new 'console' called OnLive

[GSZX1337]

Sounds a bit like the Phantom (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_(game_system)) to me!

Damn, you beat me to it!

[nickfil]

For some reason this news just enrages me. Maybe not so much the news, but that so many people are buying into it already and calling it the revolution to save PC gaming.

I think keeping a cool head in both not calling it a pc gaming revolution and also not damning it to the depths of hell would be a good thing for everyone. Barely anyone has seen it in action yet, I'd like to think the video game community can keep its cool and reserve judgment. If it delivers what it promises, it'll be a fun piece of equipment. If not- it'll be another failed console. No big deal.

[MrPopo]

There's certain technical considerations that make us skeptical.

[nickfil]

There's certain technical considerations that make us skeptical.

skeptical is fine, even encouraged. Gloom, doom, or personal savior.... too early for that.

I think with a console like this everyone is going to say it isn't going to work until the day they hold it in their hands and it works. I'm not saying onlive is going to be that console, just making a point.

[RadarScope1]

Also skeptical. It DOES sound like the Phantom.

Though I agree that this is the general direction things are going at some point, I don't see it happening right now just based on the very limited understand I have of the way it all works.

Reading about OnLive today, I somehow got the same feeling I had back in the early 90s, reading game magazines, hearing about this new CD technology that would bring us a world of movie-quality games and, not far behind, virtual reality. I really think my bullshit detector was born back in those days!

[Citizin]

A machine that always has to be connected to the internet, along with a service that you must continue paying or else all the content you bought through digital distribution would no longer be accessible, leaving you with a useless, shiny brick.

Modern gaming continues to swirl down the smooth inner surface of a toilet into extreme limitation and restriction to what you own. Also shitty games.

[Jayson]

I'm taking a wait and see with this one. I am not opposed to the idea of not owning the game, especially if they sell some sort of subscription access to it 'ala GameTap. I saw the "rent for 5 days" option in the Gamespot video from GDC and that might not be a bad idea if it's not too expensive.

I can't count how many PC games that I have bought for full price only to get tired of them and set them aside after too little time or finished within a weekend. I use Gamefly for most new console games for that reason.

Now on to the technical side of things. I know it's technically possible to do this, but I don't think it will be playable outside of the same web based games that we can play now. Now maybe even turn based strategy and RPG games can be playable too, but I don't think that anybody will be satisfied with the way a FPS or rhythm based game will play. Even if they manage to somehow get the compression down to where minimal info has to be passed over the internet, there is still so much latency involved that is outside their control.

[MrPopo]

Exactly. Think of it this way. When I'm playing Street Fighter IV online, my system knows the exact frame that I did an input. It takes 100 ms for that to get to my opponent, but the game has mechanisms for reconciling this lag. When I play on OnLive, it takes 100 ms for the game to even realize that I did an input. That's a completely different problem.

[gradualmeltdown]

If they can do it great. I'll believe it when I see it. Let me play Street Fighter 4 or something like Team Fortress online with someone else and have it feel like Xbox Live or PSN.

Its hard to believe they have some sort of magic the rest of the industry does not. If they do than the technology they created to make this service possible is more valuable than providing the service.


On the other side what does this mean to collectors? There is a market for people who love to collect physical media and it is huge. People love their CD, vinyl, and gaming collections alike. With most media moving over to digital distro who will market to people like them (us) Maybe instead of collecting little cases and carts we will recieve exclusive posters, figures, or other swag only with purchase of the game. I for one think that would be a different and fun way of representing ones collection. I do love racks of games, but the art, design, and general feel of the games is what I want to collect, not a bunch of discs.

[vejita]

It's like comparing eBooks to printed books- people were(are) both excited and worried about the transfer from the physical to the digital and claimed either ebooks would ruin the feeling of reading or save billions of trees...

I think as a society we tend to be unrealistic when new technology (or presented as "new," like the "making-water-from-air" contraption) is thrusted upon us- remember the "holograms" during the election? I heard so many people (mostly democrats for they were watching fervently) say things like,

"Look how advanced we are now! Just LOOK AT IT!!"

My enthusiastic roommate told me about the onlive and I was immediately skeptical. I figured that they had to be using something different, but what would that be? I don't know much about computers or game engineering, but I do notice patterns...