Over the past 2 weeks, video gamers everywhere have been buzzing about a new potentially revolutionary idea in gaming. It’s called “Cloud Gaming”, and the company that has the most potential in successfully creating a working model would have to be Onlive. Onlive is founded by Steve Perlman, the founder of WebTV.
Since the announcement about Onlive at the GDC approximately 2 weeks ago, there have literally been thousands of Onlive news articles released about the new gaming system. These articles have been filled with news about how the system will function and even more important “If” the system will function. Skeptics have been abundant in showing their feelings about Onlive. Is it really possible to have an onlive gaming system work lag free when entire games are streamed over the internet? Thats right, this is not simply the same as playing Xbox Live where you put the game in your console at home and play against other gamers who also have the same setup at their homes. Onlive is different. There is no gaming software or even console needed (except the micro console if you’d like to play on your TV). The entire game is streamed to your PC, Mac, Laptop, or Television. Perlman claims that if you have a connection speed greater then 1.5mbs then you will be able to play Onlive.
What is even more magnificent about Perlman’s claims is that you will be able to play high quality games on almost any computer, no matter how old it is and no matter what type of processor it uses.
Onlive fans are popping up everywhere from Facebook, to Myspace, to Twitter. I have even seen an Onlive Forum dedicated only to the system. I’m sure this isn’t the only forum out there either! This gaming system isn’t even on the market yet, but there are still thousands of people who claim to be fans. The news and forums are all fine and dandy, but the system itself has to work. It is supposed to be released in the Winter of 2009, which is only about 7 months away.
Onlive Beta Testing begins this summer, and it appears that anyone can sign up to be a free beta tester. No one is certain how many members Onlive will take as testers, but some believe that it will be all US citizens that sign up.
So will Onlive work? No one really knows. We will see for sure this summer, if the system is ready by then. Many experts believe that 2013 is the earliest any Cloud Gaming system will be feasible. Can Steve Perlman and Onlive prove them wrong?
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