If you haven’t seen or heard of OnLive yet, prepare to have your mind blown. OnLive may be the most interesting innovation in video games of the past year. Here’s a brief taste of what it does.
Gaming in the Clouds
OnLive is cloud streaming video games. That means that it delivers quality video game entertainment while mostly doing away with going to the local game store, with the need for an expensive game console, or with being locked into gaming on a single PC. OnLive plays where you are, on your PC, Mac or TV. Instantly.
The way it works is simple. OnLive’s game library is installed in the cloud. You access that cloud in a variety of ways through your internet connection. First you create an account for free at OnLive’s web site. Then you download and install a small app to your computer, or you hook up the “microconsole” to your TV. Once installed, sign in to your account and you have instant access to hundreds of video games. You can install the app on as many devices as you want, and when you buy and play a game, your saves and progress get tied to your login account. So your game progress goes to whatever device you happen to be on at the moment.
OnLive also does away with the need to download the games or their demos, at all. In this respect, it gains an advantage over its most obvious competitor, the Steam game network, which requires local downloads for all the content you choose to access. So where, in the Steam universe, you might wait hours just to sample a demo of a game you’re considering purchasing, with OnLive, once you click on the Game Trial button, you’re automatically and instantly allowed to demo the game.
OnLive’s optional microconsole also gives it an edge over the more expensive XBox360 and PS3 consoles, in cost, portability and ease of use. Because the games are installed in the cloud, there is no need for discs, and therefore no moving parts inside OnLive’s tiny box. No red rings of death, no DVD readers that suddenly die. And at just a bit larger than an iPhone, the OnLive console will fit anywhere, while at $129 off Amazon for the box and a wireless controller, it fits just about any budget too. Apple fans will appreciate the packaging in which the console arrives; it’s a sleek black box reminiscent of the packaging in which Apple places the iPhone.
“OnLive demands a fat internet pipe.”
Has anyone actually seen one of these? I hear that they exist, but suspect they are like the mythical unicorn, born of the fevered imagination of small children.
I live on the edge of Atlanta, which is supposedly a modern metropolis located in the most prosperous nation on the face of the earth, and the best I can get is a DSL connection that averages less that 500Kbps.
I live in podunk nowhere Kansas and have a 16mbs fiber to the home connection. *ducks*
I heard about this just a couple months ago, then promptly forgot about it; I’d meant to check it out. Interesting concept. I hadn’t thought about it then as a head-to-head competitor for Steam, which rely on a lot! Three disadvantages I can think of right off the top: What about those times you don’t have Internet? Or the service is sluggish? As Tolbert notes. I’m smack dab in the middle of the High Tech Nation, about an hour outside Boston, and sometimes my provider absolutely SUCKS. What about multiple computers in the house? I doubt it will let you be logged on to the same account from two different computers at the same time. With Steam, my kids can play the games on one machine logged in, and I can play offline on another. Finally, and this would be a huge issue for me, I think: What about mods? For those unfamiliar, a “mod” (modification) is a custom addition to a regularly purchased game that can convert it into a game almost entirely different, or provide variations and expansions for a familiar game. They are free, and many are extremely innovative and clever. I am big into the Half-Life/Half-Life 2 games, and some of the mods for these are just stunning. When I bought Half Life, I didn’t get just that game, I got an amazing amount of additional gameplay on top of it. I highly doubt a purely streaming format would be able to do that. I man, I’m sure it has its pluses, and I mean to check it out, but it isn’t going to revolutionize gaming.
I heard about this just a couple months ago, then promptly forgot about it; I’d meant to check it out. Interesting concept. I hadn’t thought about it then as a head-to-head competitor for Steam, which rely on a lot! Three disadvantages I can think of right off the top: What about those times you don’t have Internet? Or the service is sluggish? As Tolbert notes. I’m smack dab in the middle of the High Tech Nation, about an hour outside Boston, and sometimes my provider absolutely STINKS. What about multiple computers in the house? I doubt it will let you be logged on to the same account from two different computers at the same time. With Steam, my kids can play the games on one machine logged in, and I can play offline on another. Finally, and this would be a huge issue for me, I think: What about mods? For those unfamiliar, a “mod” (modification) is a custom addition to a regularly purchased game that can convert it into a game almost entirely different, or provide variations and expansions for a familiar game. They are free, and many are extremely innovative and clever. I am big into the Half-Life/Half-Life 2 games, and some of the mods for these are just stunning. When I bought Half Life, I didn’t get just that game, I got an amazing amount of additional gameplay on top of it. I highly doubt a purely streaming format would be able to do that. I man, I’m sure it has its pluses, and I mean to check it out, but it isn’t going to revolutionize gaming.
OK quick update- first off, on my PC, first thing it told me was that I do indeed have to install their software – so it’s not purely streaming. Then, it stalled halfway through and told me it connect to the OnLive servers. Not impressed.
You’ll pardon me if I stand back and wait for this to develop, this app absolutely depends on your “pipe” and the “cloud”, wherever the latter is. Multiple servers ?, if not you’re at the mercy of a spiderweb of routers and networks, all subject to fail at a moments notice, just as I’m about to “insta-gib” my opponent.
I have a pipe: it’s called a door to the outside world.