Cloud gaming: a revolution or pipe dream?
Ben Drew
Issue date: 4/17/09 Section: News
On March 24th at the Game Developer's Conference, technology entrepreneur Steve Perlman announced a product that could quite easily revolutionize the computer game industry. He calls it OnLive, and it takes the idea of "Cloud Computing" to the world of gaming.
This so-called "Cloud Gaming" seems like a particularly complicated concept at first, especially if it can deliver the promised results of the "most power game system in the world". But in reality, the concept is quite a bit simpler.
A piece of hardware, be it a box or whatever proprietary device the company offers as the "decompresser", is hooked up to your television or computer. On the TV, it functions just like a game console would. Should you choose the PC option, you will need to install some software as well.
From there you can access the catalog of games and play whatever the service has to offer. What you see isn't really playing on your platform, however, its being played on a hub somewhere nearby (OnLive hopes to have them within 1,000 miles of every user), and the video is being streamed to your video output. Simply put, it's YouTube for gaming.
The companies have given very few details on exactly what has been going on between time spent in development and this year's sudden deliverance. OnLive's press release said they have eliminated the need for anything more than a 1.5-Mb internet connection and a standard definition TV or monitor for the service to function correctly.
Should this technology work as proposed, it will revolutionize gaming. But that is the trouble; no one seems to know how viable this is.
Currently, the Internet is crawling with so-called "experts" on the subject, but it is hard to differentiate between network administrators and overzealous fanboys who can't seem to get enough of Cloud Gaming. However, Crytek (developers of Crysis, a game infamous for slowing PC's to a crawl) told GameIndustry.biz that they have weighed the pros and cons, fiscally and physically. They are under the impression that such an endeavor will not be feasible until 2013, when networking technology will assumedly have progressed far enough along to handle the bandwidth, as well as make broadband connections more accessible to people worldwide.
Another concern is the institution of bandwidth caps that is becoming more prevalent among internet service providers. Imagine being on the final mission of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3's Soviet campaign, your Kirov dirigibles headed straight for the Statue of Liberty, your dreams of a communist America finally in sight. Just as your hydrogen bombs begin to drop onto the dame's lovely copper complexion, you lose your connection to the server. Sorry, you've exceeded your daily bandwidth limit. Now imagine the single tear rolling down Stalin's cheek in sheer disappointment.
But regardless of these concerns, the publicity generated over this new idea in gaming has resounded throughout the online community. Hopefully within the next few years, we'll learn if it was worth all the hype, and not just a technical nightmare.
This so-called "Cloud Gaming" seems like a particularly complicated concept at first, especially if it can deliver the promised results of the "most power game system in the world". But in reality, the concept is quite a bit simpler.
A piece of hardware, be it a box or whatever proprietary device the company offers as the "decompresser", is hooked up to your television or computer. On the TV, it functions just like a game console would. Should you choose the PC option, you will need to install some software as well.
From there you can access the catalog of games and play whatever the service has to offer. What you see isn't really playing on your platform, however, its being played on a hub somewhere nearby (OnLive hopes to have them within 1,000 miles of every user), and the video is being streamed to your video output. Simply put, it's YouTube for gaming.
The companies have given very few details on exactly what has been going on between time spent in development and this year's sudden deliverance. OnLive's press release said they have eliminated the need for anything more than a 1.5-Mb internet connection and a standard definition TV or monitor for the service to function correctly.
Should this technology work as proposed, it will revolutionize gaming. But that is the trouble; no one seems to know how viable this is.
Currently, the Internet is crawling with so-called "experts" on the subject, but it is hard to differentiate between network administrators and overzealous fanboys who can't seem to get enough of Cloud Gaming. However, Crytek (developers of Crysis, a game infamous for slowing PC's to a crawl) told GameIndustry.biz that they have weighed the pros and cons, fiscally and physically. They are under the impression that such an endeavor will not be feasible until 2013, when networking technology will assumedly have progressed far enough along to handle the bandwidth, as well as make broadband connections more accessible to people worldwide.
Another concern is the institution of bandwidth caps that is becoming more prevalent among internet service providers. Imagine being on the final mission of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3's Soviet campaign, your Kirov dirigibles headed straight for the Statue of Liberty, your dreams of a communist America finally in sight. Just as your hydrogen bombs begin to drop onto the dame's lovely copper complexion, you lose your connection to the server. Sorry, you've exceeded your daily bandwidth limit. Now imagine the single tear rolling down Stalin's cheek in sheer disappointment.
But regardless of these concerns, the publicity generated over this new idea in gaming has resounded throughout the online community. Hopefully within the next few years, we'll learn if it was worth all the hype, and not just a technical nightmare.