Wednesday, March 25th 2009
New On-Demand Gaming Platform Threatens to Kill Gaming PC Upgrades
We all regard PC games, as an entertainment medium, but spend hundreds to even thousands of Dollars regularly, to keep our PCs up to date, to be able to play the latest PC games. Imagine a medium that rids us of that, and we are able to consume PC gaming like any other content, like the TV or radio. Well, that the potential a new on-demand gaming platform holds - to make you never have to buy/upgrade a gaming PC again.
Called OnLive, the on-demand platform consists of a web service, an internet connection, and a thin-client, called "micro-console" that connects your input (game controllers), and output (monitor/TV/HDTV). You control the game - whichever you're subscribed to and playing - the client relays your input to the OnLive servers, that do the processing, including graphics rendering, and send back output to your client. The client then displays the output. Sounds familiar? Cloud computing? Exactly, but for PC gaming. The platform is conceptualized to be advanced-enough to handle any of today's games, Crysis included. The work-model of this platform is what makes it tick with any game, and is far more future-proof than the present mode of PC gaming (where people own expensive hardware that are in requirement of upgrades, the costs of buying games, buying gaming services separate).
For standard definition television quality, a broadband connection of at least 1.5 megabits per second is required. For HDTV resolution, a connection of at least 5 mbps is needed. The service uses patented algorithms that work to counter lag caused by network constraints. The technology is already gaining attention from major publishers, including EA, THQ, Codemasters, Ubisoft, Atari, Warner Bros., Take-Two, and Epic. People can buy or rent a game to play it, the usage fees are expected not to be much more than the subscription fees for Xbox Live.
Source:
Kokatu
Called OnLive, the on-demand platform consists of a web service, an internet connection, and a thin-client, called "micro-console" that connects your input (game controllers), and output (monitor/TV/HDTV). You control the game - whichever you're subscribed to and playing - the client relays your input to the OnLive servers, that do the processing, including graphics rendering, and send back output to your client. The client then displays the output. Sounds familiar? Cloud computing? Exactly, but for PC gaming. The platform is conceptualized to be advanced-enough to handle any of today's games, Crysis included. The work-model of this platform is what makes it tick with any game, and is far more future-proof than the present mode of PC gaming (where people own expensive hardware that are in requirement of upgrades, the costs of buying games, buying gaming services separate).
For standard definition television quality, a broadband connection of at least 1.5 megabits per second is required. For HDTV resolution, a connection of at least 5 mbps is needed. The service uses patented algorithms that work to counter lag caused by network constraints. The technology is already gaining attention from major publishers, including EA, THQ, Codemasters, Ubisoft, Atari, Warner Bros., Take-Two, and Epic. People can buy or rent a game to play it, the usage fees are expected not to be much more than the subscription fees for Xbox Live.
246 Comments on New On-Demand Gaming Platform Threatens to Kill Gaming PC Upgrades
I mean how did the PC industry become so famous?
Yea, maybe manufacturers won't let you upgrade because of hardware limitations, incompatibility, ect.
But, back in the day people would work for no money, no benefits, just to see what could be done with these machines. It was amazing and such a great time when expansion cards were on the rise, and now some people don't even want to work on their PC's anymore, the just want the satisfaction of using a mouse and keyboard to play a game without spending alot. I mean who doesn't, but that's when I come back to the mentality. YOU CAN'T GET THE -I built this. It works. I can play this game. I have the knowledge to put it together.- SATISFACTION.
I'm sorry, but it pisses me off.
This has to be one of the story's that has caught the most of my attention.
I have played like this before at AMOCO(aka now BP Oil)
On a terminal station with a SGI Supercomputer running game demos on a 10/100 network way way way back in the 90s.
You know what? It worked just fine.
All they would be sending back is a video, and the few commands of what's next.
Netfilx, hulu and others have proved to us that video can come down on the net just fine. The only difference is that there will be no buffers. It has to be live. Now the US on this will suck because we have the worst net there is. YET you can do some bad ass stuff on just 480p or 480i transmissions. To say you can not is a lie, pop in any PIXAR movie on a old TV will prove just that to you.
I want to see a live demo on what demos they already have running.
As long as there is a market to sell to, companies will make money. Short of all PC gamers shutting off their boxes and closing their wallets, the market will continue.
Their just trying to sell this "technology" to some poor sucker.
by the time the worlds (internet) ready in 10 to 15 years it may work but will be a small niche for people with crapy pcs
The day that a pc is just a monitor with total dependancy on the internet for all its content, o/s,software, etc will come,and that is very scary.
Okay true, for those who can barely afford anything, this is great. Its not a bad idea at all in fact. Only issue is that if theres less people buying PCs then this plan goes out of the window as hardware costs and the squeezed demand in the IT sector will force prices up as the drops in price have been demand driven.
But at the moment, considering how most people have huge connection issues, this concept isnt desirable.
However I do see one HUGE advantage; multiplayer.
Can't a man have his hobby's?
If it was purely about the gaming i would not even use it.
I spend more time modding and oc'ing then gaming on my pc
People back then just wanted to see what you could do with them.
It just wasn't about ONE thing, like games.
And if it was just another console, I wouldn't care, but it isn't, it's aimed at PC gamers/users.
True, you do things other than game for your PC.
But for those who view the PC and Consoles as gaming platforms? Would they spend a large sum of money? or something chepa like this? Obviously the latter.
Though this concept really is ahead of its time as we'd need a world where everyone doesn't suffer from connection issues.
I still think this wont be as successful as expectations. It will probably work but imagine 1 million people playing crysis simultaneously, each at 60 fps thats unthinkable.
1. My internet connection limits me to 20 gig of download per month. This thing would gobble this amount in no time at all. Now try to imagine how much you would pay after you bust your limit.
2. I like my PC and enjoy doing all kinds of things on it like typing stuff on TPU.
3. When i play a game, i don't need some bigass company knowing about it.
If it takes off it could end alot of fighting between fanboys in terms of the console wars. But i doubt Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo will let them take that huge of a bite out of the market, so they might show some interesting stuff at this years E3 to keep them on there side.