OnLive Aims to Make Game Consoles Obsolete

[DaytonaUSA]

Does that mean the game developers don't know how the Internet works? You'd think somebody at the various game companies would speak up and say "Sir, this is bullshit. Don't waste our time and your money."

 

Thank you RT for saying that.

 

So no Artlover, it means that everyone on the internet has an opinion, and will stick by it no matter what proof is shown to them. I'm not saying the service will work, or be successful. But I will say that what they demonstrated wouldn't have worked as well.. ie: wouldn't have wowed devs and the press to the extent that it did, if it was already bug ridden. I understand it's a controlled environment.. i'm not stupid. But the server wasn't in the room in the back, and the game response times where what they advertised.

 

They said it has limitations, and named them. They said you had to be a certain distance from a server in order to have it work well. I'm sure they didn't make this stuff up out of thin air. They have worked on this for 7 years.. I'm sure they thought of all the concerns punk kids on the internet think of in the first 30 seconds of seeing their ideas unfold in front of the public. (not saying you're a punk kid.. but the general public who just says "this is impossible, screw this".).

 

Again.. not saying it's going to work perfectly. But everything seemed impossible at some point till they proved us wrong. If you told me 15 years ago that I'd be playing with people in asia online with top of the line 3d graphics, in real time, over wireless internet signals, i'd say you were crazy. Hell, if you told me 15 years ago I'd have a phone that was with me at all times that was almost like having a laptop in my pocket (iphone), or that i'd have a computer in my car that was hooked up to satellites in the sky that would talk to me and tell me where i was, in real time, and tell me how to get anywhere I wanted to drive.. even to restaurants, i'd say you were crazy.

 

They aren't saying the impossible.. they aren't saying you can talk to a server in Britain with no latency. They aren't saying they're going to prove physics wrong. They are saying though that they have a compression technology that will impress the world and change, if not set the groundwork for others to in the near future, the way we play games. And I for one believe that they aren't full of shit. Companies like EA and Ubisoft and Take2 have way too much to do and money to invest in way too many places than to go to some company that no one has ever heard of and announce loyalty and support to them. If EA didn't bother to even support the Dreamcast, I'd say this company is off to a pretty great start.

Edited March 27, 2009 by DaytonaUSA

[DaytonaUSA]

Point #3: 60 hours a month? Huh? I can (and have) play that much in a week!

 

I could talk about your points all day, but seriously.. this takes the cake. Seriously.. 60 hours a week? Seriously? A day and a half's work days you spend on gaming a week?

 

Do you have a job? Do you have a family? ....Maybe I'm starting to realize why you don't think your internet provider will give you enough bandwidth to use this service. If you don't have a job, your internet program must really suck .

[godslabrat]

Besides everyone will be streaming all of their movies soon and DVDs and blue-rays will be the VHS tapes of the 2010's ("twenty-teens").

 

Right, kind of like how by 2009, everyone was supposed to be using refrigerators that would automatically generate shopping lists for us, thanks to RFID tagging in groceries, and how we'd be able to turn on our TCP/IP-enabled ovens from hundreds of miles away. Also, they successfully predicted that internet appliances would do away with PCs, and how 3-D Virtual Reality helmets would replace TV as we know it.

 

Except, you know, none of those things actually happened, because at some point someone realized that they were all stupid, impractical, or both. There are tons of predictions that, in their time, were treated like no-brainers by the industry. Now, while I think streaming will be more successful than any of the above predictions, I want to predict that it will NOT be the disc-defeating force everyone wants to think it is. When the smoke clears, streaming will be one other technology that found its niche, but not the universal standard.

[Jess Ragan]

Yeah, the fact that game companies are hopping aboard the OnLive train doesn't really mean anything. They got in on the ground floor with the N-Gage, Gizmondo, and GameTap too, if that tells you anything. The corporate heads of these companies are smelling an opportunity to boost their profits without considering that what OnLive is offering could be damned near impossible with today's technology.

 

There's this silly notion that the CEOs of large corporations are infallible, that they never make mistakes and that they weigh their decisions carefully before acting upon them. However, this blind faith in the free market has led us into our current financial mess. The truth is that corporations do screw up, and they screw up badly. They're only good at sweeping their mistakes under the rug after they've made them, which is exactly what they'll do if OnLive turns out to be a fraud or a flop.

[DaytonaUSA]

Yeah, the fact that game companies are hopping aboard the OnLive train doesn't really mean anything. They got in on the ground floor with the N-Gage, Gizmondo, and GameTap too, if that tells you anything. The corporate heads of these companies are smelling an opportunity to boost their profits without considering that what OnLive is offering could be damned near impossible with today's technology.

 

There's this silly notion that the CEOs of large corporations are infallible, that they never make mistakes and that they weigh their decisions carefully before acting upon them. However, this blind faith in the free market has led us into our current financial mess. The truth is that corporations do screw up, and they screw up badly. They're only good at sweeping their mistakes under the rug after they've made them, which is exactly what they'll do if OnLive turns out to be a fraud or a flop.

 

 

but..but... they didn't support the Dreamcast!

 

..which btw, is the second best system known to man.

[Flojomojo]

Right, kind of like how by 2009, everyone was supposed to be using refrigerators that would automatically generate shopping lists for us, thanks to RFID tagging in groceries, and how we'd be able to turn on our TCP/IP-enabled ovens from hundreds of miles away. Also, they successfully predicted that internet appliances would do away with PCs, and how 3-D Virtual Reality helmets would replace TV as we know it.

 

Except, you know, none of those things actually happened, because at some point someone realized that they were all stupid, impractical, or both. There are tons of predictions that, in their time, were treated like no-brainers by the industry. Now, while I think streaming will be more successful than any of the above predictions, I want to predict that it will NOT be the disc-defeating force everyone wants to think it is. When the smoke clears, streaming will be one other technology that found its niche, but not the universal standard.

 

Just shy of 10 years ago! Still true? Yeah, mostly.

[RampantOctopus]

 

Just shy of 10 years ago! Still true? Yeah, mostly.

 

Flash forward 10 years... Google announces Stadia.

 

 

Like OnLive, but without the hardware.

[Ninjabba]

Watched the Stadia announcement, not sure what to think of this streaming video games business.

 

I see two big downsides to this model, like most people are pointing out: connectivity issues, ownership of bought products.

 

A free game like Fortnite/Apex Legends could definitely boost popularity in streaming games, but if I look at my own collection of games I'm somehow more invested in console exclusive games.

 

What I would LOVE to see happening, it would be amazing if you could play a demo of the game after watching the trailer. Completely unrealistic of course, but one can dream.

[Flojomojo]

What I would LOVE to see happening, it would be amazing if you could play a demo of the game after watching the trailer. Completely unrealistic of course, but one can dream.

I think that's completely feasible with this tech. If it takes off, I could see them integrating it with YouTube.

[Ninjabba]

I think that's completely feasible with this tech. If it takes off, I could see them integrating it with YouTube.

 

The technical part is definitely solved already, and it would probably make the implementation as a whole a lot easier, but I'm not sure if its fits their business model.

 

I wouldn't buy their controller or get a subscription to play demos, however I would push the buy button if I like what I play for a few minutes. But yeah, somebody will have to pay for all those servers running in the back.