OnLive - the revolution crept unnoticed

What's the matter?

So the company OnLive announced a fundamentally new gaming service. The essence of the service is simple - to play you do not need a powerful computer with the latest 3D accelerator and fresh drivers, you do not need the latest generation game console - not a very powerful computer (PC or Mac) and broad access to the Internet is enough. In this case, you can play, for example, in Crysis with a resolution of 1280 × 768 with all included effects.

Tempting, huh?

How it works?

The concept is simple. Your computer now works with a TV with feedback, and the rest is handled by a cloud in the OnLive data center.

As a client, you can use any entry-level computer with Windows or MacOS X — you just need to install the plugin into the browser. You can also purchase a TV box. According to the assurances of the company, it will be very cheap (and what could be more expensive there?) And, to the same, rather small.
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It seems that in SD- quality, it will be quite possible to play even on netbooks. Although this is a special perversion;)

And how is the lag? The guys developed a fundamentally new method of image compression on the fly with a delay of about one millisecond or without any delay at all. I think the rendering process includes the process of compressing the video stream, so the lag can appear only at the stage of stream transfer to the player, but OnLive promises to conduct explanatory work with providers so that they behave well, which in my opinion is quite realistic.

What should be the width of the channel? OnLive argue that for SD content is enough channel width 1.5Mbps, and for HD (1280p) - 5Mbps. Yes, of course, dialup disappears, and even broadband Internet with limited traffic, too. But there is almost no dial-up left even in “our latitudes” and we will hope that unlimited tariffs will also win.

What can you play?

I think that in time it will be possible to play everything. Today these guys have confirmed their participation:

- Electronic Arts
- UbiSoft
- Take2
- THQ
- Eidos
- Atari
- Codemasters
- Epic
- WarnerBros
- 2D Boy

In my opinion, for a start, not bad.

And when is the beginning?

The project was conceived seven years ago (great respect for the guys who could have thought of this even in 2002) and is now at the stage of internal beta testing. In the summer they are planning an open beta test (you can sign up now), and by the end of the year arrange a release.

Of course, the release will start from the beginning only in the USA, and it probably won't be coming to us soon, but on the spot of domestic publishers, I would have struggled to agree to open such a service at least in Moscow.

Thoughts

Good for players:

- no need to spend money on the next GeForce9000
- no need to worry that Crysis14 is unlikely to give out more than 10fps on your laptop
- no need to install, configure and wait until the game starts - everything is almost instant
- a bunch of trendy social buns
- the ability to pay only for the game (rent)
- new items are available immediately after the release
- games start almost instantly

Good for publishers:

- absent as a class of piracy
- new sales models
- no need to care about which device, which set of components, which OS, which drivers are installed by the player
- in the future, with minimal adaptation, mobile platforms will be available
- potentially any power is available for rendering realistic graphics, artificial intelligence, etc.

Good for Intel, nVidia, AMD, ATI, etc.

- another market, which, moreover, does not need to invest in advertising
- conventional computers will not kill technology soon, and powerful processors and 3D accelerators are needed not only for games

Bad for Sony, Nintendo and especially Microsoft:

- why buy an expensive, large, sometimes noisy box for which you need to buy disks?
- personally, for Microsoft, the problem is also that this is another nail in the concept of user OS

Some video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5UHxiYMFhM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLykFF1qL_A

Ps. They say already and competitors have appeared.

UPDATE
In kamentah discuss whether it will be expensive. OnLive say that the pricing policy is still in the process of elaboration and they cannot yet present it, so you can just pick it up.

I think at least there will be a monthly subscription. It will also be possible to introduce the subscription value differentiation from the game class. For example, the notorious Crysis will be in the expensive category “A” (still, eat so many resources !;), and casual games (why not?) Will cost much less. At the same time buying a subscription to the games of category "A", it is quite possible to play casual games.

All this is of course speculation, but in my opinion it is quite realistic;)

UPDATE 2
nekroman : 3Dnews - OnLive - the evolutionary leap of the gaming industry?