OnLive CEO: We Are The Next-Generation Console

[eddieroolz]

Given a thoroughly developed internet infrastructure and mature pricing, OnLive can succeed in an area where no one has gone before.

The problem, and a major one at that, is the internet infrastructure in North America are utterly subpar by every standard. Add to this the ridiculous policies set by ISPs such as bandwidth caps and high prices, and OnLive suddenly doesn't look so promising.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

Given a thoroughly developed internet infrastructure and mature pricing, OnLive can succeed in an area where no one has gone before.

The problem, and a major one at that, is the internet infrastructure in North America are utterly subpar by every standard. Add to this the ridiculous policies set by ISPs such as bandwidth caps and high prices, and OnLive suddenly doesn't look so promising.

Okay... is it the Commuty Reporter's task to repeat what's been obvious from the article and the previous comments? No offense, but I think that you doing that on every article is somewhat silly.

 

[clonazepam]

Thank you razor512 for expanding in detail what I would have liked to have said except I limited myself to two sentences. It's important and mustn't be overlooked.

Phantom, what is a community reporter, and where can i buy one?

 

[ronch79]

This OnLive thing is all hype, just like the cloud crap everyone's hyping up. And that Onlive device is not a console. It's just a glorified modem, for god's sake.

This OnLive CEO is a trash talking expert.

 

[eyelesscz]

Hi, I thing about cloud gaming as positive step. Of course, there is moderate internet bandwith needed, but if game will run on some kind of very enhaced server, so there we will not stand before fact, that some games are specialy "cripled" to be runable on consoles. So who has not time and money to build own gaming mashine, he will welcomes this solution. I thing now is tooooo much early discuss this thread, because of internet accessibility and quality of most providers. But someday, far in future, 😀 , there will be lagless and fast internet available, and than this kind of gaming will has its place.
So dont worry my bigtower, I will by you new GPU soon, dot worry 😀 😀 😀

 

[eyelesscz]

[citation][nom]swolern[/nom]Onlive is not next gen. The PC is![/citation]


Yeah!!!!

 

[wardencl]

Not much to debate as far as OnLive goes.....gaming has and always will be based on a physical medium. Needless to say, I am on the latter end of Gen X (33yrsld) and I am very open to new technology however, I would never support a platform that requires a direct and constant connection online to play. What happens when the OnLive network crashes? Well you wont be gaming....What happened when the PS Network crashed?....I still got to play all of my favorite games.

 

[DSpider]

The input lag is killing me. When I logged in, a warning came up telling me that it can mess with the experience. Yeah, no shіt... It's definitely the future and I am going to try it again in a few years, believe me. They'll probably start to broadcast in 1080p at a higher bitrate too. Making the video not as grainy.

Don't get me wrong, while it's good enough for 3rd person shooters, I find it excruciating for FPSs and especially racing games or anything fast-paced really. But it's ok for cloak-and-dagger type of games (Hitman, Assassin's Creed, Splinter Cell, etc.) where you take your time, explore the map or possible angles of attack.


Bellow are my impressions (half hour trial versions):

Prince of Persia and BloodRayne 2 were VERY playable, almost didn't feel the lag at all.
Tomb Raider: Underworld was acceptable (after the first level).
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood was acceptable, up until I had to aim at something.

Dirt 3 was simply HORRIBLE, even though the menu cursor wasn't lagging as much as the other games.

Unreal III was really bad. I mean REALLY bad. In the second campaign level I kept going for the sniper rifle. Aiming that thing was simply GOD AWFUL! No. Seriously, don't. If you're trying to aim through the scope, at a moving target... You just can't.

Metro 2033 was the first game I tried. It looked impressive, ran ok, aiming was pretty bad so I kept running out of bullets, lol.

Duke Nukem Forever was fun. This is where I started to notice the grainy look, which was even more noticeable for Bioshock (pretty much a dark game by default).

Mafia II was fine. Up until I got into a car... I have finished the first game three times and I see they've still kept the crappy 1900's cars. A fricken nightmare even with no lag, imagine WITH lag! Also the shooting scenes where you had to aim. This is why FPS games aren't worth it - right now. Maybe when my ISP gets a bump in latency... but the servers are still hundreds of miles away... So I don't know about that either. Maybe if the company branched out their servers (or the competition came up with something locally).

Anyway. Over all, I would pay $10/month to be able to play these games. Then again, an $80 video card (I'm thinking Radeon HD5670, HD6670), with 512 MB GDDR5 along an Athlon II x2 250 + 2 GB DDR3 could probably run these games fine at 1280x720, which I think is what they're streaming anyway (minus the lag).

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

Mafia II was fine. Up until I got into a car... I have finished the first game three times and I see they've still kept the crappy 1900's cars. A fricken nightmare even with no lag, imagine WITH lag!

Umm... what do you mean, they "kept" them? Mafia 2 is about 1900s, and the game is built in perfect spirit of that age. Obviously, it has the cars of that time. And they don't suck - handling is very nice and if you wanna go faster, get a DLC with sports cars...

 

[dheadley]

This guy is probably correct, just becasue of the fact that ALL the game companies will want to embrace this type of technology as soon as it matures and proves itself out. Think of it, if this type of device is the next gen console and available from multiple venders they will cream their pants over being able to kill off reselling of games, piracy, hard retail packaging and all the logistics of shipping to retailers. The benefits for the game companies are going to outweigh any negatives for the consumer in this age of corporate greed.

 

[clonazepam]

[citation][nom]eyelesscz[/nom]..... But someday, far in future, , there will be lagless and fast internet available, and than this kind of gaming will has its place. So dont worry my bigtower, I will by you new GPU soon, dot worry[/citation]


but someday, far in future, , there will be lagless and fast internet available, and than this kind of gaming will has its place So dont worry my bigtower, I will by then recycled your steel for new american automobiles made in mexico, and yer window will be some hippster's secret hideaway line-snorting apparatus for those long lonely nights on onLive

 

[rasmasyean]

While think there will still be a place for consoles for a while, I do agree that OnLive (or GaiKai, OToy, etc.) will be the "next generation consoles.

If you think about it, truly hard-core games prefer the PC. The "console market" moajority cators to the "soft-core" anyway, especially cheap systems like Wii. Tom's Hardware is hardly a demographic that would appreciate OnLive, but most "gamers" aren't so picky, esp. where 50+ y/o ppl play online games now and can't even see the "awesome graphics".

But the reason why it's "next generation" is that before, you build a game for local hardware. OnLive...you build a game for a supercomputer. This ups your potential resource utilization, wheter it be massive databases or "graphics realism" (NOT the same as "resolution"). Don't forget that you don't need 4000x1500 for realism. We've been watching "realism" on 480p for decades. Regarding stuff like "WoW and EVE Online", an MMO that is built for the cloud needs not "client". In theory, the players can update the world by 100GB per day (continuously) and there's no need for patching. Models and Physics is only limited by supercomputing share costs and 400vs400 will introduce practically no "lag" compared to 1vs1.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

While think there will still be a place for consoles for a while, I do agree that OnLive (or GaiKai, OToy, etc.) will be the "next generation consoles.

If you think about it, truly hard-core games prefer the PC. The "console market" moajority cators to the "soft-core" anyway, especially cheap systems like Wii. Tom's Hardware is hardly a demographic that would appreciate OnLive, but most "gamers" aren't so picky, esp. where 50+ y/o ppl play online games now and can't even see the "awesome graphics".

But the reason why it's "next generation" is that before, you build a game for local hardware. OnLive...you build a game for a supercomputer. This ups your potential resource utilization, wheter it be massive databases or "graphics realism" (NOT the same as "resolution"). Don't forget that you don't need 4000x1500 for realism. We've been watching "realism" on 480p for decades. Regarding stuff like "WoW and EVE Online", an MMO that is built for the cloud needs not "client". In theory, the players can update the world by 100GB per day (continuously) and there's no need for patching. Models and Physics is only limited by supercomputing share costs and 400vs400 will introduce practically no "lag" compared to 1vs1.

Supercomputer? You're all forgetting that these OnLive servers will have to run thousands of instances of the same game at once, which was before done by crapBox or toyStation... it WILL take a supercomputer, and I don't think you'd be able to get away with same cheap rates they're offering now.

 

[Guest]

do you guys even have any idea who Steve Perlman is? this guy is a genius. if you knew what was doing right now you would all sh*t. of course your all skeptics to as i can see. read http://www.gamespy.com/articles/118/1180571p1.html

 

[Guest]

Last week they have stolen my laptop and the backup disk, end of owning at home! 🙁(

 

[rasmasyean]

Supercomputer? You're all forgetting that these OnLive servers will have to run thousands of instances of the same game at once, which was before done by crapBox or toyStation... it WILL take a supercomputer, and I don't think you'd be able to get away with same cheap rates they're offering now.

I agree with your analysis half way. In reality, for every "super Next-WoW MMO player"...there will be 50 "Next-FarmVille players". It's just like the internet. Most ppl don't use up their 10 Gbps...it's the torrenters who own that title. But they pay the same rate as the casual emailer.