Countless people have been brainstorming about the possibilities of a console that took advantage of our broadband connections by streaming games to us directly like an MMO, and OnLive is the first product to actually go all out with the concept. To put it simply; OnLive is a service that lets you play the latest games without requiring the latest hardware. What this means is you can play Crysis on nearly full settings just by using your low-end PC/MAC or even your TV. Hit the jump to see why this could be full of win.
Let’s begin with what exactly you’ll need to access OnLive. If you’ve got a decent PC then you’ll have no problems accessing the service via your browser, it shouldn’t require any external hardware but you will need a broadband connection to use the service in any way. If you’re unfortunate enough to have a PC that cannot meet the minimum requirements for OnLive, then you can buy the “micro console” pictured above. This console will be able to connect to your TV and should be relatively cheap to buy because it’s not housing any costly hardware inside like a traditional gaming console.
To explain how OnLive allows you to play the latest games on low-end machines, I’ll give a simple example. Normally when you’re playing a game online your console is in the same room and your controller inputs are fed to that console, which is then displayed on the TV. With OnLive however, imagine your console is 1000 miles away in a building full of servers that are pimped out to play video games. So your controller inputs are sent to OnLive’s servers via your broadband connection, at which point the server sends the data to your TV. All of this happens extremely fast and the company has patented a video compression method to compensate for things like lag, jitter and packet loss. Long story short; if you’ve ever played an MMORPG then it’s basically the same concept.
Because all your data is streamed to you in this manner, it means you won’t have to install new games since it only takes a few seconds for OnLive to send you the first chunk of your game. By the time you need the second chunk, the server will already start streaming that to you while removing the first chunk you just finished playing through. This makes publishers happy since you only have the files which you currently need to play, making piracy much more difficult. It’s also good news for players since cheating is a lot more tricky thanks to this system too.
OnLive’s online service seems similar to that of XBL/PSN. One of the more interesting features is recording and uploading ‘brag clips’. These are 15 second recordings which can be activated at any point in game to show something cool to the rest of the world. Even more exciting is the spectating options however, as these let you spectate sessions for games you don’t even own yet. Spectating could be a great way to get a feel for a game before purchasing it, but it’s also a great way to watch pros play live. If you’re a well-known player, I imagine it won’t be uncommon to have hundreds of people spectating your matches at the same time.
The service offers video resolutions up to 720p and 60FPS. This will drop based on your broadband connection. As long as you have roughly more than 5MB broadband, you will have HDTV resolution. Anything lower means the quality will drop, the minimum requirement being 1.5MB which will give you a standard TV resolution. OnLive will have monthly fees similar to Xbox Live, this is a given considering they will need to maintain the game servers, however they claim the fee will be competitively priced. Major publishers are already backing the product, including Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Take Two, Warner Bros, Eidos, Nvidia, Atari, Codemasters, Epic Games, THQ and 2D Boy. Expect more support as it draws closer to launch. There is a beta program for US residents which will begin this summer, and the product will launch this winter.
Source: Kotaku
So did i spend thousands of pounds on a PC that had the hardware to play the best games.. for nothing?
If it kicks off, works well, has all of the games you want to play, and your Internet connection allows it, sure.
Don't forget that if this service is not only transferring game data such as player locations (for playing multiplayer games) but textures and CGI as well, then bandwidth limits and fair usage policies could very quickly be upon you.
Most likely not, unless OnLive catches the world by storm or something. They are marketing OnLive as something that should be used alongside your usual gaming PC or your home consoles.
I think they understand that OnLive is a big change and so people won't instantly hop over to it, but I don't doubt for a second that they plan to slowly ease gamers into using it as the primary platform for downloading and playing games.
After all, would you pay £300 for a games console when you could pay £10 a month for a 'console' that never gets outdated as long as OnLive upgrades their servers with the latest GPUs and so on?
So did i spend thousands of pounds on a PC that had the hardware to play the best games.. for nothing?
If it kicks off, works well, has all of the games you want to play, and your Internet connection allows it, sure.
Don't forget that if this service is not only transferring game data such as player locations (for playing multiplayer games) but textures and CGI as well, then bandwidth limits and fair usage policies could very quickly be upon you.
Most likely not, unless OnLive catches the world by storm or something. They are marketing OnLive as something that should be used alongside your usual gaming PC or your home consoles.
I think they understand that OnLive is a big change and so people won't instantly hop over to it, but I don't doubt for a second that they plan to slowly ease gamers into using it as the primary platform for downloading and playing games.
After all, would you pay £300 for a games console when you could pay £10 a month for a 'console' that never gets outdated as long as OnLive upgrades their servers with the latest GPUs and so on?