OnLive, The Warner Bros-funded PC-centric cloud-computing attempt to dethrone consoles exploded on to the scene at this year’s GDC in March. It’s been fairly quiet on the OnLive front since then – They were conspicuously absent from this year’s E3, choosing to rather demo their product at a residence in downtown LA.
Back in March Steve Perlman, Founder and CEO promised that OnLive would launch by the end of the year, and that an open Beta would start in the Northern Hemisphere’s Summer. According to an OnLive PR rep and their site, they are still targeting a summertime beta, although no exact date has been set. Considering it’s a few short weeks until the end of Summer, OnLive is starting to look like a bit of a phantom.
While initial hands-on impressions of the tech have been positive, I have my doubts about the viability of processing high-end graphics for thousands of users and then streaming it back to players without much apparent lag, input or otherwise. Sony, despite evidence of their own take on cloud computing express a similar cynicism.
I’d like to believe that OnLive can work, but I’m quickly running out of reasons to have faith. Unless Onlive can instil confidence in their product by showing the public that it can work on a large scale – and soon – this thing is dead in the water.
Last Updated: August 12, 2009
janrik
August 12, 2009 at 12:56
I recon this might work really great.
5 years or so from now….
spl0it
August 12, 2009 at 13:24
I hear it comes bundled with the duke
Maxiviper
August 12, 2009 at 16:32
I think this onlive thing is a bunch of crap because you HAVE!!! to be constantly using the internet to play any of the games and not everyone can afford to constanly download games just to play the f@$%#ing game they even sayed that:
Thus, Engadget states that “Broadband connections of 1.5 Mbps dials the image quality down to Wii levels while 4-5 Mbps pipes are required for HD resolution.” The average broadband connection speed in the US at the end of 2008 was 3.9 Mbps, while 25% of US broadband connections were rated faster than 5 Mbps.
Maxiviper
August 12, 2009 at 16:34
The only people who are gonna have this console are $$RICH$$ kids. T
The only cool thing about this console is that even 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. which means no costly PC upgrades anymore.