'Console killer' OnLive to launch in June

[MadMunky]

Onlive is going to the biggest bag of shite ever. You can't server render, screen grab, send over a wire for a set top box to play with zero\low latency, the current internet infrastructure just can't support it. Dave Perry's equivilent (whatever its going to be) is equally going to suffer the same issues

Look out for laggy video game, playing like a pixilated you tube video coming to you soon.

We will see end of the day i've not see it in action or used it so cant really comment but all the support its getting i think it will be a success personally, after its released to the whole of the US we will find out

[EvilBoB]

I have been accepted on the trial for this so will report back what it's like but speaking to some internal guys they say it actually really works despite what people say.

Not sure if they are gonna send me a micro console to test it with so may have to use my 360 controller on my laptop.

It all depends on the back end - there is no reason why they cannot stream over decent broadband as I have no difficulty streaming HD video off the web using mine. There will of course be a lot of people who will just not be able to use this due to the bandwidth limitation however for those that can it could be a really good option.

I have a decent spec PC, XBox 360s, PS3 and Wii and I doubt this would make me want to get rid of any of them however I'm open to be proven wrong.

One good thing about the trial is that I get unlimited gaming for the duration of it of the entire catalog which is awesome!

Here's a sample of it running Assassins Creed 2 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJBUPHv5-IM and here's Borderlands : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qD8K...eature=related

[scullion]

What type of broadband do you have Virgrin 20mb no doubt?

I wish they would roll that out everywhere.

[EvilBoB]

I'm on Bethere. Currently getting about 9 to 11mbps downstream. Apparantly this will work properly down to 4mbps downstream but I wouldn't want to be doing anything else at the same time lol.

[scullion]

thats not bad really. how much data does it use approximately... e.g. if you played for an hour and a half would it be like watching a 700mb divx movie

[EvilBoB]

thats not bad really. how much data does it use approximately... e.g. if you played for an hour and a half would it be like watching a 700mb divx movie

Think of it more like streaming video off youtube than streaming a movie like DIVX.

Once I get it all setup I'll try and do some sniffing around to see what the real life bandwidth usage is.

[pattikins]

I'd be interested to know what the gaming performance is like. Both of those video clips are based on single player mode & therefore neither of them show what the real-world performance would be like in a multiplayer environment - esp. given that Borderlands key selling point is the cooperative mp option.

[MadMunky]

The ping on multiplayer games should be really good as your be playing with people on the same LAN and not really over a wan

[Flat]

The ping on multiplayer games should be really good as your be playing with people on the same LAN and not really over a wan

not really - cause you still have your input delay from your keyboard - over the internet - to your game - to the actual multiplayer game

[EvilBoB]

not really - cause you still have your input delay from your keyboard - over the internet - to your game - to the actual multiplayer game

Ping times will NOT be a problem as the actual client will be on a fast backbone. The problem is (as you say) the input latency. As this system is based on cloud computing I'm guessing that they will be trying to get that latency down somehow.

Ah well - time will tell. Might get my login this week so I'll let ya all know

[RESiDENT-UK]

would your system have to be pretty good to be able to play them?

[EvilBoB]

No - you should be able to run it on pretty much anything a it's essentially streaming video - so no expensive gfx cards etc required.

[RESiDENT-UK]

thats pretty damn cool then , what will the fee be when it reaches uk if it does lol?

[Mystical_2K]

im seeing a lot of plus and minus points here, its not something for me (prefer the physical thing especialy as im a collector) but i can see lots of people who would get great benefits from this

[Sanj[UK]]

You'd need 10mb atleast to get smooth constant playability @ 720p (also no cap) . Anything else and your having a laugh!

[EvilBoB]

You'd need 10mb atleast to get smooth constant playability @ 720p (also no cap) . Anything else and your having a laugh!

Apparantly it's 8mbps that is required - no idea what sort of codecs they are using at the moment but I'm assuming it's some proprietry system. As a lot of people have more than 8mbps these days bandwidth isn't really an issue imo - Especially with BT rolling out their Inifinity platform (up to 40mbps) and Virgin Media pushing harder and harder.

Of course there will be a percentage of people that will be excluded from this service in much the same way that they would be excluded from streaming video services.

I think this is going to do really well as a service and you will be amazed how many people would buy into it if it works. eg. My kids. No more faffing around with their PCs to upgrade hardware and keep viruses away. Just give them this and they have all the games they could want.

With regard to price I think they are aiming for about ten quid a month subscription which gives you access to all of the games on the platform so it's not bad.

[greens117]

Id imagine someone will set there comadore up to play it lol, that would be cool

[pattikins]

Apparantly it's 8mbps that is required - no idea what sort of codecs they are using at the moment but I'm assuming it's some proprietry system. As a lot of people have more than 8mbps these days bandwidth isn't really an issue imo - Especially with BT rolling out their Inifinity platform (up to 40mbps) and Virgin Media pushing harder and harder.

Of course there will be a percentage of people that will be excluded from this service in much the same way that they would be excluded from streaming video services.

With regard to price I think they are aiming for about ten quid a month subscription which gives you access to all of the games on the platform so it's not bad.

If it's 8mb+ that rules me out & probably the majority of potential punters:
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/201...isp-rules.html

Reading what has been written on the subject, it seems that BT has an exclussive deal with Onlive - which is sure to piss off all the other ISP's that have to carry the 'HD' video feed. There also appears to be a good deal of scepticism about Onlive's marketing hype:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/gd...y-work-article

There doesn't appear to be any accessible games that are part of the monthly subs. The few games that they do list (most are past their shelf life), i.e., borderlands @ $39, are a tad on the high side.

[EvilBoB]

im seeing a lot of plus and minus points here, its not something for me (prefer the physical thing especialy as im a collector) but i can see lots of people who would get great benefits from this

Looks like the tide is turning on the collecting people

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11397504

US sales of PC games via downloads have exceeded shop sales for the first time, suggest figures.
In the first six months of 2010, 11.2 million full games for the PC were bought online compared to 8.2 million physical unit sales, said NPD Group.

Also to answer a few other peoples questions from back at the beginning of this thread :

Also 1,000 miles from datacentre, I wonder will they have 1 in Middle England and 1 in Ireland. It won't launch here for another few years. It definately is one for the future. And you would think in the future we will have unlimited broadband usage.

It uses cloud computing so distance from the datacentre shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Think about it.. How are you going to play the games at high settings?

They must have 8392382382 servers.. If someone is whoring crysis.

That server or pc in use to run crysis would only be able to run one instance of crysis on current hardware.. unless they load balance all the servers in the datacentre?

Or am I being stupid?

Also you have CPU utilization will hit 100% and introduce latency if lots of people sign up. Further inducing problems of slow data rates etc.

They either have lots of money to burn or have excellent technology to deliver this.

The servers that they are running this on are VERY powerful. I am still waiting for the product line to send me some technical info on the back end but they have told me that it's totally scalable as more users come online.

People are complaining about DRM which requires an always on internet connection from EA on assasins creed 2, this will suffer the same problems with internet connections not being available 24.7 or cutting out. Server issues etc..

The internet connection that is required for DRM is from the game itself which will be on a redundant internet backbone so this is not a problem.

Really not sure how this will pan out. What controller do you use? Will the one supplied be any good?

You can use the XBox360 controller or the PC equivalent without a problem.

One thing that does interest me is that I was told by one of the team that console games would also be available... I have NOOOO idea how they would pull this off unless they are working closely with MS, Nintendo and Sony but I have also asked for more information on this and whether this is just sales hype and a load of bollocks.

Hoping to go live with the beta in the next 2 weeks or so and I'll take some video capture of it running once I get it up and running. I don't know if they are going to supply me with the microconsole at the moment.

If anyone has any other questions please feel free to direct them to me and I can ask the product line about the more techy stuff and once I'm live with it I'll be posting a full review of the pros and cons of this system.

I'm really looking forward to it even though I have systems that are powerful enough to play pretty much any game on the market. I also have a PS3, XBox 360S, Wii and DS Lite (Also a Gamecube, Dreamcast and an orginal XBox somewhere in the house).

[Cooleo]

http://www.onlive.com/signup

You can sign up now with no credit card