OnLive: The future of gaming?

A bombshell has gone off in the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco that could change the face of PC and console gaming.
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OnLive, a new game/service being spun off from Rearden Studios, promises state-of-the-art games playable on any junk PC or Intel-based Mac. How? By moving the burden of all the heavy number/physics crunching (i.e. the stuff that requires biannual upgrading just to keep up) from your machine to their own remote servers.

All your computer will be doing is accepting controller and/or keyboard input and sending to the servers via your broadband connection. The remote servers, jam-packed with the fastest processors and RAM, will then pipe back what your monitor needs to display. OnLive says that thanks to its advanced compression, it has cut latency to about a millisecond.

"Cloud computing" such as this isn't a new idea. Anyone remember the Phantom, which offered a similar promise before ending up producing just a keyboard? One key difference is software support: OnLive has the backing of nine big players, including EA, Warner Bros. Interactive, Ubisoft and Take-Two.

"This is all well and good, but how does this affect consoles?" you might ask. Turns out that OnLive will be available not only via your computer, but also by way of a small box that can connect to your TV. Kick back on your sofa with one of the OnLive wireless controllers (which look a lot like the Xbox 360 pad) and play. Don't worry about having to buy the next generation of console, as OnLive will routinely up its tech behind the scenes.

I'm not a big fan of digital distribution for gaming, preferring to have a physical copy of a $60 title in my possession, but even I find this at least intriguing. Many details (e.g. pricing models, game titles) still need to be revealed, but OnLive seems to have its act together.

The odds of this succeeding seem to be greater on the PC than in the realm of consoles. For one thing, console makers won't be bringing their first-party titles over to a competitor, which means no 'Halo,' 'Ratchet & Clank' or Mario or Zelda. (PC gaming is much more of a "wild west," where there really isn't such a thing as first-party.)

Gamespot has an in-depth feature on the service, including photos of the unit and controllers and examples of the user interface. Take a look and tell me what you think.

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Source：INDYSTAR.COM

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