OnLive Making Its Way Around the World

[Tom Goldman]

OnLive Making Its Way Around the World

The world's first streaming videogame service is now available in regions outside of the U.S.

OnLive currently allows users to play videogames on their PCs by streaming them from OnLive servers through the internet, negating system requirements, but the service was previously only available in the U.S. Traveling too far from the OnLive "data centers" meant that the service couldn't be used. This won't be the case for much longer, as OnLive has announced that it'll be increasingly adding support throughout the rest of the world.

Specific regions weren't directly named other than the announcement of launches in Belgium and Luxembourg, but OnLive says it'll be playable both "overseas" and "over the border." For now, until specifics are worked out, OnLive says: "The best way to see if OnLive works for you outside the U.S. is to give it a try."

The company plans to continually open non-U.S. data centers in the future and says it'll get "steadily better" with increasing range in the coming months. This worldwide support adds another advantage to using the service, as an OnLive game could potentially be played on multiple computers throughout someone's travels on many different computers.

Whether the service is something you'd use or not, few other companies can say they improve at such a quick rate, with OnLive also announcing Gaikai [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103241-OnLive-Planning-Wi-Fi-Support-Huge-Weekend-Sale-Begins] and other potential competitors on the horizon, these constant improvements aren't a bad idea at all.

Permalink

 

[lacktheknack]

It's looking consistently better... I wonder if this can be used against the "Pirate to Try It" idea?

 

[imnot]

on live sounds like a crap idea though!
please dont ditch disks!

 

[thenumberthirteen]

So they want us foreigners to try it out now (basically removed the location locks)? Neat.

on live sounds like a crap idea though!
please dont ditch disks!

On the contrary. I think OnLive is fantastic. I did a lot of research into it for my degree and I am fascinated by the concept of high powered cloud computing. such a service could (and will) be used to run programs such as Adobe Photoshop or high end video editing software on any device. This could be a great boon for home users and small businesses . Also it will leapfrog mobile computing developments allowing low powered phones to perform the same tasks as giant desktops. I see this as the future.

EDIT: I just tried to sign in from the UK on a fast connection (~10mb/s)and it said the latency was too high to proceed

I have a great gaming PC anyway so it doesn't matter.

EDIT THE SECOND: It recommends you have a latency of less than 25msec to run the service. No hope there then. I can get about 35msec to a server about 30 miles away. Doubt I'd reach America.

 

[imnot]

So they want us foreigners to try it out now (basically removed the location locks)? Neat.

on live sounds like a crap idea though!
please dont ditch disks!

On the contrary. I think OnLive is fantastic. I did a lot of research into it for my degree and I am fascinated by the concept of high powered cloud computing. such a service could (and will) be used to run programs such as Adobe Photoshop or high end video editing software on any device. This could be a great boon for home users and small businesses . Also it will leapfrog mobile computing developments allowing low powered phones to perform the same tasks as giant desktops. I see this as the future.

Oh no I can see why its good, but for people like me with slow and expencive internet, it just dosent work.

 

[Keava]

I have a great gaming PC anyway so it doesn't matter.

EDIT THE SECOND: It recommends you have a latency of less than 25msec to run the service. No hope there then. I can get about 35msec to a server about 30 miles away. Doubt I'd reach America.

Be happy you got that far. I get "The application encountered unexpected Error" so i guess i won't even consider giving it a try. Then again requirement of 25ms latency is pretty harsh considering im happy with ~50ms to European servers.

 

[aseelt]

Huh? I was using OnLive last week and I'm in the UK.

 

[boholikeu]

So they want us foreigners to try it out now (basically removed the location locks)? Neat.

on live sounds like a crap idea though!
please dont ditch disks!

On the contrary. I think OnLive is fantastic. I did a lot of research into it for my degree and I am fascinated by the concept of high powered cloud computing. such a service could (and will) be used to run programs such as Adobe Photoshop or high end video editing software on any device. This could be a great boon for home users and small businesses . Also it will leapfrog mobile computing developments allowing low powered phones to perform the same tasks as giant desktops. I see this as the future.

EDIT: I just tried to sign in from the UK on a fast connection (~10mb/s)and it said the latency was too high to proceed

I have a great gaming PC anyway so it doesn't matter.

EDIT THE SECOND: It recommends you have a latency of less than 25msec to run the service. No hope there then. I can get about 35msec to a server about 30 miles away. Doubt I'd reach America.

Did you do any research into the economics about it? How do they pay for all that bandwidth now that they no longer have a monthly fee? I'd like to try the service out, but I'm kinda worried about losing any games I buy there if the company goes under.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

So they want us foreigners to try it out now (basically removed the location locks)? Neat.

on live sounds like a crap idea though!
please dont ditch disks!

On the contrary. I think OnLive is fantastic. I did a lot of research into it for my degree and I am fascinated by the concept of high powered cloud computing. such a service could (and will) be used to run programs such as Adobe Photoshop or high end video editing software on any device. This could be a great boon for home users and small businesses . Also it will leapfrog mobile computing developments allowing low powered phones to perform the same tasks as giant desktops. I see this as the future.

EDIT: I just tried to sign in from the UK on a fast connection (~10mb/s)and it said the latency was too high to proceed

I have a great gaming PC anyway so it doesn't matter.

EDIT THE SECOND: It recommends you have a latency of less than 25msec to run the service. No hope there then. I can get about 35msec to a server about 30 miles away. Doubt I'd reach America.

Did you do any research into the economics about it? How do they pay for all that bandwidth now that they no longer have a monthly fee? I'd like to try the service out, but I'm kinda worried about losing any games I buy there if the company goes under.

Well it was charging a monthly fee and hadn't come out when I did research. I'd assume they'd use the money they get from selling games, extras, Consoles, Accessories, advertising (maybe), as well their deals with telecom companies.

 

[boholikeu]

Did you do any research into the economics about it? How do they pay for all that bandwidth now that they no longer have a monthly fee? I'd like to try the service out, but I'm kinda worried about losing any games I buy there if the company goes under.

Well it was charging a monthly fee and hadn't come out when I did research. I'd assume they'd use the money they get from selling games, extras, Consoles, Accessories, advertising (maybe), as well their deals with telecom companies.

Hm, I suppose with advertising and telecom deals I suppose it'd be feasible.

I still think I'll wait a bit to see how it turns out before I spend any money on it though.

 

[Nevyrmoore]

On the contrary. I think OnLive is fantastic. I did a lot of research into it for my degree and I am fascinated by the concept of high powered cloud computing. such a service could (and will) be used to run programs such as Adobe Photoshop or high end video editing software on any device. This could be a great boon for home users and small businesses . Also it will leapfrog mobile computing developments allowing low powered phones to perform the same tasks as giant desktops. I see this as the future.

EDIT: I just tried to sign in from the UK on a fast connection (~10mb/s)and it said the latency was too high to proceed

I have a great gaming PC anyway so it doesn't matter.

EDIT THE SECOND: It recommends you have a latency of less than 25msec to run the service. No hope there then. I can get about 35msec to a server about 30 miles away. Doubt I'd reach America.

For businesses and home users, yes, I agree that cloud computing seems like a good idea. But for those of us who actually want to own their software and still have it available to them if a company goes under, it's bad. It means that at any given time, our ability to play the game could be taken away from us for whatever reason, and we wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

On the contrary. I think OnLive is fantastic. I did a lot of research into it for my degree and I am fascinated by the concept of high powered cloud computing. such a service could (and will) be used to run programs such as Adobe Photoshop or high end video editing software on any device. This could be a great boon for home users and small businesses . Also it will leapfrog mobile computing developments allowing low powered phones to perform the same tasks as giant desktops. I see this as the future.

EDIT: I just tried to sign in from the UK on a fast connection (~10mb/s)and it said the latency was too high to proceed

I have a great gaming PC anyway so it doesn't matter.

EDIT THE SECOND: It recommends you have a latency of less than 25msec to run the service. No hope there then. I can get about 35msec to a server about 30 miles away. Doubt I'd reach America.

For businesses and home users, yes, I agree that cloud computing seems like a good idea. But for those of us who actually want to own their software and still have it available to them if a company goes under, it's bad. It means that at any given time, our ability to play the game could be taken away from us for whatever reason, and we wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

Hopefully this'll be an issue that will be addressed in legislation and business practices. Like how if a holiday company goes under all those abroad get flown back.

Though you'll take the same sort of risk when you buy an MMO.

 

[Nevyrmoore]

On the contrary. I think OnLive is fantastic. I did a lot of research into it for my degree and I am fascinated by the concept of high powered cloud computing. such a service could (and will) be used to run programs such as Adobe Photoshop or high end video editing software on any device. This could be a great boon for home users and small businesses . Also it will leapfrog mobile computing developments allowing low powered phones to perform the same tasks as giant desktops. I see this as the future.

EDIT: I just tried to sign in from the UK on a fast connection (~10mb/s)and it said the latency was too high to proceed

I have a great gaming PC anyway so it doesn't matter.

EDIT THE SECOND: It recommends you have a latency of less than 25msec to run the service. No hope there then. I can get about 35msec to a server about 30 miles away. Doubt I'd reach America.

For businesses and home users, yes, I agree that cloud computing seems like a good idea. But for those of us who actually want to own their software and still have it available to them if a company goes under, it's bad. It means that at any given time, our ability to play the game could be taken away from us for whatever reason, and we wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

Hopefully this'll be an issue that will be addressed in legislation and business practices. Like how if a holiday company goes under all those abroad get flown back.

Though you'll take the same sort of risk when you buy an MMO.

I'd expect to be taking such a risk with MMOs. They're designed to be played on-line, there is no off-line section. However, I don't particularly expect, or like, taking such a risk with off-line single player games.

 

[Asehujiko]

It's looking consistently better... I wonder if this can be used against the "Pirate to Try It" idea?

Except that they don't offer demos or free trails. Just 3 days for ?20 or 3 years for ?60(or less if they go under before that). Which is WAY too much in any scenario.

 

[Tom Phoenix]

Honestly, I think OnLive is going about this the wrong way. Rather then dropping subscriptions fees and making users buy the games they want to play, they should have kept them and offered users the ability to "borrow" games for a limited fee. PC gaming is in sore need of a rental service and cloud technology would be the perfect way to offer it. Plus, by only "borrowing" games, they would not garner the wrath of hardware manufactuers and would potentially even gain their support (since it could represent a way to entice consumers to purchase new hardware).

As it is set right now, I don't think OnLive is going to set the world on fire (although I am sure tech enthusiasts are excited).

 

[Vzzdak]

I'm up in Canada, and I just finished using my MacBook Pro to play the Batman: Arkham Asylum demo. Both the graphics and responsiveness were good. Mind you, the WiFi support is still in Beta, and I found it developing a "network issue" and hanging about every two minutes. Hooking my system directly to the router worked fine, though.

I was interested in playing more, and trying some of the other titles. Unfortunately, their billing system is currently restricted to United States, and the response from customer support was that they don't have a fixed date for accepting international credit cards. Must imagine that it's in the works, though. I believe I'm feeling an odd sensation along the lines of "anticipation."

 

[MazeMinion]

As much as I hate to say it, OnLive could potentially work if pulled off correctly.

The dropping of the subscription fee is a step in the right direction.

 

[SelectivelyEvil13]

Honestly, I think OnLive is going about this the wrong way. Rather then dropping subscriptions fees and making users buy the games they want to play, they should have kept them and offered users the ability to "borrow" games for a limited fee. PC gaming is in sore need of a rental service and cloud technology would be the perfect way to offer it. Plus, by only "borrowing" games, they would not garner the wrath of hardware manufactuers and would potentially even gain their support (since it could represent a way to entice consumers to purchase new hardware).

As it is set right now, I don't think OnLive is going to set the world on fire (although I am sure tech enthusiasts are excited).

That is a good thought because you're right, the PC game market lacks a legal equivalent to Blockbuster or Gamefly, for instance, making it much harder to determine if a game is worth a buy when there might be only a demo for a brief test.

Physical ownership and hardware upgrades still have the upper-hand in most scenarios, especially since nobody knows how long Onlive will potentially last. Dropping the fee was pretty much required because even now it's still a risk to invest money in what is essentially an experimental framework for this type of service. If it takes off, great. Otherwise, the user will be left hoping for some compensation if their Onlive games become vapor.

 

[jebussaves88]

So they want us foreigners to try it out now (basically removed the location locks)? Neat.

on live sounds like a crap idea though!
please dont ditch disks!

On the contrary. I think OnLive is fantastic. I did a lot of research into it for my degree and I am fascinated by the concept of high powered cloud computing. such a service could (and will) be used to run programs such as Adobe Photoshop or high end video editing software on any device. This could be a great boon for home users and small businesses . Also it will leapfrog mobile computing developments allowing low powered phones to perform the same tasks as giant desktops. I see this as the future.

EDIT: I just tried to sign in from the UK on a fast connection (~10mb/s)and it said the latency was too high to proceed

I have a great gaming PC anyway so it doesn't matter.

EDIT THE SECOND: It recommends you have a latency of less than 25msec to run the service. No hope there then. I can get about 35msec to a server about 30 miles away. Doubt I'd reach America.

Might be area dependent, or it might have got better in the last month, but it's working for me now. It looks iffy, but then, seeing as it hasn't officially launched here, I consider the last hour I spent playing Dirt 2 and PoP as a demo of the service. I think I shall be using the PC version of this fo' sho