"HUGE OnLive Announcement" Coming Tonight

OnLive claims that at 12:01 AM ET tonight, they'll have a "HUGE OnLive announcement" (they capitalized huge). I can see a few things that would be a huge announcement: subscription-based "all-you-can-play gaming", 1080p video, iPhone/iPad/Android apps, free OnLive console with a game purchase (likely). There are a lot of possibilities, and OnLive is a very interesting service, so this could potentially be worthy of the hype created, unlike what another company did recently (I won't say which, but its name begins with an "A").

Full OnLive Tweet:

"HUGE OnLive announcement coming Thu 12:01 AM ET/Wed 9:01PM PT. Set your clocks. Not something you'll want to miss."

I'm looking forward to it. What do you guys think it could be?

 

I made a thread on onlive awhile ago. I started following onlive quite some time ago. I seen they added Wi Fi capabilities as of late which is cool since I use Wi Fi all the time. who knows what it could be though, Id like to see some mmorpgs become available with there service since thats my favorite type of game genre and of course the first person shooters for the FPS lovers including me.

In case anyone is a fan of onlive and wants to join a great onlive community there is a forum dedicated to onlive at onlivefans.com.

 

Unless it's a subscription service for $14.95/mo or less to play all games, I don't care.

 

I just hope they will be able top to bring some mmorpgs cause that would rool to no end!

 

Probably be Starcraft 2 or something silly like that.

 

OnLive is making a pretty big deal about the announcement, so it's probably more than a game or a game category. It could be a lot of things. Just don't pull an Apple, OnLive.

 

bankruptcy announcement?

 

I was thinking maybe a buyout by a big company that will lead to some great things. The streaming technology is desirable for a variety of uses.

 

Uh, well OnLive sort of did pull an Apple. The OnLive TV console isn't a huge announcement particurally since the TV console was announced before. Still, it's an impressive package for $99, which gets you the console, a controller, cables (including HDMI), and any game for free. Once they add 1080p to the service, there's a chance the service could at least look as good as a console such as the 360 and PS3.

http://www.onlive.com/game-system

 

Xbox 360 and PS3 only run 720p pretty much. However OnLive usually runs at lowest detail at 720p. The latest PC Gamer noted that 3 hrs/day would run OnLive at about 220GB/mo. That's near the max bandwidth for Comcast. I know many others have much less bandwidth. I still don't see the appeal, especially since you have to actually buy the games.

 

I'll stick to my computers

 

You're in the minority. PC gaming is a dying pastime.

 

They've been saying that for years and years now.

 

I would love to punch the person whoever started that. That is such BS, im sorry it just anger me everytime I hear about PC gaming is dying...

Anyways, it is far from it and I know many of us are not fond of Onlive service, but at least they trying to attract more users. What they release in their press was a box top for home users and more features to their service like a flat rate. But jeffreybaks makes a good point with MMO because that is actually not a bad idea.

As for a hardcore PC gamer I am still not interested in Onlive.

 

PC gaming is dying. That is why most of the PC-only exclusive series have also been introduced to consoles. Also multiplatform titles sell somewhat x10 the amount more on console part, that is the main reason there won't be any exclusive games for PC in the future except MMORPG's.

Onlive itself is pretty much DoA. ~

 

PC gaming isnt dieing in my genre mmorpgs. Its more stronger then ever with wow, the biggest selling cash cow that ever existed. To say pc gaming is dieing with games like wow out is being naive. Plus with games like Guild Wars 2 and Star Wars:the Old Republic and others less know like Rift lanes of telara and Tera Online there is much room for gamers in the pc industry.

Although personally I do agree with what chaos is saying in some aspects. (lol I just seen you mentioned mmorpgs) .

Yea seems gaming is not the leasure activity anymore that is deemed socially acceptable like it was in its infancy and everyone loved it. Theres alot of things going on with gaming most I don't like. My favorite game is aion though if that tells you anything.

Personally though Iv loved this onlive. Iv been big into VPS servers and utilization for years now and when I first heard about onlive I was really naturally intrigued. I Wrote this tiny tiny thread at the forum I listed in my first post on this thread about how onlive should do well but might not cause of alot of pc enthusiasts that wont give it a glance but some person trolled me so I deleted it and had a mod close it lol. Heres what I Wrote

I thought it had that certain ring but the first reply was a cool story bro, lol.

 

You meant GB, not MB, right?

 

I'd rather spend $300 on a PS3 n borrow games from gamefly or something similar.. One thing thats holding them back is actually charging for the games!

 

As it stands right now its a great great deal! You can download and use there entire client for free and play all there games for free caped at 30 minutes of course but its the full game. There's no subscription. This has to be a great thing for alot of people that dont take the time out to game.

Heres a good example
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The big announcement is probably something like

"We got your money see'ya!....

Then they vanish from this mortal realm and live life sipping on umbrella drinks somewhere in a 3rd world country laughing all the way.

 

The only reason this works in some respects is because of all the console ports that were designed with the slow as molasses movement controller in mind, which the lag will be negligible. But when using keyboard/mouse, the lag is unbearable. Not to mention that every game I played on the system made me nauseous. Not sure if it was the lag, possible microdelays in the frames, or what. But I couldn't play more than 15-20 minutes without feeling warm and nauseous.

OnLive is NOT the end of PC gaming. Not even close. Too many limitations. And if PC gaming dies, then so does the PC. The funny thing about this is this service runs using PC games, not consoles. So if PC gaming dies, then so does this service. Some people just don't think.

It seems OnLive is well funded because I don't know how they could have rolled out something like this like they did without tens of millions of dollars in capital. My prediction, unless they make it a monthly subscription allowed to play all the games you want, they will fail by Q4 2011.

 

If they made OnLive into a digital marketplace, e.g. like Steam, then I wouldn't hesitate for minute to use it. Imagine having the actual game available for download on any system through your OnLive account and also having the option of playing the game through the cloud service on any rig you have that doesn't quite match the requirements.

Even then though, it still wouldn't gain the support of the entire PC gaming community as some people are too against owning digital media (e.g. anti-Steam) for good reasons and some people like to play games that require response times that cloud gaming can't achieve yet.

 

Yeah, that would be one selling point, and I wouldn't find so bad. I just don't like that you buy games and are tethered to their online only service. Again though, it really sucks that they run the games at minimum or near minimum detail.

 

Sorry. I don't agree with any of your sentiments with OnLive. You make OnLive sound glorious and advent of a new age of gaming and that's all it is, empty glorification.

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That's what OnLive is really about and that's what the financial supporters, investors of OnLive really care about. As it is, keeping up with hardware with current games is not an issue with Consoles lasting 6-9 years and even PC hardware not being that expensive to keep up with current games. Your argument about hardware is nonsense. Games only being able to be played on an offsite server and host having full control over your access to games. That's Ubisoft's, Eidos', Warner Bros, Activision's dream. This is not the dream of gamers.
- PC Gamers upgrade hardware regardless of what game they are playing. PC is not just a gaming machine. So the issue over upgrading hardware for gaming is absurd to me.

 

HAHA! Hilarious lol..

Defeatism! lol... you don't have to blast PC gaming shadow...you got a G73 you know

 

Meh, onlive is ahead of its' time at the core. We just aren't ready for streamed cloud games in a world of isps who charge increasingly more while reducing service (speed, bandwidth caps).

Like was already said, who exactly are they targetting here? People who don't have enough cash to buy a console or gaming rig (we're talking ~$500 here), but have internet connections with bandwidth to spare? Honestly, who has the "extreme" package from their isp without having the (any?) hardware to actually make use of it?

Of course I realize several isps in the US do not have caps. But the rest of the world does - might as well slap a "for sale in USA only" sticker on this.

 

What I also don't like about it is the lack of modability. There's so much free mod content out there, it would be a shame to lose that creativity.

 

Being a laptop forum I'm going to say be the first to say I DON'T like the portability of said program. Up here in Canada, it's very easy to wander out of a high speed aviable area, or get stuck at a hotel with a very crappy connection (think 256kb/s). Don't even think of playing using a Cell network unless you want a bill so big you could have bought an xbox laptop ( http://benheck.com/)

I love steam. I can buy tons of games. Carry my laptop around, and almost always boot up my laptop and jump into my game regardless of connection. Granted with my Alienware I pretty much need a power outlet for any modern game.

 

I don't get all the criticism. I just played onlive with a HP G60 that doesn't have a dedicated video card in it and it would never be able to play games like those on onlive service. I played two games, fear and Unreal Tournament 3 both worked flawlessly and was extreamly fun and you don't even have to pay! Its a great service and should't be critiqued by so many people in the way its being.

I'm not sure with both those games I couldn't find any multiplayer servers can any one confirm that when you rent or buy you get the patched version of the games for playing multiplayer dedicated servers?\

I honestly thought there would be lag that wasn't acceptable but it played perfect, will take some getting used to like anything but it worked awesome! Go onlive! harahh!

 

What do you mean you don't have to pay? It gives you 30 minutes of free play for any game, then you have to pay.

And Unreal Tournament 3 and Fear aren't real high system requirements. They would most likely run fine on your G60 with low detail at 720p just like they stream. Heck I can play Unreal Tournament 3 and Fear on my SU4100 netbook with Intel graphics.

And lag will vary from location to location. Some places are better than others, depends on your internet provider, your communication equipment, the path to their servers, etc.

 

Onlive is not something you will be using on a cell tower anytime soon....

 

Whoever can afford that high speed inet without caps ..

.. just buys the fast pc and all the games he wants ..

.. because he doesn't want crap quality

Service will fail shortly anyways.

 

That's what I was thinking too. If you can afford the 5Mbps+ internet connection, it doesn't take a deep wallet to build a desktop that can play these games at the same quality. Heck, it doesn't take an expensive laptop. You can buy any laptop with a bottom end dedicated card that will play just as well and that laptop will probably cost < $700. Even an ION powered netbook could probably play just as well and those cost less than $500.

With Sandy Bridge in a few months, and eventually Ivy Bridge in a year or so, low end cards won't even be necessary, that performance will be built into the chip. So OnLive will have even that much less of an edge unless they can boost resolution and detail significantly.

 

heh 5+ meg cable dosnt cost alot...its farily cheap for most people 30$ and under a month for just your standard cable.

 

And if you're already buying a laptop, adding $100-$150 to the price to get a dedicated GPU if you keep the laptop ~2 years is ~$2/mo. So give up your McD's coffee one day a month and deal with it!

Not to mention nVidia Optimus, and AMD coming out with a similar auto GPU switching solution, battery life doesn't need to be compromised because you have a dedicated GPU.

Plus most ads I've seen for 5-6Mbps cable is about $33/mo + taxes and fees so total is > $38/mo usually.

 

A 5mb line up here is like $40 unless you know who to go to, but the problem isn't speed it's bandwidth... the 5 meg plans here only come with like 45-60gb of usage. Considering that STANDARD online gaming can rack up 3-500 mb per day, it'd be a damn nightmare to have to stream everything, and then still have bandwidth left for anything else.

 

Bandwidth and ping.

And then people talk about playing games over 3G/4G? Come on, you're looking at absolute minimum 300ms. That's atrocious. People balk at >70ms in-game usually.

I can see this as a set top box as they've just announced. But again, monthly fee to play anything in their catalog is where its at.

 

so what was there huge annoucement?

 

The set top box to connect to your TV with a controller and free game for $99.

http://www.onlive.com/game-system

 

That price is very tempting. I just tried out the demo and UT3 was pretty playable. I have 15 down and 5 up in the LA area.

 

I wonder how many games will not have acceptable or any control with that online TV set because it seems its limited to a gamepad.

To be more viable it needs to be a wireless keyboard/mouse & gamepad.

 

well the games you cant play on the controller you can well easily enough play it on a pc but for those that dont want a pc or what not then there is two usb ports on that thing they can hook up a mouse and keyboad. I friggin love it, xfire is one of my favorite sites cause I can watch live streaming there but this just takes it to another dimension totally. If only there was multiplayer out of the onlive infrustructure. People should embrace new technology when people take hard earned hours out of there lives to bring new things like this to the for front and not disrespect it cause of there own selfishness.

 

Sorry, this doesn't work for me; and I don't consider anything a consumer does "selfish". Onlive is ahead of its time, and I don't have the bandwidth or the trust to go to complete cloud gaming. I'd prefer to "wait it out" until it proves itself to me before I ditch my gaming PC and current game collection.

 

The real future of this technology when bandwidth is available an affordable is this.

People being able to stream games from anywhere from their own computer. So PC Gaming will still be alive but we'll be able to connect on our laptops or whatever and play off our own stream. We can buy any game we want with no restrictions and have it as long as we want. Not a license to play however long OnLive deems but ownership of the game. And being able to choose whatever game we want. I don't think the consumer will ever stop wanting to own something and having control over it. I don't understand anyone who want to give up control over something they bought, makes no sense to me.

OnLive is not the future. OnLive is just another attempt at DRM.

 

I tried onlive and it does not work for games that require precision. For example, in fps's like borderlands you cannot aim worth a poop. It's just too jumpy. So, I don't think it's the future of gaming. If they integrate their "console" as an app in the new internet TVs for casual/arcade/platformer games, I think it could be worth it, though.

I also think their revenue model sucks. They are much better off allowing you to register existing games by entering your license key and having you pay a subscription fee rather than buy their games on their service.

 

Why should I invest my money in games in a service that only lets me play more or less at home, at low detail, and low resolution? When I can play pretty much any game I have anywhere I want, at high resolution and detail?

OnLive is a complete dichotomy. It's PC based games streaming to a PC, which if it eliminates PC gaming, then it affects PC game development, and it will no longer exist, unless developers design it specifically for the OnLive service, which I doubt because the audience is only a fraction of every machine on the planet that could play the game.

I don't disrespect it, I don't like or agree with the game purchase arrangement. They should just make a subscription model for a monthly charge or for hours of play for any game. But having to pay for games that are tied to a specific service with extreme limitations is hard to swallow. If OnLive goes under, you lose all the games you bought. If they were around for ten plus years then maybe I'd have more confidence.

 

Onlive has too much wrong to come out of the hole they are digging themselves. Jefferybaks, im glad you enjoy this service, this service was aimed for you. But for me its not worth it.

1. what happens when your internet is down? Or their servers are down? You can't play ANY of your games. NONE, the service is dependant on the net.

2. You don't own ANY copy in ANY form of the game. You pay full price to be allowed to stream the game. You get banned or you stop going to the service and they will delete your account and all access to your game. You have no control over this, that is completely wrong.

3. Their compression technology is horrible, it looks like a 1080p youtube video, bunch of square compression artifacts, blurs and so on. I have a 52 inch 1080p screen that I bought for its clarity, not to stream a lowest setting version of a game and have it look like crud.

They do several things right though.

1. Allowing ANY pc the ability to play games. Their promise fell short though saying they'd rival top end pcs for gaming, but this is proven false. This idea is awesome, the company just has to update the supercomputers at the server and bing next gen upgrade didn't cost you a penny. of course this means you don't have outside access to the game.

2. streaming free demo, this is great for developers trying to make a name for themselves. Lets say you wanted to try a new title, the demos like 3 gigs big, your not gonna waste your time downloading the demo. The problem is people stick to familiar titles and rarely diviate, allowing a streaming demo service would provide that possibley amazing title to get exposure.

3. Replay theater, Remember that awesome headshot, damn rights you do and you can replay it till the cows come home. Of course more and more games are coming out with this option but having one universal replay theater would be way better.

Now this is what I'd do to improve this service

1. Sell it to steam, make it a rental service under the steam service. The new CoDs out, got mixed reviews, heres 5 bucks, allows you to stream the games for a week. Bam tried it loved it now I buy and download it. Onlive should be viewed like a netflix, a rental service. This would make the most sense instead of breaking up an already splintered pc gaming platform.

2. allow the user to take the replay or live stream and record it, watching vgame vids are huge on youtube, machinima is proving this fact with millions of views. Allow a gamer to record and export without an additional PVR card or destroying framerate.

But its far too late to attract anyone to this service unfortunately for them, thats the sad realization. For one they were going after the pc gamer, wrong move. The pc gamer is a hardcore gamer, they spend the big bucks on hardware and enjoy modding their cases and going to lan parties, making mods and having super rediculous flight sim rigs. This should have been marketed to the casual gamers who buy a ps3 just to play madden, cod, nba,nhl, <your sports game here> and so on. They only buy 2 games a year and one is a sports game. Rant over.

 

bandwidth is not a problem to me, the problem is playing the games at such low detail and resolution such that any 500-600 desktop can probably do better. It takes away half of the enjoyment of the game, which is the beautiful graphics.