Who knew that the biggest news to come out of the GDC this year (so far) wouldn’t come from Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft? Actually, it didn’t even come out of a Game Developer. Mova (apparently a subsidiary of Rearden if that helps anybody) has announced the OnLive Game Service. Its a new gaming console, in as much as it allows the player to play games on it, but other than that it breaks 100% of traditional console conventions. Using cloud computing OnLive computes and renders gameplay on a remote server and simply provides the gamer with the equivalent of a interactive video stream. The idea seems as brilliant as it is bonkers. Assuming they can tame the inevitable lag situation, does OnLive really have a place in the gaming world? Is there a market for such antics? Who would they sell this to, hardcores, soccer moms, Gamestop haters, cheap tightwads like myself, new gamers, or fans of Big Brother?
Onlive…it’s thinking (apparently really freaking hard)
If Onlive does become a new standard, with all of the computing being done of external servers, hardware upgrades would become irrelevant. Is this the answer to rising next-gen console prices? How long will it take to catch on (if ever) and what will the price point be? OnLive’s CEO, Steve Perlman, has officially stated that the plan is for the launch price to be significantly lower than that of the Wii. He ‘s even billing it as the the cheapest and most powerful console in the world. Its true that if this catches on and becomes the norm I will miss collecting all my game’s and building a physical library of discs to line my book shelves (in lieu of actual books), but that didn’t stop me from appling to participate in the open beta this summer. Thoughts?