Is the end in sight for game consoles?

Eniigma

Eniigma

New member
I doubt it but.....

Streaming games service launched

A new online video game distribution network hopes to revolutionise the way people play games and re-write the economics of the industry.

OnLive, to be launched at the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco, aims to let players stream on-demand games at the highest quality level.

The service could provide competition for Playstation, Xbox, and the Wii.

"OnLive is the most powerful game system in the world," said company founder Steve Perlman

"No high-end hardware, no upgrades, no endless downloads, no discs, no recalls, no obsolescence. With OnLive, your video game experience is always state-of-the-art," he declared.

Mr Perlman said that the company has developed a data compression technology that allows games to be powered on remote servers rather than on game consoles.

Users download games instantly through the OnLive MicroConsole or straight onto a PC or Mac. The MicroConsole also connects to any TV. All that is required is a high speed connection.

Gamers will be able to select from an on-demand catalogue of video titles stored on these data servers. The Palo Alto based company promises that the service will provide instant access to the most advanced games in the world, solo and multiplayer.

To date nine publishers have signed up including familiar names like Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, THQ and Atari Interactive.

'A world without consoles'

Initial reaction from the gaming press has been a mixture of the positive and the sceptical.

Sid Shuman of GamePro told PC World "When we finally got hands-on with OnLive, I gotta admit, I was impressed."

Michael McWhertor of Kotaku.com admitted "We were a little suspicious of OnLive's capability to deliver perceptually lag-free on-demand games. But then we played a hasty online game of Crysis Wars on the service and became a little less suspicious. It seemed to work.

"Will it work in the wild? It might," concluded Mr McWhertor.

At VentureBeat, which is holding its own games conference called GamesBeat, Dean Takahasi said "OnLive's technology could eventually sweep through all forms of entertainment and applications, providing the missing link in helping the internet take over our living rooms."

"It remains to be seen if this is just vapourware," said Cesar A. Beradini of TeamXbox.com.

"The real question is what would happen if this actually works as promised? Is it the end of Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo as console manufacturers?" he asked.

From that standpoint Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities told USA Today "OnLive shows the potential for a gaming world without consoles" if the pricing is right.

According to Mr Perlman a new era for gaming is here.

"We've cleared the last remaining hurdle for the video games industry: effective online distribution.

"By putting the value back into the games themselves and removing the reliance on expensive, short-lived hardware, we are dramatically shifting the economics of the industry. Delivering games instantly to the digital living room is the promise game fans have been waiting for," he said.
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Those are some major publishers that have signed on, but will it really handle the load? Also I don't see this working in the bandwidth starved third world.
 
Yeh i doubt it would work myself..... because if you think about it... what if their servers suddenly drop... what about queuing systems, etc.... whats the bet its going to end up like the doom 3 servers where u have to wait like 66000 in a queue thats ridiculous i wouldnt want that just to play online gaming..... i dont think anyone should have to waste money and time just waiting for a gaming to go live for you to play online....
 
Its a pretty good idea, I just don't see them pulling it off.
Maybe in 5 years or so, the problems that come with such a undetaking are huge!!
 
I reckon they would need a shedload of servers if they where going to try pull that off. And the amount of bandwidth coming in would be more then what is currently available to the whole of SA.
 
1) Good luck to them with the costs of running such a service
2) Their target market will be very limited to people with broadband connections capable of streaming such data
3) Latency may become an issue
 
What puzzles me is that several software publishers are throwing their collective weight behind this. Would they not know better than to support something impractical?
 
This is technically possible and a very viable solution. I see it happening. It has already been done.
As I posted in the other thread about OnLive is that the video / audio rendering and streaming to give you the high quality is the most difficult part. The potential market is huge.

With this market, I don't see consoles or the pc dying at all.

SA won't feature too highly, maybe for the select few people with 4MB lines and more. Local servers will be a plus.
 
I have to agree with lilDeath on this one.
Its brilliant and it has a slight chance of working(10% in the next 2 years) but only in 1st world countries with proper internet connections.
 
It is very futuristic, which I think is great, but for now and especially given the shocking state of our telecommunications it is just that, a futuristic idea.
 
Grimspoon said:
It is very futuristic, which I think is great, but for now and especially given the shocking state of our telecommunications it is just that, a futuristic idea.
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Keep in mind that the majority of countries do not have the same problem as us and therefore telecommunications issues are almost non-issues.
 
Speaking of telecommunications, have any of you seent he new Telkom advert where they show kides jammed together in a tube and go on about how Telkom Internet access wqill improve in 2010?
 
I've heard the advert in which they say that "the internet is like a merry-go-round. The more people that hop on, the slower it gets..."

Excuses excuses.
 
phoenix said:
Speaking of telecommunications, have any of you seent he new Telkom advert where they show kides jammed together in a tube and go on about how Telkom Internet access wqill improve in 2010?
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Yep, they are building a next generation network apparently, whatever that means.
It is true that on the current infrastructure though, the more people use it, the more congested it will get... it's logical. Especially if the links are not also increased. Which is what the SEACOM cable is all about in the end.

SAVE us SEACOM!

It's not a bad ad. It's got a cute factor. The MWEB ones are a bit lol.
AntiThesis said:
So not going to happen. Echo the rest of the sentiments shown. It's possible but certainly not in SA.
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That doesn't mean it is not going to happen.
 
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