doomjockey Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 An article I just read out of GDC tonight (or today, depending). http://pc.ign.com/articles/965/965535p1.html Bit of a summary for the lazy: Just announced at this year's GDC, OnLive is an on-demand gaming service. It's essentially the gaming version of cloud computing - everything is computed, rendered and housed online. In its simplest description, your controller inputs are uploaded, a high-end server takes your inputs and plays the game, and then a video stream of the output is sent back to your computer. Think of it as something like Youtube or Hulu for games. That's on Windows or Mac, btw. I'm kind of speechless tbh. Thoughts? Also, not terribly sure if this belongs here so forgive if not Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monolithic0117 Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 That's very interesting. Only time will tell if it becomes successful enough to dominate regular gaming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halororor Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 Most countries still doesn't have decent enough internet connections to do this, so I think it's maybe 50 years too early. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vagrant0 Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 Call me old fashioned, but I happen to like the idea of having something installed onto my system which I can have the pleasure of removing later. Afterall, if I have the hardware, storage space, and capability to run the game locally, what is the sense in transmitting control information to some other computer hundreds of miles away, only to see a video of those actions being taken. So essentially, instead of tying up 1 computer with a game, you are tying up 2 computers and using up quite alot of bandwidth in the process. This sort of thing would only be practical with retrogaming, and would probably cost more than other services which do a similar thing, like gametap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheTerminator2004 Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 I'm not liking this, one bit, even though I have a 5 year old PC which would definitely benefit from it. Firtsly, theres the issue of not owning your games (not that you do when you buy them normally, but still), theres also the issue of not having an actual copy of it (making it pointless for people with up-to-date computers), and (what would be the biggest issue for me) the speed of internet it would need. I have what is a fairly average connection for my area (one of only 3 providers who serve my exchange, despite being a decent sized town), and during peak hours (4pm - 12:30am to be precise, as thats when my ISP does the most throttling) I have trouble even doing something as simple as posting on this forum, let alone trying to stream a hi-res (presumably HD too) real-time video feed which cant be interrupted AT ALL (imagine if you were about to kill the final boss of a game or something, but it lagged for a couple of seconds and you died - it wouldnt be good). I know the majority of people in my area have very similar internet connections, with the same issues, and this is one of the better-off parts of the city - so something like this would be completely out of the question for a large number of people. But it would give the game publishers even more control over what we do and dont do with our games, and let them do away with the idea of actually selling any copies to people completely (if its successful), so I expect plenty of games publishers will love it. Hopefully they wont take to releasing their games exclusively on it though. To look on the bright side though... at least we wouldn't have to deal with DRM spying on us anymore. :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bben46 Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 Sounds like another way to milk gamers for fees to play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vagrant0 Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 To look on the bright side though... at least we wouldn't have to deal with DRM spying on us anymore. :PNo, instead you need to register with the company with a credit card, pay monthly fees for the service, and then pay more for every "premium" (released in the last 5 years) game hosted by their service. In a sense, it's worse than any DRM since not only are you renting the game from a company, you're also paying to maintain their service so that you can rent the game and play it on their machines... As well as paying for your own internet connection, computer, electricity. And for that, they can watch what you do in games, how you play, when you play, and get all of that interesting behavior, and tie it in with a credit card, IP, home address, name, and user account. All without any reasonable alternatives, legal or otherwise. God forbid they ever have the idea of throwing in some adverts while loading. I short, this idea is great for companies, horrible for anyone who actually plays games. I would NEVER use a service like this, even if it was free/practical, even if it was the only way to play ANY games, I'd just simply take up the old pass time of having fun in real life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LHammonds Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 I'm with the ugly guy wearing the hat above me. Well said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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