OnLive – The future of gaming?
A couple weeks ago, a friend of mine told me about a new gaming service that would be played entirely online and streamed via your internet browser. At the time he couldn’t remember what it was called, so I wasn’t able to hop online to check out what the service was. Today I stumbled onto what I believe he was talking about.
OnLive is a gaming service which is slated to be released this Winter allowing you play current games, including those you’d see on consoles right from your browser, using a plug-in which streams the game from OnLive’s servers. There’s also an option to play the games on your television using a small set top device. Once set up, gamers would then have the option to rent or buy games, watch demos and more.
What makes OnLive so intriguing to me is the fact that you wouldn’t need a top of the line PC to play the games. Because they are streamed via a plug-in, it would basically be like streaming a high def video, except that it’s a game which you can play. The following video is a nearly hour long press conference which does a much better job of explaining OnLive.
The question is, will OnLive make console gaming obsolete? If you had the option to play the same games you normally would on your XBOX 360 or PS3 on your PC, would you? For me I think the biggest factor will be the cost per games. I guess we’ll have to wait until Winter though to find out those details. Regardless it’s certainly something to keep an eye on if you’re an avid gamer.
