into 2010? Once you see the future of gaming, you really cant look back. It only gets better and that requires new tech not just new content.

[DeadlyFire]

Why everyone jump and say Onlive. There is a few videos of OTOY being demoed with Xbox 360 controller and phone that supports Windows Apps. Someone should be looking at that instead of OnLive for X360. OnLive is still open though. They said they would partner up with anyone. Its very likely they will partner with Sony and Nintendo and Maybe Microsoft. Nothing official is said yet. I doubt this generation will be supporting cloud gaming, but its possible. Next generation consoles are more likely to start with big support for it.

http://www.youtube.com/watc... < OTOY mobile with X360 controller.
http://www.youtube.com/watc... < OTOY TV demo with X360 controller.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Microsoft announce OTOY support at E3 2010 or 2011. Although from what I have seen its not likely OTOY will launch until 2011 or 2012. So noone knows just yet.

[Ninji]

That's like saying "What if Sony brought Nintendo to the PS3?"

[gamingisnotacrime]

hope it does not happen

[Bubbles_Kitty_Cat]

Let's all hope it's not this much...

[Raoh]

an example would be micrsoft's issue with BBC Player, MS wanting to charge for something that is free. Same with Valve DLC.

If they want to charge you for something free, imagine things we would be willing to pay for.

[Hideo_Kojima]

You will be able to get the hardware extreamly cheap because all it does is stream video to your screen.

However the monthly subscription will hurt.

FYI you can also just play threw your web browser so you don't even need
hardware and everyone has a web browser that can stream video clips.

[dawgsfan117]

Do you ever sit and think about how much gamers pay these days. For a single game it cost $60.00 new. Think about it. In the last 2 months even if you only bought the majaor titles you spent a small fortune. Uncharted 2, Rachet and Clank, Assassains Creed 2, MW2, Halo: ODST, L4D2, and Demon Souls would cost you $420. That is only the games that averaged like a 9 rating. It doesnt account for any sports games or racing games. A service like this that cost maybe $100 a month really wouldnt be that bad.

[gamingisnotacrime]

just look ate the HDDs, pay for online gaming. Is a company policy well established in this gen

[Hanif-876]

I'd never buy a gaming console if i couldn't play it offline!

[kaveti6616]

Good point.

[VladimirK]

Agree with a couple above.

Would hate the idea of paying a monthly fee even if it is for, "unlimited games".
Obviously we don't know what it would be, but being MS, I think it's quite safe to say that it would be quite high.

And I don't like the streaming part.
Would much rather have a disc that I can play offline if I chose.

[ReBurn]

Quite high? Based on what? All console makers price peripherals outrageously, but this isn't a peripheral. It's a service.

And Live isn't really all that expensive, unless you consider $4.17 per month expensive. Costs more than PSN, but it isn't prohibitive.

[VladimirK]

I'm basing it on that if you get, "unlimited gaming" for a set fee then you are basically gonna be paying to play any game released.
That can't be cheap imo.

And I never even mentioned paying for Live, I don't mind that.
If you are mentioning Live because I said I would like to play offline, I still have a gold membership on Live, just I still play offline quite often.

[LoneGun]

Microsoft would be digging their own graves if they do so. X360 is successful because of its price accessibility to everyone. How many people do you think has internet fast and stable enough for OnLive?? I don't think you guys realize how fast your internet need to be to make OnLive remotely playable. It's a stupid idea that just simply wouldn't work right now.

[Hideo_Kojima]

1.5MB/s for SD video quality
5MB/s for HD 720p 60FPS

[Pekka]

@5.1: That would mean extremely crappy looking HD gaming. Movies are just 24 fps (yes, all movies are) so getting 60 fps would require 2.5 times more bandwidth.

Although, bigger problem is lag which is impossible to avoid unless they build thousands of servers around the world. Even if server would be only 100 kilometers away, you could still sometimes notice lag. And playing game from europe on US server is completely unplayable. Even on MMO's there are separete US and European servers and many times europeans are not even allowed to play on US servers because of lag.

Also, all those computers would have to be supercomputers costing a lot. I would say that servers accommodating 10 million simultaneous players would cost right now around 5-10 billion (minimum). This is assuming relatively good HD graphics (maybe not always 1080p but at least 720p). Basically, this is very expensive. You can't compare this concept to MMO's because MMO servers don't process graphics or physics, those are always handled by your own PC. Which means MMO servers can be relatively simple.

[noxeven]

Isn't the creator of onlive the same person who created nettv? I mean the idea is great but people doing it. I dont know at all. I gotta do more research

[OtherWhiteMeat]

If anyone is interested.....here's some info of the company and it's services. http://www.onlive.com/servi...

[ReBurn]

The concept isn't a bad idea, but it wouldn't work well if it were the only method of playing games. The kind of bandwidth necessary would be prohibitive to a large number of gamers. And honestly, what would be the need for a console at all? People could access something like this via their PC, which would probably be much better equipped to deal with it.

[Noob]

Especially on this site.

This company is just waiting for another to purchase it, as the article reminds us. Also, the tech wouldn't work for the majority of gamers because our internet connections are too slow. Not to mention that some are introducing caps as well. If this is the future of gaming, well, I don't think it'll be off to a good start.

[CaptainMarvelQ8]

seriously?
you know ,not everybody could even afford the price for SD resolution!

[dragonelite]

F@ck onlive you will get input speeds of over 200 ms.
On a console that would mean you wont see your movement for about 6 frames.

The concept is good but its kinda useless for serious gamers who play online would be butchered by people who play on consoles

[PoisonedTea]

NO, NO, NO! Enough of this obsession with online-everything when it comes to video games. As if the preoccupation with DLC hasn't already left a sour taste in my mouth. The day this becomes the only way of playing a game, is the day I give up being a gamer.

[Xpandemic]

hey what happened to OnLive anyways? It says its launching Winter 2009 on their website but nothing yet

[Mister_G]

Maybe once EVERYONE is on fibre optic ADSL2 then it'll work.

Currently peoples connections are just too slow/unpredictable.

Imagine trying to play something like MW2 online multi-player through streaming, just wouldn't work.

Interesting for the future though :)

[OrganicMachine]

not in japan, korea, sweden, etc...

USA currently is ranked around the 20s when it comes to internet speed.

[Darrius Cole]

This is not going to work anyway. If it did work, why would they sell themselves to anyone?

[DigitalAnalog]

No netflix, standard internet, etc.

FAIL.

[BYE]

OnLive will hopefully remain a niche product in the future and never become mainstream.

I have a hard time believing OnLive would support developers to make blockbuster titles, it would probably be the end of high production value games as we know them.

[bigrudowsky]

they wont be making games theyre more of a distributor if anything.
They simply stream the games and make em playable on poor performing pcs. If it actually works we might actually get developers trying to get a good deal out of pc games since theyll be playable on most pcs.

[bigrudowsky]

Does anyone know when onlive releases?

[Xpandemic]

winter 2009

[OrganicMachine]

THERE WILL BE MORE!

MORE FEES!

[lonix]

Will never be fast enough
this is a pipe dream

[xtremeimport]

since in Canada that we have a download/upload limit at 60gbs a month(more if you want to pay more) and seeing as I managed to go over every month(I have no idea how its possible) I hope gaming never turns purely download and streaming. apart from me wanting to still own hard copies of the games I play. Its the same with downloading music and movies, I still prefer buying the actual retail version.