Streaming games... The future of gaming?

[SAS]

Are we about to see the end of the console?

...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 network will allow you to play on any platform, PC or console and even TV with reports of lag free gaming could this be the next big thing? Further details on the old BBC... BBC NEWS | Technology | Streaming games service launched

 

[Panda On Smack]

Video: OnLive gaming demonstrated live

 

[Bob007]

Want it now

End of piracy, consoles, constant pc upgrading, hell, end of pc gaming as we see it. Hope this pans out. Video had me glued from start to finish, even watched the Q'nA and the little box is so simple.

HD settings might be an issue getting this to root in the console market, 1280×720 when Xbox and PS users are playing at 1920×1080. But then if the games are there, customers will follow.

Want it now

 

[DaGaffer]

Interesting to see how this scales; that could be a LOT of network traffic, even with funky compression algorithms. They're certainly going to have to talk to the ISPs about on net traffic deals, maybe even on net server farms.

 

[Overdriven]

Just watched the whole thing, looking rather interesting.. Wonder if this'll be the next way for other types of digitial distro. I mean, Warner are already there, so they're probably thinking "Hmm.. Soon to release movies"

Would be a nice thing to play with.

 

[Zenith.UK]

It won't take off because most people don't have guaranteed QoS for their home bandwidth. If your ISP could GUARANTEE a steady minimum of 1.5Mbps then it's possible, but many ISPs have trouble maintaining 512kbps at peak times let alone 1.5Mbps or higher.

Until ISPs start quoting a minimum QoS as part of their contracts, these ideas based on bandwidth are doomed to failure in the UK.

 

[Ctuchik]

i wouldn't mind giving this a go tbh. mostly because even tho i refuse to buy a "miniPC" console theres still a few games for them that i'd like to try.

but i very much doubt this will turn into something huge. mostly because i think ppl dont want to rely on a active internet connection to play their single player games.

so at the very best this will be something the PC users will use to try out console exclusives and vice versa, but they wont use only this.

but then again, if its so good versus piracy the gaming industry might jump on this head first without a second thought. so they might actually force us into using it in the end if we want to keep playing games.

 

[MYstIC G]

with reports of lag free gaming

Read: Bullshit reports. Lag free gaming doesn't exist.

 

[Ch3tan]

Hold on, it may not be bullshit. There will be latency, but if their netcode is good then you may not notice it. Everyone is quick to criticise and praise, but none of us has had a chance to try it yet.

 

[MYstIC G]

You got shares in them or something?

 

[Ch3tan]

No, I just think that anyone claiming they are talking bullshit, is talking equal bullshit

 

[Chilly]

You're full of shit chet.

It's all a bit flawed tho, especially with something like CS:S where even a modest ping increase can be a serious disadvantage when in an 1337 environment. This also rules out anyone who has a monthly cap on downloads too.

 

[PLightstar]

I want to see it working in the UK first, our internet network is not advanced enough to run this sort of thing without massive lag. Maybe it would work 10years down the line when all the cable and exchanges are upgraded. Until I actually see it running in this country I am very sceptical.

 

[MYstIC G]

If they'd solved lag, they'd make more money fixing the internet than punting a box

 

[PLightstar]

Just reading into it in a bit more depth and they don't explain how the games will work, I wouldn't mind paying a subscription for every game they have, but unless theres going to be advertising in games the publishers and developer will not make much money. Also if its on a game by game cost, what happens to old games will they be on there servers forever or for a certain time frame. I D/L games through steam and direct to drive which I like but means it effectivity destroy's the second hand market.

The more I think about the more I don't like it.

 

[Ctuchik]

Just reading into it in a bit more depth and they don't explain how the games will work,

Metaboli tech anyone?

 

[GReaper]

It's certainly worth a look at instead of just dismissing it.

I agree with some of the problems that his could face. Players who want to have the lowest ping possible might perceive this as an inferior solution. People who want to own the games instead of renting it as a service will hate it.

Some of the benefits are interesting. Reducing piracy could be a massive win for publishers. Having to buy more and more expensive consoles might be a thing of the past, I'm sure people won't miss out on being forced to pay £400 for the latest console, or anywhere up to £1000 or more for a new PC.

This obviously assumes that it entirely replaces something, as renting this service along with buying hardware for some of the games which refuse to be part of this service would be a huge failure.

 

[SheepCow]

Streaming games... The future of gaming?

No.

 

[Bodhi]

What an amazingly shit idea. So in the future if the servers are down (which never happens, does it Infinity Ward?), not only can we not play multiplayer, we can't play the single player either? Or if your internet connection is playing silly buggers like mine is you can't play games at all to relieve the boredom?

I'm also assuming we're all in the future going to have Gigabit Ethernet piped into our houses to cope with all the games, movies, music, food, pets and fuck knows what else some boffin has decided we can stream into our homes? Seriously it's starting to take the piss, streaming is great for two things, and two things only. DLNA Media and watching videos of US Religious nutters doing silly dances to jungle music. Cloud Computing my arse.

 

[Raven]

Can't see it having any real use really.

Piracy would be a thing of the past if distributors weren't so lazy and either used steam or a similar log-in system.

A gaming PC is not as much as it used to be, you can build a more than adequate one for less than £500.

Consoles, while showing there age now are still pretty decent and aside from PS3 are cheap for what they are.

People have different internet speeds, I live in the country side and sometimes my connection is so bad that I have to play single player games because the connection just isnt good enough. I would be very pissed off if I could only play single player games if my ISP decided I could.

Its a nice enough idea I just don't see it having any practical use.

 

[Ctuchik]

Piracy would be a thing of the past if distributors weren't so lazy and either used steam or a similar log-in system.

wrong. plenty of steam games out there thats working perfectly fine after its hacked. and even the games that only have online only game save features works as normal (gta4 for example).

as long as you have a proper install on the harddrive its gonna get hacked. the only way you will be able to get rid of it is by having the game be somewhere where u cant get access to the files, IE streaming. and the only reason metaboli is roumored to be so "safe" is because none of the games they offer are actually worth the time to hack, but its still possible.

when the publishers realize this and actually go for streaming tech i have no doubt in my mind that pirating games will stop, because there wont be anything to actually download and hack.

 

[ECA]

when the publishers realize this and actually go for streaming tech i have no doubt in my mind that pirating games will stop, because there wont be anything to actually download and hack.

Coincidentally there will also be nothing worth playing.

 

[Ctuchik]

it all depends on how good the tech will be. if its shared with everything else thats going on on the net then yes, i'm pretty sure it will fail. but if it has dedicated lines thats ONLY used for streaming games then it might just as well be a pretty good thing.

but as the latter will probably be hideously expensive it will most likely share bandwith with all the other crap thats on the net, and that just wont cut it.

it really needs to be completely detatched from the normal internet to have any chance of being successful enough to be a viable replacement.