OnLive Discussion?
Hello, I was just listening to my all time favourite podcast (Save for Games Industry Mentor) PCGAMER Podcast and they were talking about the OnLive service which has just been released I think.
Do you think that this will become popular?
Would you still play it because it's running around 720p definiton even though gamers want High Definition these days?
Do you think it's just going to be something for casual gamers?
Well, in my opinion I think that OnLive will be fairly limited because of the quite noticeable lag. And that is expected from such a service. It just can't grab the hardcore twitch-gameplay FPS crowd because of the response times either so that is basically cutting the numbers in half. It isn't so bad for us RPG gamers but who knows...
One thing that was brought up was the fact that it could actually, in the future, be used as a demo service. Say you wanted to demo the game. You'd purchase the game in a number of ways : Hourly Payment, Small payment and whatever. You'd be able to sample the game and then see if you'd like the regular PC game for yourself.
But that doesn't go well with the annual fee you have to pay and ALSO pay for the game.
I also love the idea that you can actually go into other peoples games and watch them while they are playing.
Pretty awesome stuff.
Well, these are just my thoughts after pretty much getting up to date with E3 from all the sites and podcasts.
What do you think the possibilites of the service are?
I'm sorry if this thread has already been made.
Do you think that this will become popular?
Would you still play it because it's running around 720p definiton even though gamers want High Definition these days?
Do you think it's just going to be something for casual gamers?
Well, in my opinion I think that OnLive will be fairly limited because of the quite noticeable lag. And that is expected from such a service. It just can't grab the hardcore twitch-gameplay FPS crowd because of the response times either so that is basically cutting the numbers in half. It isn't so bad for us RPG gamers but who knows...
One thing that was brought up was the fact that it could actually, in the future, be used as a demo service. Say you wanted to demo the game. You'd purchase the game in a number of ways : Hourly Payment, Small payment and whatever. You'd be able to sample the game and then see if you'd like the regular PC game for yourself.
But that doesn't go well with the annual fee you have to pay and ALSO pay for the game.
I also love the idea that you can actually go into other peoples games and watch them while they are playing.
Pretty awesome stuff.
Well, these are just my thoughts after pretty much getting up to date with E3 from all the sites and podcasts.
What do you think the possibilites of the service are?
I'm sorry if this thread has already been made.
Replies
If this were a cheap internet cafe alternative in Korea it would make sense. As is, it's just dumb.
And you're right, it can't really grab a target audience but I still say bravo to them for making such a service.
Well, unfourtunatley it does suffer from 'Worse-than-Xbox360' graphics but perhaps in a couple of months or even years they will have the tech to upgrade it to high def?
720p is 'High Definition', along with 1080p, they are what is known as 'True HD'. Do you just mean 'Higher Resolution'?
I'm not really hyped about it though tbh. I'm a big fan of digital content and streaming for music, film and TV for sure, I absolutely love that I can be in any room in the house or in the car and access my entire media library at any time, without a single bit of physical media. No CD racks, no DVD cupboards etc...
But the big factor there is that they're not interactive, they're streamed one way and it works.
But as you say, the lag will kill it I think. I must admit I haven't researched it too much, but when so many games currently suffer from lag problems, whether client side or server side running locally, surely streamed gaming is gonna be horrendously laggy.
I'm all for the principle, as I said, I love the transition to digital media and the whole 'access anywhere' thing, but I'm not getting my hopes up on this just yet.
Yeah I guess it just has too much weighing it down.
Imagine if it kicked off tho. I'd feel sorry for retailers.
Here comes some wishful thinking...
Imagine VERY minimal lag, Higher Res say atleast 1440x900 and a no more need to upgrade your rig. That'd be...a godsend.
Perhaps in 2025 :S
Our children would ask what the hell a rig was, never mind a CD ROM.
Anyways, best of luck too it I say.
Yeah if it does take off at any point it's likely they'll take a hit.
From what I've read, the majority of their profits are from software, remember the fuss they kicked up over the PSP GO and it's 'digital only' format.
And we all know how well that did.
Brick and Mortar game stores are something I really hope stick around. I gotta admit, when iTunes (and the alternatives) hammered the music stores after causing a kinda digital distribution revolution, I can't say I was that bothered. Independent music stores in my city are long gone and if I ever did visit one of the music superstores, I most likely wouldn't find what I wanted, or had to reach past the top 250 chart to find a busted CD case hidden under a box of N'Sync posters. So with music, I was more than happy to go digital.
Games however, I still prefer physical media. I dunno about you guys but I enjoy going to the game store, browsing around and picking up the game I went to get. Midnight launches are usually cool too, and of course you often get to chat to the sales assistants or whatever. Even if I go for a specific game, I'll end up spending a little while in there.
I actually prefer having a retail box. Much more exciting. It's too bad with all thise darn technology buisness that I have just become so lazey and now I'm Steam's bitch for life.
-It is easier to use than existing console or PC platforms. No installs, no DLC or waiting for firmware updates. No expensive hardware to pick up or connect. No extra services to sign up for other than the original. No DRM bullshit.
-The lag is actually quite small (if you get accepted into the program), like 20 milliseconds.
-I have seen various reports on the compression, but from the people I know I have heard it is barely noticeable, so it looks basically as good as 360 or high end PCs set to 720P.
-No piracy
-Hardware upgrades at any time, and totally different hardware economics. If they are successful, I expect they will roll out hardware better than home consoles or high end PCs, and run games that are OnLive exclusives.
-platform independent
-You don't own your games now. Most PC gamers have their games on Steam with no backup, and then you still have to deal with DRM. Console gamers are having their physical game copies mean less and less with things like EA's "project ten dollar".
-With Onlive, most games offer rental periods, so it would be kind of dumb to pay full price anyway.
There are a lot of people who are not going to find this very interesting. People with crappy internet. Hardcore gamers who already have a badass gaming rig and both consoles. Nerds who are obsessed with things like 20 milliseconds of delay or not having "full" HD.
On the other hand it is clearly better for anyone who has decent broadband, wants an easy service that they can play on any platform, doesn't want to pay full price for games and doesn't want to buy expensive hardware every few years.
Basically everyone I have heard of who has actually used it says it's awesome.
Unfortunatley I'm not one with a good broadband connection because of where I live but I'm not so bothered because I'm actually pretty happy with the way games are being distriputed anyway.
I would like to see everyone using OnLive in the future though. Would be awesome.
I don't know if that is a hidden stab at comments I'd made but I'll clarify what I meant anyway.
I couldn't care less about how many milliseconds my game is running behind, I know some FPS players are kinda anal about it, but there's that kind of lag, and then there's the lag that ruins all games. NFS or Gran Turismo for example, you pass a leading car on the home straight only to realise after the race is over that your connection deceived you and you came 2nd. Or SFIV, which has at times been unplayable online due to lag, or walking round a city in WoW and it taking 10 minutes to move a couple of steps (granted MMO's are a whole different strain on servers).
With regards to HD, I don't think it really takes a 'Nerd' to appreciate full HD. I must admit it sounds dumb when you get people saying 'Yeah dude come check out my game running at 25600x19848 on my 17" display, but there's a huge difference between SD and HD which is more what the initial argument was about.
There are a lot of people online that get frothy at the mouth over Halo being "only" 680p upscaled (or whatever it is), even though it looks great. Also people who demand 1080P, but can't tell their game is a noisy mess because of no AA. Etc-- it was nothing personal.
[ame]
Imagine every onlive shooter game playing like that
I won't be using it when it gets to the UK - they're partnered up with BT as the sole provider, (I think), who are downright awful.
Online games have the upper hand to be able to predict things on the client and thus eliminate any and most effects of certain levels of latency, On-live wont be able to do that.
as for onlive, I am somewhat in doubts, consoles will just get cheaper and cheaper and the current generation won't go away that soon. So a better experience at a slightly higher price.
The idea of having this stuff run on mobile platforms imo would be very cool, but also those get better and better chips. Still it could be very cool for ipad like stuff.
The technology as such sure is interesting, and I think Autodesk and other major companies look into that sort of technology to "outsource" high-end workstation experience.
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33942872&page=7
Image quality at 720p is surprisingly good, but there's still significant lag. On a 20Mbps connection... and it can seriously stress download limits as only 30 minutes of gaming will require up to 4-5 GB of traffic. Oh and games seem to run at medium detail settings at most.
Then on the other hand:
http://twitter.com/Digital_Foundry/status/16996657123
That is horrible. Seems like you really have to be near one of Onlive's partner ISPs who have local datacenters.
All in all if you have the money for a 20Mbps connection and can afford the traffic for say, 40 hours of gaming (at 10 per week it's 320GB) then you can probably just go and buy a good PC instead, not to mention an X360 Arcade. I don't see the business sense in that, right now... maybe if super fast connections become cheaper.
So they have delivered more then what most people expected, but it's just not enough IMHO.
Onlive won't be in my house any time soon.
Were with them in Yorkshire. Had no end of problems with them - switched to O2, who are much better.