OnLive set to Revolutionize Gaming?

We can call it "Cloud Gaming" if we want. The best thing about this is that even your Netbook can play Crysis without a hitch as long as you maintain a stable internet connection.



These guys already has serious support from EA, THQ, Codemasters, Ubisoft, Atari, Warner Bros., Take-Two, and Epic Games.


So, what's your take of this? I live in NZ where internet never exceed 2Mbps and there's a 20GB monthly cap, so this is an impossibility for me. Do you guys think this will really revolutionize gaming?

To me, even if I had uber internet, I would still prefer to own my games. I mean, what if we wanted to LAN? Just my $0.02.

Via. Kotaku, Engadget

That's actually an amazing idea. I'll admit I find it hard to believe the 2 or 3 millisecond ping, at least for the average person, but I'll go into anything with an open mind and I won't down it until I see it.

Could have a couple downsides, like you said it doesn't seem like LAN would be possible, would just have to play online. And I like physically having my games by my side. I would hate for my internet to go out, or the people I share a connection with hogging bandwidth and making play almost impossible.

I'd still be willing to try it out, though, if the price is right.


Edit: I just read the whole article.


I play Xbox Live, so I'd be ok with that. Any higher and I would hesitate, but I'm cool with about $50 over the course of a year. Unless of course, they mean on par with Xbox Live's monthly sub, with is 7 or 8 bucks. Still not too bad considering the potential.

Also, I like the replay idea. You know how many times I wish I had something like that? I'm sure you all have had that once in a lifetime event happen, and you were so pumped up or proud, but no one was around to see it... and telling a story just isn't the same.

I hope it's not a joke.

This truly is a fantastic idea, but it won't revolutionise gaming. It just means that people can play games with better graphics than they're used to. Stupid, derivative but "pretty" FPS will still be stupid and derivative but now even more graphical techiniques can be thrown around.

Also, this will never get to the stage where it can sustain the release of a game that can't be played on most consoles and PCs, only over OnLive. Basically we'll all be playing regular PC games on the highest settings rather than the medium ones and console games will look the same because they're obviously made for the preconfigured console hardware... I could text all my friends now and about two of them would care - not because it isn't a great idea, it really is brilliant, but because they don't really play enough games to subscribe to something (as well as having to get a really fast connection) or care about graphics that much anyway.

I see this as an attempt to curb piracy, more than anything. They're trying to tempt the graphics-obsessed gamers into this service so they'll have to buy things over OnLive rather than pirating. (Though many PC gamers actually enjoy tuning their PC, so this may actually backfire on those people). Even Steam games can be hacked or just obtained not via Steam. The thing is, to people that pirate games, they'd rather just buy a new graphics card (or console) and pirate dozens of games than pay $50 a year plus the cost of every game they buy. The first option is a lot cheaper.

If I bought a PS3 for £250 and then pirated about 6 games, I'd basically have saved a little money. If I did the same with a 360, I'd have saved about £130. So as an anti-piracy measure, as with Xbox Live, this is flawed.

This will be extremely useful granted that it works as promised. But I can still see many people having problems due to internet capability.
Personally, I seriously doubt the ping, but I need to wait before I can say anything serious or critisizing.
Notice I said "extremely useful". This won't revolutionize current gaming, as you don't truly revolutionize something that is already happening, i.e. people playing Cryses on max settings. Graphics are the only things that can change so far (announced so far, at least) and when you're playing a fun game, such as Left 4 Dead, you don't need amazing graphical quality, only friends and the ability to run without too much lag.
HOWEVER, one thing they could do to possibly revolutionize gaming is that they make their OWN games, and run them on ridiculously high settings and calculating speeds (such as a TRULY ADAPTING A.I.), and then allow people like US to play them through this video-streaming technology. But even then, it would be very similar to regular video-gaming.

Seems like that would be one way of stopping piracy. That's if all the PC game companies stop releasing games to the general public and just send them to that company. Right?