OnLive invites Sony and MS to adopt tech on PS3, 360

[TekkenLord]

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...ch-on-ps3-360/

OnLive believes that if Sony and MS were to integrate its Cloud service on PS3 and Xbox 360, they would "make great consoles".

The Californian firm made waves at E3 earlier this month by showing off its new controller, which connects to OnLive's servers via most modern TVs and tablets wirelessly. It demoed a range of games playing glitch-free on iPad, including Gearbox's Borderlands and Ubisoft's From Dust.

The tech has been officially backed by major software publishers such as Warner and EA. However, OnLive is yet to seal an affiliation with any traditional hardware manufacturer, locking it out of access to platform-exclusive content - and a big chunk of the modern gaming audience.

When we asked OnLive VP of Engineering Joe Bentley if the company could see its service working with Microsoft and Sony's systems in future - rather than just bypassing them - he said:

"Absolutely, they would make great consoles. Our controller is a hybrid between a PS3 controller and an Xbox controller. It's all compatible, it would just work. There are OnLive guys chatting [Sony and MS], but we'll see where it goes. But it would absolutely work, we're ready to work with everybody.

He added: "What people are realising and waking up to is everything could be a console, why shouldn't you be able to take your game everywhere. I think the timing of this is perfect. When I joined the company I didn't think it was going to pan out this way.

"I give lectures at university and I tell people that finally the internet has grown to be fast enough, and that it's really the age of the SOC; the System-On Chips that you find in the iPad, the snapdragon. They're making these magical smartphones and tablets take off in a huge way.

"It makes you use your imagination: what would you do with faster Internet and these SOCs in TVs? It will soon be in everything up to refrigerators. This is what we came up with - turning everything into a console, not taking compromised gaming like Zynga or whatever but fully-fledged gaming with you.

"It has to be instant, because the reality is we have a very short amount of time. The reason mobile gaming has taken off is because you can occupy your time at the bus stop or whatever. The limitations of those games, though, are that the entertainment only goes so far. Why compromise that experience?

"LA Noire is a fabulous, wonderful story and you could sit there for weeks exploring it in different ways. Why not be able to take that with you and continue the story? It's like a good book."

According to Bentley, Valve "really likes OnLive" and conversations are taking place between the firms about working closer together.

OnLive's Cloud Gaming service is due to launch in the UK this autumn.

BT has the exclusive rights to bundle OnLive together with its broadband service offerings in the UK, although customers will also have the option to order directly from OnLive to run over any UK ISP.

[Nakatomi Uk]

This will not work in the whole of the Uk internet here is mostly old cabling for example where I live where still using copper cable from the 1980's for gods sake and they still say there pushing out 24mbps speeds sure my online experience is good downloads are fast ish but Onlive will not work here.

Only places it will be good are in London and most southern places where fibre optic is and thats owned by BT our internet is own by the council.

[F34R]

Will it work? Sure, from a tech standpoint I'm sure it will. From a deployment and logistical application standpoint, no. The Internet just won't support the kind of customer base console brands need to sustain their business models.

[Soldier 95B]

Sounds good to me. I really like OnLive on my computers at home so far...adding this to console would be sweet.

[F34R]

Adding it as an option, instead of replacing it, wouldn't be too far fetched. A budgeted "onlive" version of the next gen consoles, or the option to be a full priced "traditional" console... that'd be interesting.

[Soldier 95B]

Yeah, as an option. By no means replace. I want my Xbox/Playstation!

[Fenix]

Considering I seem to have high latency net (which makes controls laggy), I doubt the world is really ready. (E.I: Compared to many I know IRL, I have much better connection)

[BoyBettaKnow]

It could work. I doubt MS or Sony would be on board with it though.

[Tyrien]

Hahaha... Why did I have a feeling this was OnLive's plan all along?

When I first saw the service announced I knew it was too soon for such a tech to be mainstream, and figured their only goal with this was to establish a tech and try and sell it to one of the major console manufacturers.

[zombieking36]

Sony needs to quickly draw up a contract and get this service onto the PS3's (at a cut per game sold of course). Its a free service anyways, its just the games that cost, and demoes can be streamed as well! It would be a step in increasing the longevity of the console!

[radgamer420]

Will it work? Sure, from a tech standpoint I'm sure it will. From a deployment and logistical application standpoint, no. The Internet just won't support the kind of customer base console brands need to sustain their business models.

I agree.

[MacP]

I really do not see this getting anywhere, it's still to early to push a service like this out.

[keefy]

Better off simply downloading the full games rather than streaming them, I just had a quick 15 min play of Metro 2033 my bandwidth meter stayed constantly around the 6-7Mbit mark and as you can see it downloaded 628MB in 15 mins, times that by 4 to get 1 hour and times that by how many hours the game takes to complete and you end up with maybe 20GB plus (8 hours) yet the game is about half that.
Another thing is the video quality isnt very good its low quality and full of artifacts Ive seen youtube videos with better quality.

[ps3isawesome]

The quality can be better or worse depending on connection

[Soldier 95B]

Better off simply downloading the full games rather than streaming them

That's not the point of OnLive. The point is, I could be at home, on my computer and play, say, Modern Warfare 3. Later, I could pick up in the campaign (or go online) from my TV using the OnLive console. The next day, I could be traveling and log into the game and pick up where I left off, or play online, using my iPad, iPod, iPhone, etc. Giving me the flexibility to play my game on any connected device in the world is a great thing.

BTW, I have been playing OnLive, running at 720p with hardly any artifact issues.

[keefy]

The quality can be better or worse depending on connection

My connection is double what you see in the picture seems more like onlive doesnt dish out any faster than 8mbit if it did then the quality would be better.

That's not the point of OnLive. The point is, I could be at home, on my computer and play, say, Modern Warfare 3. Later, I could pick up in the campaign (or go online) from my TV using the OnLive console. The next day, I could be traveling and log into the game and pick up where I left off, or play online, using my iPad, iPod, iPhone, etc. Giving me the flexibility to play my game on any connected device in the world is a great thing.

BTW, I have been playing OnLive, running at 720p with hardly any artifact issues.

HArdly any is still some.
I thought it was for those that don't want to spend loadsa millions of dollars on new PC hardware every 5 minutes so they could play the latest PC games at a great quality.

[Completely Average]

My question is very simple.

Why would MS or Sony want OnLive when they can build and run the same type service using their own existing network? It's not like MS and Sony don't have the resources to compete with them.

[floetry]

People this isn't a replacement.

Just think Gamefly..but digitally...Kinda.

[TheTenth666]

I so want Onlive to be such a remarkable failure that noone dare speak of genaralised digital distibution for 5 centuries. I like buying a physical product and being able to sell it when I don't use it anymore, and buy used things for cheap

[*goo]

Hahaha... Why did I have a feeling this was OnLive's plan all along?

When I first saw the service announced I knew it was too soon for such a tech to be mainstream, and figured their only goal with this was to establish a tech and try and sell it to one of the major console manufacturers.

I reckon it would be a bit of a trojan horse. Get the tech into consoles then tell customers 'ya know, you don't need to buy a PS3/X360 etc to be able to use our service...'.