Comments on: OnLive could threaten Xbox, PS3, and Wii

A new digital distribution system promises high-quality streaming of first-run major publisher video games to many Macs and PCs. It could endanger the existing console model.

[33petec]

No way this will succeed. I want my games coming straight off a nice, local DVD-ROM

[Mergatroid Mania]

I know I'm probably in the minority, but I have no interest in playing games that I don't own. Never have, never will. I would rather go to a store and buy a game, than concede control of my gaming experience to some on-line company.

Also, so long as there are exclusive titles on consoles, their business model has nothing to worry about..

What's next, a monthly fee? I wouldn't be surprised the way people have been programmed to accept paying more and more fees.

I want to buy a game, own the game and play it as much as I like (and not necessarily on-line). Besides, I know lots of people that own video game consoles but have only the "budget" Internet connection. This will allow playing games with other console owners over the net, but would be nowhere near fast enough to stream.

However, I'm sure lots of people will sign up and enjoy it, but I don't think consoles are in any danger.

[Smoth 007]

Great. I just purchased a 360, Wii and PS3.

[a_olson12]

If you think about what this technology really means.. its quite significant. The PC is dead. Operating systems are dead. 3D accelerated graphics interactive web sites coming soon!

[a_olson12]

If you think about what this technology really means.. its quite significant. The PC is dead. Operating systems are dead. 3D accelerated graphics interactive web sites coming soon!

[russrjn]

Great idea..except for 3 unfortunate realities.
1) The US broadband infrastructure sucks and will not go beyond what is needed for this game system.
2) ISP's will want a significant cut of the action for use of their lines for this to be a reality and could add a real and significant surcharge for this use if goes beyond certain gb's per month.
3) Could be a real problem for people who use wireless connections in their homes to adapt and use wireless connection for security reasons IE ID theft. and may cause real and bad unforseen problems.

[russrjn]

Great idea..except for 3 unfortunate realities.
1) The US broadband infrastructure sucks and will not go beyond what is needed for this game system.
2) ISP's will want a significant cut of the action for use of their lines for this to be a reality and could add a real and significant surcharge for this use if goes beyond certain gb's per month.
3) Could be a real problem for people who use wireless connections in their homes to adapt and use wireless connection for security reasons IE ID theft. and may cause real and bad unforseen problems.

[dodgeman007]

this is so not new, does anyone else remember the sega channel? i had that thing about 15 years ago when sega genesis was the top dog. hooked into the genesis and was connected via coax cable... got about 50 different games that varied each month and only cost as I remember it 20 bucks or so... why is this thing getting any attention its over a decade old...

[sting7k]

It sounds like a good idea in theory. But I have hard time believing they are going to 'stream' games running on servers lag free. Even with a 50Mbps connection there is latency in controller input which then goes to the server and then goes back to you to display on the screen. And how fast will streaming HD video of a game eat up bandwidth caps? That's a lot of transfer and I don't see how it will be lag free when games today have lag only transmitting very small amounts of data between consoles.

Maybe the game and actions won't lag, but there will be controller input lag. And gamers will probably put up with that for about 3 minutes. I don't see it happening.

[jlynn33]

Speaking for someone who works for a telcom, this service would be great for the UK which has 95% broadband penetration at an average speed of 3.6 mbps. Here in the United States it is a MUCH different story. We have less than 26% broadband penetration. I mean come on, we keep having to push back television signal conversion from analog to digital because thousands of people are STILL using rabbit ears to get broadcasts and don't understand how to switch!

[John_Johnson]

Maybe this is just going to usher in a new era of turn-based gaming. That way latency isn't an issue anymore.

[planblove]

Like others have said, a good idea in principal but I am definitely a skeptic on this. I'm not gonna say it can't be pulled off but I am skeptical. There are just too many unknowns. What if their site crashes? No gaming for you that day right? If you've got a laggy connection, no gaming for you because it'd be unplayable. And the fact that you need a crapload of bandwidth to play it in HD is the biggest no-no for me (sorry, I need HD). Its an interesting business model for sure but I think its about 5-10 years ahead of its time. As it is right now its got a lot of hurdles to jump.

[amber0728]

Maybe I'm way off base here but I enjoy periodically playing offline and on the road. Sometimes I'll take my 360 with me and set it up at a relative's home or some hotel room. Anyone who has used 'free wifi' knows that it wouldn't support streaming gaming. Not to mention I travel to a lot of places that don't even offer DSL. This solution also fails to address LAN parties where friends can set up a few consoles, x-over cables, and projectors.

I think it's a nice solution for some, especially the PC gamers since it's virtually an add-on to their existing hardware with a nice controler versus keyboard / mouse but I'm fine with console set-up as is.

Just my two cents ...

[fooldog01]

Im just interested. I dont really have any input except best wishes. The concept is sound but we will have to see how it works in practice.

[kcotton314]

@the critics
Seven years in the making and you guys have figured out their fatal flaws in seconds. Why oh why...why didn't they just ask you?
Some of you people are pretty confident of yourselves. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the plugin and the manor in which the games are written will somehow, through a miracle of science, help to resolve your lag concerns.
As for the owning your own hardware argument. That's just dumb. That is SPECIFICALLY the point. If you can't get past the idea of having be able to 'touch' your console then why bother reading and commenting on the story at all? Not only is it dumb, it's kinda creepy and narrow minded.
Best

[Karl_P]

Here is something that gives this type of system a huge boost: Hacking

When you remove the code from the local system and only send a finished rendered scene to the client, you've removed 90-99% of the tools hackers can use. True a screen reading hack could be made, but it would pale in usefulness compared to the hacks that are generally used.

[antcoh1791]

I like it, streaming should be the future. No need to worry about back ups, no need to worry about media disks, and the hardware is cheaper than normal. If this works...why would you hate on it. Microsoft and Sony talked about it...so...Cheers to the future of streaming!

Hopefully cheers to security keeping up with streaming!

[Inconnux]

This will definitely fail. NO pc gamer would ever use a console controller over a mouse/keyboard combination unless they enjoy getting owned repeatedly. I'll stick with steam thanks.

[gsigas]

This is a wonderful idea and a great model (just partner up with cable TV or FIOS providers and you could use the cable-box embedded computer as your hadrware), but I don't think the bandwidth exists for widespread adoption yet. But if this stays alive it could be great in a few years.

[cabrillo24]

Brand loyalty will more than likely prevent this from taking away from XBOX 360/PS3 and Wii users. I see this being a bigger threat to casual PC gaming market. Just my 2 Abe Lincolns.