Are You Online with OnLive?

So as I was going about my business yesterday, I received 4 text messages from different friends asking if I had heard about this new OnLive system that was announced at GDC that is supposedly going to revolutionize the way we game.  Since I hadn’t had the chance to look up the news yet, I was immediately intrigued and started Googling it.

First, I went to Wikipedia and this is the basic rundown of OnLive…

“OnLive is an on-demand video game distribution system produced by Mova (subsidiary of Rearden). The service is a gaming equivalent of cloud computing; the game is computed, rendered, and stored on a remote server and delivered online. The service was announced to be compatible with any Intel based Mac running OS X or Windows PC running XP or Vista A low-end computer, as long as it can play video, may be used to play any kind of game since the game is computed on the OnLive server. For that reason, the service is being seen as a strong competitor for the console market. Thus, Engadget states that “broadband connections of 1.5Mbps dial the image quality down to Wii levels while 4-5Mbps pipes are required for HD resolution”.

It was announced that Electronic Arts, Take-Two, Ubisoft, Epic Games, Atari, Codemasters, THQ, Warner Bros., 2D Boy and Eidos Interactive have signed up to have their games available on the service. Sixteen game titles are currently available from the OnLive service, however further PC games can be ported within a few days. The service is currently in closed beta with plans to have an open beta during the summer of 2009. The service is planned for release in the winter of 2009.”

OnLive will also sell a console, called MicroConsole, that can be connected to a TV and that will connect directly to the OnLive service, so that it will be possible to use the service without owning a computer.”

Now this sounds like a pretty cool deal. It’s like Xbox Live and Steam had a baby called OnLive. It’s similar to Netflix but instead of movie and television streaming, it will be video game streaming. In theory this all sounds peachy but it also raises a lot of questions.

Price?  Price is going to be a huge factor in deciding whether or not it’s worth purchasing. OnLive is a subscription service similar to cable TV or Netflix. Pricing has not been released but this will be one of those make or break decisions.

Game ownership? What if you buy a game OnLive and you purchase a game but down the road you decide to cancel your service. Will you still have access to the game you purchased without being a subscriber? Xbox Live has silver accounts, I wonder if OnLive will have something similar.

Streaming issues? Netflix has shown to be a great streaming service but yet I have experienced a few streaming issues. It’s not a big deal experiencing streaming issues on a movie but if I am playing a game OnLive and start to experience streaming issues, I am going to be pissed. 

Peripherals? Are we going to have to invest in additional peripherals down the line to get the most out of our subscription?

Parental controls? Speaking from a parent’s perspective, are they going to have parental controls? Parental controls will be a big issue with parents looking into purchasing OnLive.

Modding? Modding makes PC games more customizable and approachable in the long term as constantly changing user mods define the PC industry. Will OnLive kill that?”

Server issues? Are the server connections going to suffer going from channel to channel, from multiplayer servers to game servers reducing the quality of the game? We all know what it’s like when Xbox Live is down for maintenance, what will maintenance be like on OnLive? If the servers go down then we won’t be able to play anything on OnLive and that’s a big problem.

With all that said, only time will tell how OnLive will pan out. I like the whole idea of being able to stream games but this seems too good to be true. This could either revolutionize the way we game or become another step toward the next big thing.

Check out the Penny Arcade Comic about OnLive , it’s hilarious!