OnLive: Cloud-Based Gaming of the Future

[Rodger]

You know, I knew gaming would come down to this eventually, but I certainly wouldn't have expected to see an actual system dedicated to it this soon. At least not with any reliability. I wouldn't say this is the 'last major console generation' but, by the 8th or 9th console generation, services like OnLive will likely replace consoles. Sony definitely wouldn't be able to compete with something like that, Microsoft could probably get in on it, and Nintendo would either try to get in on it, stick to handhelds, or go the way of SEGA. If its even remotely plausible right now, then it'll only be a generation or two away from having fast enough connections to truly take off and enter the console wars. It would undoubtedly have a subscription service, but the 'console' itself wouldn't cost much at all (assuming they don't just hand them out for free) and the games themselves would likely be reduced in price since they're cutting out the retailer, and storage medium/production.

The console itself is apparently getting a demo at the GDC with 16 games, including Mirror's Edge and Crysis, so we might see some feedback/opinions on it. Wonder if it'd make an appearance at E3. If nothing else, it certainly has some big name supporters. Even if its not ready yet, though, it'd be silly not to think this isn't the direction gaming will be going and we're definitely getting close to being 'ready'.

I'll be keeping tabs on this, personally, just to see how it works out.

 

[TheDukester]

This is wishful thinking. The latency is "as good as a LAN connection"--I remember playing on LAN back in the day, and now that I've switched to broadband, the idea of going back is not pretty. I don't like the idea of my single player games possibly lagging, much less multiplayer.

I know IGN's article mentions how they tried it and weren't bothered by lag, but they were playing in an idealized world, where bandwith isn't taken up my other things. Of course OnLive was trying to impress them.

Let's move towards digital distribution, not digital monopoly.

 

[Blaxton]

I use a thin client on my phone that is capable of rending Hulu, Youtube, and almost all other streaming video.

Streaming video means reading a file off a hard drive and sending it over the internet. Streaming gameplay means having a beast of a machine for each user actually running the game in memory (Crysis likes to have at least 1GB all by itself) and rendering each frame, then compressing it, THEN sending it over the internet. Most streaming video servers in place now that can handle hundreds of simultaneous live video feeds couldn't run ONE instance of Crysis at 1280x720p at 30fps.

You're misunderstanding the point of my anecdote. The lead-in to my post was meant to show one example of how this kind of thinking can be used to empower weak hardware and allow it to perform duties otherwise only possible on a more robust system.

There is a relevant point in there about scalability, meaning that the systems needs to be pricey and completely up to date to handle a game like Crysis. I can't argue with that and I entirely agree with it. The company, having gone this far, must have some sound financial documents that provide for profits within a reasonable time frame.

I have to say, though, the company has attracted major developers/publishers and shown a working demo to the people at IGN. I'm not saying this service is going to work and turn our 360s and PS3s into horrendously over-sized doorstops. What I am saying is that there is tremendous potential in this line of thinking, and writing it off because of the theoretical impossibilities is being negative rather than critical. Saying "it'll never work" before even witnessing an off-screen video is jumping the gun.

KDR, consider that blinking one's eyes takes longer than the amount of time you calculated. Up to 10x as long. I understand you're talking about ideal conditions, but it should be pointed out that 50ms (.05 seconds) of lag is negligible.

 

[somerandomguy76]

The traditionalist in me is skeptic with this tech as it is with all "on-demand" services. I like my packaged software thank you very much. It's nice to have something solid in your hands instead of just a few MBs on a computer.

Change-resisting aside, the tech behind it is fascinating, on the terms that it will work on an average connection. Here's hoping it doesn't turn out to be a swap of investing in hardware to investing in a blazing connection.

I'll wait for a demo to judge however...

 

[SonofSeth]

4G

 

[Falien]

Seeing as other software like document and data processing utilities has already made the leap from local to web-based applications (eg. Google Docs [http://docs.google.com/] and Acrobat.com [http://www.acrobat.com]), it's not hard to imagine games taking the same approach. The only difference is in processing power needed and communication speeds, both of which are ever-growing factors.

Sure, there will be problems, but then again there are always problems with new technologies. For myself, I think it's the wave of the future.

 

[t.tocs]

I just don't see this program being any good for the next few years. It's going to come out, have a bunch of issues it needs to work out...but once they iron out all the issues, this could be a really good tool for video game sales. I just don't think it's going to be big for another couple years.

 

[JemJar]

Does no-one else in this world live behind a "fair use policy" or "download limit" or similar? I've seen figures touting requirement of a 5Mbps connection required for an HD-quality game. If you're maxxing out that connection speed then lets do some quick maths:

8 bits to a byte: 5Mbps -> 0.625MBps

60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes to an hour: 3600s/hour

So gaming for an hour requires: 2250MB of data = 2.198GB.

I reckon I can get about two and a half hours of HD gaming per month.

Now there's a good chance that the connection speed required wont be the full 5Mbps, but the OnLive folks are hardly likely to be massively over-estimating the requirements in their own press releases.

 

[Blaxton]

I wonder how many people thought that transmitting one's voice over a wire was impossible.

How many people believed transmitting sound without wire was impossible. How many people believed that you couldn't transmit video over a wire, over the air, over a cable and on-demand.

How many people thought the Wii would fail because it's basically a compacted GameCube with motion controls?

No matter how many problems you enumerate it doesn't change the fact that there was a live, multiplayer game of Crysis demoed live in front of an audience at the GDC.

They claim to have two data centers currently and are working on another. They are also claiming that games will be playable from up to 1000mi away. Basically, they are saying they will have the US entirely within range of at least one data center.

Also, you don't HAVE to play in HD. I have a Wii, PS3 and a 360, only one of those is set up to output in HD with an HDMI (the PS3 for it's bluray capabilities) and I enjoy them all equally.

According to an engadget article:

Broadband connections of 1.5Mbps (71% of US homes have 2Mbps or greater) dials the image quality down to Wii levels while 4-5Mbps pipes are required for HD resolution.

You don't NEED to play in HD. 1.5Mbs isn't all that crazy. In fact, it's not really that demanding at all.

 

[Jursa]

If this thing works I can clearly say that we exist in the Matrix where by a glitch in the system, OnLive can break the laws of physics and general laws of reality. But just in case it does break them, the thing itself requires a minimum of 1.5 mb constant speed. Here's another problem that pops up, so a short disconnection or simply a momentary flicker of power would end the game? Then comes another problem of how they're gonna actually control it if many people are active, Steam just downloads the game and let's you run it, this is the intention to hold the game constantly, which metaphorically speaking, will make the OnLive pull a muscle.

 

[JemJar]

According to an engadget article:

Broadband connections of 1.5Mbps (71% of US homes have 2Mbps or greater) dials the image quality down to Wii levels while 4-5Mbps pipes are required for HD resolution.

You don't NEED to play in HD. 1.5Mbs isn't all that crazy. In fact, it's not really that demanding at all.

Adjusting my maths for a 1.5Mbps connection means that 5GB of bandwidth is soaked up after less than 10 hours of gaming in a month. I am (courtesy of my landlord) on a connection from Tiscali (one of the UK's leading broadband providers) who regularly shaft my connection after 6pm on the basis that we (in a student house I share with some torrent-whores) have exceeded the company's limits on "fair-use". And by "shaft" I mean, YouTube isn't worth the effort.

We're all on a gaming forum so I'm guessing the propsect of 20 minutes of gaming per day seems rather low. Until the broadband networks over here are upgraded to the point where limitless use is available, OnLive will not succeed.

 

[Falien]

Imagine if your standard console or PC was 100 miles away from you and your controller and TV/monitor cables were 100 miles long. Then imagine that someone is standing around your console, upgrading it as necessary to run newer games. Now, replace the console with a super-powerful server that can do the same job for thousands of people simultaneously, then reroute the cables through the (already existing) high-speed internet cable network. That's OnLive's functionality in the crudest of terms. It's not impossible, it's just new and, as such, it is bound to run into problems, both anticipated and unforseen.

Whether it succeeds or not will depend on how they deal with those problems. I, for one, think it will work.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

And people think that DRM is a bad way to handle piracy... I think you'd have a better gameplay experience with SecureROM munching on your processor than you would with this atavistic vision of gaming on dumb terminals.

No. Bad idea, one that relies not on cloud computing but cloud-cuckooland computing for any experience resembling today's A+ titles. Bad idea. No biscuit.

-- Steve