Although most of the announcements at this year’s Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) were a bit boring, there was one that peaked everyone’s interest: OnLive. Why is it such a hot topic? Well, if they are successful, it could possibly lead to a unified game console future and put all of the Xboxes, Playstations, and Wiis into the gutter. With all the debate regarding digital distribution vs. disks, could OnLive prove the deciding victor?
So what exactly is OnLive? Think NetFlix movie streaming, but for video games. OnLive is a video game on-demand subscription service that allows you to instantly buy and rent titles in the comfort of your own home. What’s so special about this service is that all of the games are hosted on OnLive’s powerful servers, while the game content is streamed to you over the Internet. Unlike services like Xbox Live, which requires you to have a the software and hardware locally, everything is executed online. Anything you see on the screen, every button you push is transmitted back and forth to you via the Internet. Since the games are streamed, you no longer have to deal with discs, lengthy downloads, software installations, or annoying driver updates to enjoy your favorite games. The best part about this is that you can play high-end games on basically any entry-level hardware. Since all of the processing are done on the remote OnLive servers, you can play power hungry games like Crysis in full 720p resolution on any old Pentium II desktop. There’s no longer a need to drop a pretty penny for the top of the line video card. Not only is it compatible with your PC, it will also work with your television and even Macs.
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