Future of gaming may be in clouds

[aussie1st]

The next major video game platform may be no platform at all.

For the past three decades, the pattern has been the same: every few years, the major game-console makers - these days Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo - come out with newer, slicker players.

Now OnLive, a Silicon Valley start-up, is about to begin large-scale testing of a system that, if it delivers on its promises, may break the cycle and usher in a new era in a video game market estimated at US$21.3 billion ($31.4 billion) in the United States and more than twice that worldwide.

The idea is to run games in "the cloud" - distant servers connected via the internet - and stream them to your television or computer with as much speed and power as if they were running locally.

Future of gaming may be in clouds - Technology - NZ Herald News

Interesting idea, you would need unlimited broadband to fully enjoy it. And some countries will struggle to meet the speeds with the current broadband speeds.

 

[SciD]

It will be flop in sub continent.

But I think its mainly targeted at US, Europe and Pacific.

 

[iridescentt]

Their game console is incredibly slim, so is their '360-based' controller. I like their colour palette though.

I've seen their stuff on AoTS (Attack of the Show) and it looks promising. Just don't count on their base in India or South Africa to be huge :rtfl

 

[AbBh]

I was thinking it would be awesome if something like this came out and turns out that people are already working on it. If it can be made available for cheap then it would definitely be a success and stop piracy as well. Will take some time before its usable in countries like India though.

 

[Kshitiz_Indian]

Even in the US though, you've got to be kidding me at current stages. You can't stream content at 1920x1080 at a reasonable time frame, even on 16Mbps, no I don't think so.

 

[SciD]

Quake released in Cloud for Linux and Mac. Go bash some friends.

 

[angryangy]

It's still pretty much a tech demo, works well enough for the novelty but don't bother if you're looking for multiplayer or state-of-the-art quality without the hardware.

 

[chaitanyaraghav]

i've read somewhere that they have actually tested WOW and it runs fine.There's nothing better than owning a gfx card btw!