A proper Super Killer Application

[DimPrawn]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8556874.stm

A gaming service that aims to kill off the traditional gaming console will begin streaming popular games over the internet in June this year.

OnLive, which launched to much fanfare in 2009, announced details of its service at the GamesBeat conference.

Instead of games taking hours to download or buying them off the shelf, OnLive promises games on-demand.

"OnLive breaks the console cycle. We don't need new hardware devices," said company founder Steve Perlman.

That sentiment was echoed by his chief operating officer Mike McGarvey.

"We want to take your dollars from hardware and let you spend it on software. We are a new platform and we're building a network and infrastructure to last for the next 30 years of gaming, not the next five years," Mr McGarvey told reporters.



Superb idea. I can see this as a pay as you play concept.

[cojak]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8556874.stm



"We want to take your dollars from hardware and let you spend it on a crap ISP and inadequate broadband. We are a new platform and we're building a network and infrastructure to last for the next 30 years of gaming, not the next five years," Mr McGarvey told reporters.

Oh Dear...

[DimPrawn]

Will be a good idea for 1st world countries.

3rd world places like the UK need to focus on not going bankrupt rather than playing games.

[Spacecadet]

Will be a good idea for 1st world countries.

3rd world places like the UK need to focus on getting decent broadband speeds even at peak times.

FTFY

[AtW]

It won't work well for FPS games - how can they guarantee 60 FPS per second on 1280 x 1024 x 32 bit mode, which is easily 50 MBits per frame.

Even if they use incremental compression it will be tulip for fast changing FPS.

[DimPrawn]

It will work, because although today only perhaps 5% of the UK has the speeds required in a couple of years that will be more like 50%.

Virgin Media have 50mb broadband now in Swindon and other cabled areas and are trialling 200mb in Kent right now.

[DiscoStu]

Will be a good idea for 1st world countries.

3rd world places like the UK need to focus on not going bankrupt rather than playing games.

[VectraMan]

It won't work well for FPS games - how can they guarantee 60 FPS per second on 1280 x 1024 x 32 bit mode, which is easily 50 MBits per frame.

Even if they use incremental compression it will be tulip for fast changing FPS.

The compression is good enough for that sort of thing over broadband (HDTV is only ~4-8Mb/s). The issue is going to be latency. Expect lots of very slow boring games because responsiveness won't be anything like as good as playing on your local PC/console.

[AtW]

The compression is good enough for that sort of thing over broadband (HDTV is only ~4-8Mb/s).

Movies can be compressed well because of type of content they are - it is viewed from distance also, not in front of PC.

And yes latency will be another big issue: 50 Mbits per frame would take whole second.

[doodab]

Movies can be compressed well because of type of content they are

They can also be encoded offline and use multi-pass encoders, both of which serve to reduce the bit rate required for a given quality level.