Imagine never having to pay for top of the line game hardware again. Imagine being able to play new games without the hassles of installation or driver configurations. This is the vision of OnLive, a new cloud computing based gaming service recently announce from the Game Developer’s Choice conference. Being interesting the cloud computing, I taking the time to offer my $0.02.
PC Gaming: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Years ago, I used to be a PC gamer. I liked the fact how I could play games in full resolution and enjoy the deeper worlds they offered. Unfortunately, PC gaming comes with a hefty price. Every six months, on finds him- or her-self paying through the nose for new hardware. And with new hardware comes the issue on whether the new hardware will work with your existing hardware. Finally, there is a strong chance of driver hell where an attempt to update the driver(s) for the new hardware destabilises the PC.
It is these issues that eventually made me abandon PC gaming and become a console gamer. I buy a game, I put it in the console and I play. I don’t need to reach for the Bible and pray that my PC is worth to the Gods of PC gaming, I just press START and I’m off.
OnLive: Gaming on Demand
It seems that OnLive is taking gaming simplicity one step further by running the game for remotely and then sending the result back. OnLive makes use of a new trend in computing called cloud computing, where a (for simplicity) very large super computers are accessible for a very low fee over the Internet.
The basic idea is OnLive runs games on their computing cloud, players send the actions via a thin client and the resulting audio and video output is sent back using a proprietary codec. For PCs and Macs client software is needed while players can opt for a wallet sized device with wireless controllers, USB, HDMI and Ethernet port.
The Pros
As the game is run in OnLive’s cloud, one no longer needs to worry about hardware and software purchase and configuration. Furthermore, one can either rent or pay for the full game. Sadly, this is where all the advantages stop.
The Cons
The obvious problem with OnLive is an Internet connection is needed. First, one is only able to play the game as long as the Internet connection is active. If the connection fails, the player is unable to continue until the connection is restored.
Also, as it is the audio and video streams that are being sent, it is possible to consume a significant portion of one’s allocation Internet play very quickly. Furthermore, while the codec is optimised, there is still some quality loss. In fact, to get 720p resolution games, one need a very fast broadband connection.
There is also an issue of Internet lag. While OnLive’s service plans to keep players within 1,000 miles of their servers, it is questionable if low latencies can be kept when there are many players using the same game or if someone else in the house hold starts a large download.
Finally, the payments are only for the right to play the games. Using OnLive, from what I have read, does not mean one actually owns a copy of the game. Interesting still is as the game is hosted on OnLive’s cloud, it is impossible to mod the game.
Overall
While it shows much promise, OnLive still has a ways to go. So far, it is surviving its beta tests but the issues of latency and transmission volumes are going to be large hurdles. I still welcome the idea, but it still needs a lot more work and even with the simplicity, it is still no substitute for locally ran games.
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