Ever since OnLive, the cloud streaming video game service, was unveiled in March, the internet has been abuzz at the prospect of playing high def games on even the lowest powered laptop anywhere with an internet connection. But how does it work? And can it work? Read on for the 411 on what could be the future of all gaming.
What exactly is OnLive?
OnLive calls itself a “Games On Demand service”. That doesn’t just mean another version of game download service Steam though. With OnLive, you won’t have to wait around watching a several gigabyte trawl onto your hard drive. Like a TV show on BBC iPlayer, OnLive streams the game to you within seconds, and it doesn’t matter what computer you’re using either. It can be a high end games machine, a MacBook, a lowly laptop or even just a TV – OnLive will play.
How does OnLive work?
Here’s a parallel: a webmail service like GMail. Google has its own servers on which it stores all your emails and spreadsheets: you can access your email on any computer or phone connected via the internet because you’re not storing them locally. OnLive does that with games, but goes one step further. It doesn’t just store the games, it stores the powerful hardware you need to run them, like graphic cards.
An OnLive server receives the control inputs you put in at your end of the internet (Mouse movements, directional keys etc), renders the graphics of your movements and actions just as a top notch gaming rig in your own room would, and shovels them back down the pipe to your screen for instant game streaming. The brunt is taken off your own machine, so even bare bones machines can play. You can see a demo of OnLive in action below.
Why is OnLive going to be the next big thing?
Broadband connections are speeding up all the time, and becoming available everywhere you go. Gradually, we’re seeing a movement towards applications all being run through a web browser: if something doesn’t need its own stand alone application you have to download, more people can take advantage of it more of the time. That’s what OnLive does for gaming, making button bashing instant and accessible. Wouldn’t you rather pay for what you play than having to fork out for a new console or PC every few years, and then buy the games themselves?
What if I already own a console? Is OnLive the end for Xbox 360 and PS3?
It’s unlikely: not everyone will buy into a subscription model for streaming gaming, and by the time the concept OnLive is pioneering becomes completely mainstream, your Xbox 360 and PS3 will be looking more than a little creaky anyway. OnLive is offering an interesting rival to the big three consoles though: it’s selling its own Micro Console, which slings the streaming game to your TV so you don’t even need a PC to play OnLive. It’s small and comes with an Xbox 360-like gamepad, but don’t rule out third party controllers in future.
Will all my old games become useless?
It’s up to games publishers to work with OnLive to stream their titles on the service so you won’t be able to play just any game you choose. That said, an impressive number of big name publishers are on board already, including EA, Ubisoft, Take-Two, Eidos, Atari, Codemasters and THQ so you won’t go lacking. Look at this way: your games will only become useless in the same way that they always have. And while OnLive hasn’t announced anything yet, we’d be surprised if it hasn’t clicked that it could make a killing from retro gaming.
How fast does my broadband need to be to play OnLive?
OnLive says the minimum speeds are 1.5Mbps broadband to play games in standard TV definition, and 5Mbps to enjoy 720p HD gaming at 60 frames per second. And with fibre optic speeds promising 150Mbps and greater in the future, we’ll all be laughing.
What will OnLive cost?
OnLive hasn’t announced pricing yet, but it’s likely to be a subscription based form of gaming. Just like you’d pay for World Of Warcraft now, but with more games than you can shake a John Goodman sized stick at.
Will OnLive work?
Er, no one’s quite sure: that question has caused divisions in the gaming industry. OnLive was announced and demoed at Games Developers Conference in the US earlier this year, and shown off on stage, it looked stunning: OnLive’s CEO showed off Crysis running on a lowly Dell XPS laptop that wouldn’t have been able to handle the graphic hogging game on its own. Attendees at the show also got to test it out, and by all reports it worked well, though reaction times weren’t quite fast enough to satisfy hardcore gamers.
But, and it’s a big but, that was a closed show with servers just running a few games at a time. Critics have questioned some of the stats OnLive claims, particularly about the resolutions and speeds it will be able to offer. Eurogamer points out that the video compression and rendering speeds OnLive promises would have to be an epochal leap forward (YouTube’s servers can’t encode HD video in realtime, and that doesn’t even require game graphics rendering on the fly) to avoid lag, which would ruin any type of action game. The hardware is also an issue. For OnLive to handle high end games, you’d need a very low ratio of users to incredible, expensive computers – just how would OnLive be able to recoup its costs?
OnLive insists it will work though, going so far as to brand its critics “ignorant”. And here’s the thing: if OnLive is peddling snake oil, why has the entire PC gaming industry signed on?
When will OnLive come out?
OnLive says it will launch in Winter 2009 in the US, with beta testing beginning later this Summer – which is when we’ll find out if the prophecies of doom are correct or not. Over here, the news is not so good. Fast internet speeds are crucial for the success of OnLive, so you’ll only be able to get the benefits if you’re near an OnLive data centre – of which there are only two (three shortly) in the US. Data can’t travel over the internet faster than the speed of light, and going across an ocean and back, you’ll notice that when you try to make a headshot, only to find your opponent has strolled off across the map. We’ll have to wait until OnLive sets up shop with some servers over here: we’ve contacted OnLive to find out if there are plans for a European expansion but it’s not made a comment. Until it can turn a profit in the US, don’t expect that to change.
What’s the future?
Even if OnLive doesn’t succeed right now, you’ll be seeing plenty more server side gaming services and technology coming through. OnLive isn’t even alone in what it’s doing: another company, OTOY, is working with chip maker AMD to make hardware and software that’ll chomp through graphics online and sling them back to your screen. Even if it’s not ready for games just yet, it will offer speedy, powerful video editing in your browser. And OnLive is missing a huge market right now – all of this would work perfectly on phones. Expect that void to be filled very soon.
Sounds almost too good to be true, but fingers crossed it works at least they are trying something new.
Excellent article. You pretty much covered everything you need to know about Onlive.
Call me a pessimist, but I sense that the monthly fees would be priced way out of range of the normal gamer specially if they’re plan on hosting games such as World of Warcraft, Crysis, etc. Nevertheless, I would still keep my hope up for this venture as innovation is always welcome.