Tech Culture

Just like floppy disks gave way to CDs, then CDs to DVDs, followed by USB flash drives and SD cards, the time of game discs has an end in sight. Mind you, there's still a great need for them right now in the console and portable games world, but services like Valve's Steam on the PC (and now Mac) side have shown--in just a few years time--that the packaged game can make a graceful transition to the digital storefront.

What's more interesting, however, is the wave of new technologies that compete with Steam, and other download services like it--not only for PC games, but for console titles too. These streaming technologies, which include names like OnLive, Gaikai, Otoy , and InstantAction, promise to free us completely from the need to download software in the more traditional sense, and instead stream titles from a server cluster hundreds or even thousands of miles away from where you play them.

In a few months time (when this technology is more common) it will give you, the consumer, an alternative to buying new gaming hardware, while at the same time letting you pick up and play a new game on just about any Internet-connected device. Such a model may turn the gaming hardware industry on its head, but it opens up new avenues of utility for tablets, mobile phones, and even that 5- or 6-year-old computer that would have otherwise been hopelessly unable to run most modern-day titles.

When will it be like that? Soon, but not just yet. Many of the below services we're about to delve into are not live, or are live but aren't open to the public. Several are working on partnerships, back-end technology, and pricing. This story is to help serve as a primer for what each one promises to bring to cloud gaming, as well as some high-level detail on how it works. Read on to find out what could be taking the place of your next game console, or high-end graphics card purchase.

OnLive Availability: Limited public preview (with waiting list) Price: Free year of service as part of launch promotion, $14.95 a month afterward. Game price varies by title. Titles: <20 Platform compatibility: PC, Mac, MicroConsole TV adapter Killer app: Solid launch lineup, and both rental and purchase options.

Onlive first premiered at last year's Game Developers Conference, and opened up to a public preview a few weeks ago at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). Its premise is that it lets you stream full PC games over to your PC, Mac, and, soon, TV--the last of which requires a small piece of hardware the company is calling a MicroConsole.

Unlike standard PC games, playing these titles requires no space on your hard drive, or a beefy processor and graphics processing unit. Instead, all that work is done in the company's server farm, then piped over the Internet. This lets users on just about any hardware or platform play titles--as long as they have an active connection.

Playing games on OnLive requires that users be connected to the entirety of their gaming experience. Connection also plays an important part in determining the quality of the feed that's getting piped back to the user, be it an SD or HD stream.

Using the service requires paying a monthly membership fee, although right now the company has a partnership going with AT&T to provide new users with a free year of service. The games themselves cost money on top of that, though usually at a lower price than the boxed copy, or even digital download. These "playpasses" usually come in the form of an up-front purchase that lasts as long as the game is on the service. There are also shorter playpasses that work for just a few days, and can be had for a fraction of the full price of a title.

OnLive saves game settings and progress on its own servers so you can access it from multiple computers without having to cart around save files. This information is kept even if a user's subscription has run out, so that they can come back to it at a later date.

Along with the playing of games, OnLive adds a few extra goodies on top of the experience that typical PC and console gamers don't get. The first being something called "brag clips," which is essentially a screen-recording tool that captures a segment of your gameplay and lets you share it to others on the service. OnLive also features a live performance area called the "Arena," where other OnLive users can watch you, along with several other players at once. … Read more

Led by hot demand for the Xbox 360, the video game industry scored its third best-selling May, trailing only 2009 and 2008. Revenue was down compared with a year ago due to lower console prices, according to the latest figures released Thursday by The NPD Group.

For the month, total revenue from gaming consoles, hardware, and software slipped 5 percent to $823.5 million, compared with $865.7 million a year ago. Video game hardware took the hardest hit, dropping 20 percent to $241.5 million from $303 million a year ago. Though sales were strong, lower hardware prices added … Read more

"Futurama" is a show that just won't die. Since premiering in 1999, the animated sci-fi sitcom has been cancelled, revived, syndicated, made into movies, and then revived again on three different networks (new episodes started up last week on Comedy Central) and over a collection of DVDs. Now it's in Legos.

Lego builder and graphic artist Matt De Lanoy has spent more than two years reconstructing the 31st-century world of "Futurama" out of the plastic bricks. The display measures about 5x7 feet and is incredibly detailed; you can tell the man knows his Legos. … Read more

When Sega announced recently plans to bring Dreamcast titles, including Crazy Taxi and Sonic Adventure, to Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, the vast majority of Sega fans were excited. After all, the Dreamcast is one of the better consoles ever released, and many of its titles were outstanding.

But it looks like the company isn't done yet. Speaking in a recent interview, Sega's Yosuke Okunari, who is in charge of bringing Dreamcast games to the new consoles, said that porting Saturn games is a real possibility.

"We're of course thinking about ports of Saturn games," … Read more

Microsoft appears to be staffing up for the next installment in the Halo franchise.

The company has posted more than a dozen Halo-related jobs to its careers Web site this month, most of them in the past few days.

"Do you love Halo? Do you want to be part of the creation of a new game in the Halo universe? Are you a programmer with an interest in animation and cinematics?" reads one of the listings, which seeks out a software development engineer who specializes in animation. "We are gathering an incredible team to help drive the … Read more

In February, Capcom announced that the sequel to its hit zombie-apocalypse action game Dead Rising would arrive on August 31. However, much like the lumbering undead masses players must fight in both games, Dead Rising 2's release date has fallen behind.

The Japanese publisher announced Monday that the new installment in its franchise will now arrive in North America on September 28, in Japan on September 30, in and Europe on October 1.

Read more of "Dead Rising 2 delayed until September" at GameSpot.

As a hard-core gamer who spends hours each day playing video games, I can say without reservation that I'm not all that fond of motion gaming. And I'm not very excited about Microsoft Kinect or PlayStation Move. But Microsoft's worldwide product marketing manager, Ryan Moore, believes it will be a person like me--the hard-core gamer--who will be first to pick up Kinect when it hits stores later this year.

CVG recently interviewed Moore and asked the Microsoft employee if hard-core gamers will really like what they find with Kinect. Moore seemed sure that the hard-core--typically a key … Read more

Gamers spending days straight in front of the couch is nothing new. Only in recent years, however, has it been put to good use in raising money for charity.

One such effort, called the "Mario Marathon" just kicked off its third-annual event on Friday, and will run through the weekend (or possibly longer). From a living room in Lafayette, Ind., Brian Brinegar, John Groth, and Chris Deckard plan to play through nine different games in Nintendo's Mario series, which span 809 levels; all with no stops in the action except to switch discs and cartridges.

As the … Read more

Each year, after E3 comes to a close and financial analysts have a chance to sift through all the news from the gaming industry show, those analysts share their opinions on which companies did well and which left something to be desired. This year, a few analysts, speaking to Gamasutra in an interview, contend that it was Nintendo that did the best job of building hype for its products.

"Nintendo 3DS stole the show," Panoptic Management Consultants analyst Adam H. Kraus told Gamasutra.

His sentiments were echoed by another Panoptic analyst, Asif A. Khan, who told the gaming … Read more