The OnLive Video Game Service Detailed
OnLive Screen
OnLive is coming up to it’s June release date, and it’s fans are increasingly becoming more anxious for a chance to have a test run of this amazing service. Will OnLive end up being a success?
When OnLive was first announced, it was met with intense criticism. It is a console-less service that aims to provide you with the latest and most demanding video games in today’s market, without the need to have a robust computer setup. The developers claimed that this service would be able to stream the video game to your computer, laptop or television, at the speed of light in order to allow you to play it through cloud computing. This means that the game is rendered, synchronized and stored for you on their servers and workstations, which means that you only require a standard internet connection.
The reason this service was met with so much heat and opposition is because of what it is capable of. For example, if it does become a success, it may effectively steal many of the console gamers away. The idea of never having to update your computer, and being able to play the latest games on any setup, for a subscription fee, is very alluring. So you have people who are hoping that this fails. Also, people are worried about not being able to physically own their games. Many what-if scenarios pop up when dealing with this situation. What if there is a black out, what if there is a system failure, what about natural disasters. All of these events can cause your information to be lost, your game data or purchases to be lost, or worse. So regardless of how good the service sounds, some people will not purchase or even give it a chance until it has been released and properly reviewed.
Even with that said, OnLive has been making a name for itself through the demonstrations being made by several developers of this service. One demonstration showed how, through OnLive, the iPhone was capable of playing Crysis on its maximum graphical capabilities. Although there was a bit of lag, this was not due to the OnLive service, but rather due to the connection quality of the iPhone. This does open a lot of doors for us. A person can play a game like Crysis on their netbook, with little to no lag, and with a large community to play with. This closes the gap between the elites and the lower-end computer gamers, because you will not have to upgrade your computer as much.
The community features of OnLive also is something to bask in. You have features such as bragclips, where you are able to record clips of yourself while playing a game. So if you have just done an impressive feat, you can record it, and save it to your profile so everyone can see it. You also have spectating, so you, or even up to one hundred people, can watch a person play a game, or watch a tournament go on in real time. The profile customization and friends list, as well as the plethora of other features bundled with OnLive, will provide for an amazing community experience.
Not only that, but the development team of OnLive will constantly be upgrading their servers and workstations every 6 months. There is a subscription fee associated with OnLive. This fee helps the team pay for the latest computer hardware to be able to provide you with a stable and lag-free experience. This is clearly a vital task for the team, because their whole service relies on the fact that there should be no lag during the gameplay experience. So it is good that they managed to plan ahead for the occasion.
With only a little more than a month left until the release of OnLive, it is quite clear that there is a lot at stake for both the gamers and the company. If the company does not attract enough players to OnLive, it will most likely collapse under the pressure of maintaining this service. However, if the company does not deliver what was promised, a lag free and stable environment, then players will most likely draw out of the game, and this service will fail. So I am personally hoping for a smooth launch, to quiet many of the nay-sayers out there.
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