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Cloud Gaming Service OnLive Set For Launch

Posted by Soulskill on from the money-mouth-etc dept.

Steve Perlman's long-anticipated cloud gaming service, OnLive, officially launches today, finally ready to be put to the test by skeptical and hopeful gamers around the US. After granting some early sign-ups a free year to try out the service, OnLive also announced the list of 23 games that will available from the start, including Mass Effect 2, UT 3, Assassin's Creed 2, Dragon Age: Origins, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and F.E.A.R. 2. Perlman spoke at length with Gamasutra about the beta, latency, and potential partnerships with other broadband providers. Future OnLive competitor Gaikai recently announced it's targeting 2011 for its own launch.

18 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. The Fine Print by PhrostyMcByte · · Score: 3, Insightful

    From their beta signup page:

    The OnLive Game Service (the "Service") Fee will be waived for the first 12 months from the date you activate your OnLive Account. During these 12 months, your access to the Service will include free demos and community features, such as member Profiles, Friending, Chat, Spectating and Brag Clip(TM) videos, but will not include any games, content or other services that are offered for purchase, and which must be purchased separately.

    Sounds like you're going to need to pay to test their stuff. At least they're up front about it?

    1. Re:The Fine Print by carlzum · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Wait, you have to pay for games? I can already buy a console, pay a monthly service fee, and purchase games. I thought OnLive was similar to a premium cable channel, you paid a monthly fee and could play the entire catalog available. This is a slightly cheaper console but you lose the games you bought when the company tanks.

      Pioneer of on-demand gaming my ass, Sega and even Intellivision were far more innovative decades ago.

    2. Re:The Fine Print by SheeEttin · · Score: 2, Informative
      Your legalese skills are not up to par:

      The OnLive Game Service (the "Service") Fee will be waived for the first 12 months from the date you activate your OnLive Account. During these 12 months, your access to the Service will include free demos and community features, such as member Profiles, Friending, Chat, Spectating and Brag Clip(TM) videos, but will not include any games, content or other services that are offered for purchase, and which must be purchased separately.

      So yes, you get free demos. But your "free year" doesn't include anything you'd normally have to purchase.

  2. it's magic! by ILuvRamen · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How are they planning to magically teleport 1280x1024 3D video data at 60 FPS to my computer with under 50 ms of additional lag? This is an extremely stupid idea but if you consider that "real" gamers have systems that can render the games by themselves, it's redundant to say that real gamers won't take a technology like this seriously.

    --
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    1. Re:it's magic! by PhrostyMcByte · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't think anyone with a gaming system will be interested, but everyone else may be. Some games like RPGs can be played acceptably with a little lag, and I wouldn't mind being able to see some nice graphics on my Eee PC when I'm away from home.

      Will it work well with an FPS? Doubtful. Before anyone says "Hey! I used to frag in Quake with a 300 ping and it was plenty playable!" -- I used to too. But that was 300ms of network latency, not input latency - very big difference. Lag compensation makes a world of difference, and that's impossible when you're just piping video.

    2. Re:it's magic! by rockNme2349 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Well for one, they plan on transferring 2D video data probably at around 24 FPS. They are trying to get as low latencies as possible by having several servers around the country and are only selling to people near those servers.

      Their target is not hardcore PC gamers. Also this system will never work with twitch gaming, like unreal tournament. However for less latency critical games, and for more casual gamers who aren't looking for a large hardware commitment, this fills a niche. I'm personally not interested in their service, but I'm interested to see how it turns out.

      --
      Sewage Treatment Facilities - "Our duty is clear."
    3. Re:it's magic! by Hazza64 · · Score: 2, Funny

      I hear Dr. Jon Osterman and Adrian Veidt are involved with the project. Apparently it involves using tachyons to send the information from the server to the user instantly! When asked about the future of the project Dr. Jon Osterman replied that 'the future is still unclear'.

    4. Re:it's magic! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      I don't think anyone with a gaming system will be interested, but everyone else may be. Some games like RPGs can be played acceptably with a little lag, and I wouldn't mind being able to see some nice graphics on my Eee PC when I'm away from home.

      Will it work well with an FPS? Doubtful. Before anyone says "Hey! I used to frag in Quake with a 300 ping and it was plenty playable!" -- I used to too. But that was 300ms of network latency, not input latency - very big difference. Lag compensation makes a world of difference, and that's impossible when you're just piping video.

      (it's june 17th now, so the NDA is over) I've been hardcore fragging on unreal tournament 3 and haven't had any latency issues. Try it before you knock it honestly, it's a lot better than I was hoping for and almost as good as I was dreaming for...

    5. Re:it's magic! by Qantravon · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's true that hardcore gamers are going to have systems capable of running these games well, locally. By which logic, their target audience shouldn't be hardcore gamers, but the more casual gamers looking for slightly prettier graphics than their box can handle.

      However, look at that list of games. Those aren't games targeted at the casual audience. Those are the very games that are going to be picked up almost exclusively by the same gamers who already have capable systems. MMORPGs, maybe some find-and-click games, that's what they should be offering, not lightning-paced FPS'es, 60+ hour RPG's, and combo/timing intensive action games.

      This is why I think OnLive is going to flop. Their game selection is targeting the wrong audience.

    6. Re:it's magic! by DeadDecoy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think ultimately, it depends on the cost. Game purchases would have to be significantly cheaper, as I'd already be shelling out money for a monthly subscription (isp not included) and there's no mention of whether I can backup or archive my copy or whether I'd have access to the games I purchased should I decide to discontinue my subscription. I.e. it's good for games I'd only play once, but I'm skeptical about the service with regards to games that have a long shelf life: civilization, starcraft, half-life, etc.

      It sounds cool at first: no high end hardware purchases, but that cost is just being moved to monthly subscriptions. Again, if I decided to discontinue their service, there's a chance I'd end up with no games OR hardware. Given that I'll need a computer regardless, I think I'll just stick with my archaic computer + disk setup until I hear more about the service.

    7. Re:it's magic! by RoadDoggFL · · Score: 2, Insightful

      So why can't the target audience be hardcore gamers who don't have the money to upgrade their computers? Gaming lounge patrons? Or hell, potential hardcore gamers that don't have the money, technical know-how, or desire to maintain a gaming-competent PC. You're right, there's no market for this. Everybody already has their dream gaming setup.

      --
      "This is considered plagiarism."
    8. Re:it's magic! by Svippy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I don't think anyone with a gaming system will be interested, but everyone else may be. Some games like RPGs can be played acceptably with a little lag, and I wouldn't mind being able to see some nice graphics on my Eee PC when I'm away from home.

      Uhm, yeah, I'm gonna give you that, that would be awesome, but as you can tell from the minimum recommended system requirements, that ain't going to happen:

      • PC: Windows® 7 or Vista (32 or 64-bit) or XP (32-bit)
      • Mac: Mac OS X 10.6 or later
      • Processor: Dual-core CPU
      • Screen Resolution: 1280x720
      • Internet Connection: 5 Mbps located inside the contiguous United States (wired connection required)

      So I am going to assume your Eee does not have a dual-core CPU, a x720 screen resolution or always a wired connection, which means netbooks aren't welcome. But maybe they'll fix that in the future. So you can even play them on your iPad.

      --
      Clicked pie.
    9. Re:it's magic! by Stele · · Score: 2, Informative

      Here is a demo of it running on an iPad.

    10. Re:it's magic! by nschubach · · Score: 2, Funny

      Ah, sorry. I missed it. Shall I submit my papers to be prosecuted and tried for murder now or next week?

      --
      Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
  3. You do not own games you pay full price for pay on by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You do not own games you pay full price for! and you have to keep paying on live to use them!

    So you are better off useing your own system and buying the games that can be used with out having to pay a fee JUST TO PLAY! also no INPUT LAG AND NO NEED FOR a 5MEG plus full time data stream.

  4. Re:What people don't realize... by twidarkling · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Or, you pay $350 for a console that's good for 5+ years, and rent games from where ever, and buy any ones you really like when they hit bargain-bin status.

    --
    Canada: The US's more awesome sibling.
  5. Re:Wet Dream For Publishers by Jedi+Alec · · Score: 2, Insightful

    and hence WE. ARE. FUCKED.

    Are we? At some point it'll get bad enough that those among us who truly want to game the proper way will either buy indie titles exclusively or start collaborating and make our own bloody games...

    I've been having a blast e-mailing companies with a form e-mail I created which summarized comes down to "Hi, I would have loved to have bought your game X, but unfortunately you chose to treat me, your potential customer, as a thief. Hence I have decided not to buy your game X and instead spend my money on the following companies that do treat treat their paying customers properly: Y and Z."

    Now what I'm truly curious about is...is there *any* solid evidence where implementing DRM caused would-be pirates to buy the game instead of torrenting it?

    --

    People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
  6. Since nobody asked yet... by Noughmad · · Score: 2, Funny

    Will it run on Linux?

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