New tech could make consoles obsolete
 

What if you could stream top-end games to your TV, just like a Youtube video that you can control? You'd never need to buy a console again.

That's the future envisaged by Palo Alto startup OnLive, which plans to launch a groundbreaking gaming service this winter. OnLive will supply players with a small set-top box, not much bigger than a Nintendo DS, which will plug into your TV and your home broadband connection. From there, you can start playing games just like those on the Xbox 360, PS3 or PC -- but with no install time, no waiting for downloads, and no need for big, noisy, expensive consoles cluttering up your living room. OnLive's service can be continually upgraded, too, so you'll never be stuck with obsolete hardware again.

Skeptical? So were we, until we actually sat down and played with an OnLive box last week. Even a blisteringly fast racer like Burnout Paradise was totally playable over the service, and top-spec shooter Crysis: Warhead -- which normally requires an expensive gaming PC -- ran excellently too. It's all rolled together with a slick interface that requires just a few button-presses to get playing.

OnLive also includes some features you might associate more with your DVR than with a gaming console, including a Replay feature that lets you save the last ten seconds of your gameplay, and send it to your friends.

PC gamers aren't left out, either: OnLive's service can be accessed with a browser plugin from either Mac or PC platforms, works identically to the TV version, and has hardware requirements so low you'll be able, the company boasts, to play the most advanced of games on a $300 netbook.

OnLive has already signed deals with an impressive range of partners -- including EA, Take-Two, and Ubisoft -- and promises to have an up-to-the-minute selection of games when the service launches. Along with Burnout and Crysis, we spotted Grand Theft Auto IV, LEGO Batman, and Mirror's Edge among the games on offer, although the lineup will likely change before the service launches.

There's a catch, though. Being an online, streaming service, OnLive is only going to be as good as your Internet connection. High-definition resolutions will require a higher-end broadband connection, and if your service is prone to drop out unexpectedly, you're probably going to wind up frustrated. Even if it works, all that streaming video's going to add up over the months, and heavy users might find themselves the receipient of some unwelcome attention from their ISPs. Modem users, needless to say, need not apply.

OnLive won't talk price, other than to say that they'll be competitive with subscription services like Xbox Live. The box itself is simple and cheap to make, they told us, and it's easy to imagine it being thrown in with subscriptions -- rather like a cable or satellite TV set-top box. Games will most likely be available to rent or buy, and with free demos that don't need to be downloaded.

Thing is I've got games I bought 10 years ago and still enjoy playing, and I'll probably want to play them in 10 years time. If I stream a game and enjoy playing it, will I still be able to play it in 20 years time? I doubt it.

This entire thread came fresh from the can.

Interesting, but I don't think it's going to overthrow the gaming consoles.

A company in california had tried to do this in 2002 but failed to financial problems.

I am going to assume you didn't write that, so it would be nice if you were to quote your source.

Problem is this relies on internet. Lags are common for some people so I doubt it's playable the same as consoles.

Consoles are still here to stay.

I'd love to see them get the licensing for this....

Another thing is, I doubt they would get 3rd party developers like Sega to make games for them

I agree sega may not join but i hope it fails since it does only work best on the internet.

You sound like a businessman, Tsuruneru... Please don't try to sell us something that sounds illegal... >>;;

For the moment anyway... unless you are saying that there is no way communications technology can become much better.

This pretty sums it all.

My conclusion - it's gonna fail.

What if you have a good internet connection?

Some members of JF seem to think DL is not the wave of the future. As a person who has seen music go from albums to cassettes to CDs over the last 20 years, it is not shocking that DL is how people will get music.

I really have nothing against games being downloadable in the future. But for now? Eh. I mean, not all people have lightning speed internet connection. Also, that would consume a lot of hard drive spaces, that's why CDs still has the advantages because there's more spaces in there. I don't see a transition from CD-DVD to DL anytime soon, maybe a transition to Blu-Ray will happen first.

I think that downloading games is the future - but streaming games is not. At least not for a while. I don`t believe this system will be able to pull it off.

Why? For one, the most obvious neck to the average person, is that most of the US (the largest market for games) does not have steady broadband.
But let`s ignore that, and say that they offer a wonderful plan that gets everyone connected at the speed necessary to stream the games.

A server, somewhere, is going to have to do the rendering.
One user for testing? EASY. Ten users at a convention display? No problem. 1000 user in a beta test? Sure, can do that.

100,000 users? 500,000 users? Let`s say it sells only a quarter of what the PS3 has sold (it being the worst selling of this generation`s hardware)...

We`re talking about 5 million users with the potential to be online at once expecting LATENCY FREE rendering.

HAHAHAHAHA

This is an interesting idea that just simply doesn`t scale well.

Even if you have a good internet connection, there are still problems you can face. I'm imagining this console will work like Youtube. And as a person who has good in internet connection I still get problems while watching videos. Similar problems might/will occur with this OnLive console.
Just like the article stated you get too dependent on from your internet connection. Everyone, once in a while get this problem when the internet connection cuts out, and that would mean that you can't play any games until it gets back online. And lets not forget that not everyone in the world has access to a reliable broadband service.

The consoles seem to do pretty well with their internet gaming...
Isn't WoW an internet game?
There's lag, but people groan and get over it.
The internet is not the problem. It's the streaming vs. downloading a hard copy.

That already happened. So did downloading games. Nintendo's had downloadable games since SNES.

I see potential in this, something small and portable with a good supply of rentable games that you don't have to LUG EVERYWHERE...

If they were to become big enough, they could have enough server power, or they may have found a way to streamline streaming (YouTube doesn't seem like the most advanced streaming system; I'm reluctant to think that it's comparable to what the game company has in mind).

Also, it can't be terribly, terribly difficult to have a save-state machine that saves your progress every 10 seconds so that if you're disconnected, you can start roughly where you were when it ended. Or something similar.

This is a broad subject covered in a tiny article in a thread post. There's probably so much more that is going into consideration, or that could go into consideration, after the original release.

the point is not that this new tech might outcome consoles. i think that people wouldnt be so worried about the cloud computing feat it offers but about the gameplay.

its the same things as PC vs. VG. although PCs beat VG graphics so bad people don't give up on games just because theyre more proper to play than PC or other attempts to replace it

If games go to download-only, I will not buy ANY of them. When you download, you can't transfer from console to console, and you don't really OWN a copy of the game, there is no physical game disk.

Not to mention you can't resell the game, something the publishers are trying very hard to make a reality for all consumers. Maybe if they didn't overcharge for games (and likewise didn't make Hollywood-style multi-million dollar games), the used game market wouldn't be so massive right now. Not to mention the economy... at least in some countries such as the USA.

Streaming games...? The cost and latency of downloading multi-gigabyte game data over and over again is one of the most blatant cases of "progress for the sake of progress and expanding our profit margin" that I've ever heard of. It would be cheaper and less power-hungry to manufacture a disk instead of taking all that bandwidth just to transfer games.

Streaming DOES work for games like Second Life or other online games, but that's different. The game is usually free and the data works better as streamed content because it is dynamic and may be always changing.

I will tell you right now, if Sega rereleased their old consoles and games again as brand new, I would pay full 1990-whatever prices for them. Totally. But no downloads!

Well yes it would be a bad idea because many kids and adults don't have the requirements to buy games on line let alone anything else. So the gaming market would fall faster than maybe anything in the history of stocks.

consoles are already obsolete to me xD
i haven't even touched one in about 3 years
lolz

I see, thats interesting.

Yeah, but that's the reason console games are more popular than MMOs. Lag. They get none and are much more fun to play.

Unless we have some super reliable and uber fast internet, this won't get any far.

Yes but say you are getting board of all your games? And the lag could just be small and not the problem.

You can get bored with MMOs as well so I don't see your point. Actually you get bored easier because of the repetitive monster killing and pointless quests they do.

The lag happens in many servers. And when your connection has problems you can't play.

I don't really think this tech will have a massive impact.

I mean, first, the gaming industry is huge money. It's bigger than the movie industry. How game makers choose to distribute their games is going to be based on how they can make the best money.

I mean, if the technology did become available (though the tech is years away) to stream decent games straight into your televisions, there would be a massive subscription fee that'd probably reflect the amount of money that you'd alternately be spending to buy new games anyway (maybe $100 US per month?). You'd also have to buy special controllers.

Realistically, I think a lot of things will become more involved in the internet, but it will be done through consoles, mostly; the consoles already have massive online features, and these will only get better. Consoles will get better and more inclusive each generation. In the end, I would not be surprised if they almost completely replace DVD players, and also replace the PC for a large number of people who only want the PC for stuff like what we're doing now and bashing and stuff.

Well thats like games similar to wow but oh well I'm not for this idea anyway.