Something Rasen was so innovative that I had to make a thread about it:
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6251495.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=morenews&tag=morenews;title;20

Basically you'd play games literally on demand, the game would be streaming from an external server which actually contained the game. In other words, you'd be playing a game that was located on a server somewhere else and your commands would streamed over to the game. You guys just have to read thru the article to fully understand it and to understand what it's capable of.

While I think the idea is amazing, at the same time I don't really like the idea, I prefer owning physical game's and systems. What does everyone else think of this?

The idea sounds great at first I mean using that type of system would increase company orfits and everything else. But, I rather have teh phyisical disc because what happens the the external server crashes what game do you have to play now?

I agree with you that it is a really cool idea, and it's great that it works so well, but I much prefer owning the game itself. I'm that way with most things, including music. When I want to get some band's album, I'll go buy the CD instead of getting from iTunes or something similar. I think it's just like a sort of security blanket-type thing. You just feel like you were safer in having bought something physical, so that way if something happens to your computer/iPod/whatever, you'll still have the original. Sadly, I think that physical copies of these things are quickly becoming less and less popular and that these sort of virtual libraries are going to eventually become the norm.

If they support S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Crysis, then I'm in.

But this reminds so goshdarn much about the failed Phantom console.

Ugg, this thing. OnLive is not a practical system, there are so many flaws with it it isn't funny.
Despite what they say, it won't work.

Look at WoW. millions play that and the server has to be shut down for 6 hours or something every week for maintenance.
And the WoW client is installed on your own PC. So imagine if the game files are all on the server side?
Now we're talking about large games here, so the server strain will be immense, alot more then we experience here on Vizzed, and even here we go down from time to time.

Next is the bandwidth issues. This will not work here in Australia. Why?
Because we have data limits! Now sure, if the system stores a copy of the game in it's buffer you might not have to download it every day.
But with a limited HDD that wipes itself when new games come in and at 8gb a play most people here would not be able to just change games on a whim.
Remember, this isn't like a PC or a 360/PS3 that has a large HDD, this is meant to have a virtually non existant HDD (so limited in space to one, maybe two games).
Also is the line speed to consider. A system like this needs high line speeds to work properly as can you really imagine someone having to wait 6 hours just to download the game they want to play?
If you're going to do that you might as well get a torrent.

There was another thread about this at https://www.vizzed.com/vizzedboard/thread.php?id=8531 (it's a poll about if the system will fail or not) where I listed 7 reasons why it will fail.

Onlive will end up like the Phantom, I see how they could do it but at the same time, they just on't really know what they are doing. Look at Gaikai; they take a few online games like wow and star trek online and run them off their servers from a browser. I'd rather get gaikai since it's free to customers and does the same thing.

Where it fails:

Need HiSpeed internet, and if your internet goes out, or their servers go out, it is rendered useless.

A subscription service wouldn't be good, look how many players picked PS3 over 360 because PSN is free. This article didn't say anything about a subscription, but it is the only feasible route for this thing to be profitable.

I don't like not being able to play a game on a laptop because I don't have an internet connection. I move around a lot, and I passed on Spore because of lack of internet.

I don't think that the US market is ready for a streaming system, look how the PSP go did, and it could save games to the internal memory.

First Party games, if you look at the current systems, quite a few of the best games are First Party, and I doubt that OnLive could talk Nintendo into licensing Mario (or Microsoft to license Halo, or Sony to license LittleBigPlanet) for this thing, meaning owners would miss out on some of the best games that are on other systems.

Where it wins:

Casual Games, take a game like Plant vs. Zombies and put it on there, and it would actually do good. It would be perfect to be able just to hook a little box up and play a simple game like PvZ to introduce someone to gaming in general. When they got a little bit more into gaming, they could join you in L4D or a more Hardcore game like that, all on the same system, but this is already possible on computer.

Videos, if it had a built in video service, it would be great to do something similar to getting a TV show over XBL or PSN, but on a simpler system. It would be a nice alternative to TV service is you have internet and for casual users.

Spectator View, the CEO mentioned being able to be a spectator on friends, and I can't believe this isn't in more games then it is right now. It would be awesome to be able to watch a friend play from across the globe and cheer him/her on.



I think this would be good for casual gamers, and people that wanted to just watch TV shows and Movies, but I don't think that it will catch on with mainstream gamers that want games like COD and L4D, but if they had the right games and hardware, It might actually become rather good, but I don't see it happening any time soon.

DH already pointed out many reasons why it won't work, so I don't have to copy him... but yeah, we have download limits here too. We're forced to use satellite internet, and only get like 400 MB a day... except between 2 and 7. And since I'm not getting up at 2 just to play my game, I won't ever get the darned thing (unless of course Verizon actually brings Fios to my house ). This is just like UbiSoft's thing where you have to have a UbiSoft account and be logged in to play, only ten times worse because you can't just avoid the publisher or get it on another system .

in theory the idea is great but in reality it's not, like everyone said about the phantom, it followed the same concept as onlive but now its all computer, there is many problems with this idea first severs always go down for servicing, second is that you will need a high end graphics card and lots of ram not to mention the clocking speed, third is the internet speed as we cannot exceed 2giga bit LAN speed.

so whats my thoughts on this? don't do it! stick with physical game discs!

I never knew this thread existed, so I made a thread about OnLive today, and DH told me about this one. It's kinda ironic, because, in spirit, I started this thread.

For details, just read my post.

I've heard about this service a while back, but it was today that I realized what it really was.

OnLive is a gaming service which allows you to play games over the internet. The OnLive servers do all of the work. Your internet does the rest. As long as your computer does video and your internet is above 1.5mbps, you can play high-end, just released games, on your PC or Intel-based Macs. 1.5-3mbps connection for SD video, 4.5-6mbps for HD video. You also don't have to buy games. You can rent games from the OnLive Portal, just like you would rent a game from Blockbuster, Family Video, or any video store.

Now you may be wondering "what do I do if I want to play on my TV?" That, my friend, is where the Microconsole comes in. It comes with the Microconsole, and a controller. Just plug it into the internet, and you can play. No downloads or anything, just like the computer service. Everything on the Microconsole is also done on the OnLive servers.

What do you guys think? I'm not sure whether to love this, or hate this. Love this because of how small it is, how I can play all games I want for YEARS to come, or to hate it because there aren't any physical games.

Wow I never knew stuff like this was real. Video games on demand sounds like a great idea.