Why OnLive will change the world…(of gaming, at least!)
I woke up this morning, business as usual, and logged into my news sites and checked up on twitter, as I USUALLY do. Unlike other mornings, however, what I saw my friend @arnaldo42 post, blew the hell out of my mind. Simple ideas usually end up being the ones that change the world.
This week, the Game Developer’s Conference is ongoing full steam ahead in San Francisco, CA. (Here’s a Wikipedia Link for info on the Conference). During the conference yesterday, a new type of service was announced called OnLive.
What OnLive does (or rather, claims to do) is to enable games to play on TVs and PCs without depending on the hardware to render the content!! That is, the graphics and game content are generated on an ultra-powerful computer where the OnLive service originates. The service then streams the content over the Internet to a “dongle” on the gamer’s TV set or via small software to the PC and REAL-TIME with ‘virtually’ no latency, the user can play the game at high resolution!
If you don’t get how huge this is, then imagine for a moment, the MILLIONS of people who have TVs across the world, who ONLY need to buy a little “dongle” and subscribe to the service, and have IMMEDIATE access to these super-badass looking games! (I can imagine nVidia and ATI in scramble mode, no need for videocard upgrades? Preposterous!! 
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Now, I know that my enthusiasm for this platform may seem a little premature, since nothing has really been proven, and a LOT depends on the infrastructure surrounding the player’s Internet connections. (OnLive requires full HD streams to be sent to the PC/TV and receive the input of the players commands almost instantaneously). But just the fact that someone out there had the VISION to think up a way to bring high quality gaming to the masses in what is hopefully an inexpensive way to the consumer, just really brings my hopes up for the next stage of gaming. (And I haven’t even started on the possibilities of this platform on mobile devices like iPhone and Android!)
Cloud-based content is the future. Just look at what the Aviary suite is doing for design!
I sincerely hope that this project succeds beyond our wildest dreams because this, my friends, IS the future of gaming.
The Donz
LINKS to OnLive news:
www.onlive.com
www.cnet.com
www.gamasutra.com
GameTrailers.com Interview