Cloud Gaming (no more consoles/ no more gaming rigs?)

Well, we're nearing the point where we don't need high-end gaming rigs nor consoles to play games anymore.

http://gamingdialog.com/valve-steam-...rvice-t30.html

http://www.onlive.com

It's only like 10 bucks a month and they throw you 50+ games, many of which are AAA grade.

I wonder when Valve is going to do this?

Maybe cloud gaming is the big secret that they'll unveil in 5 years?

Any thoughts and has anyone tried onlive?

[WiaW]

OnLive and cloud gaming is clearly where the future is. It was amazing to see FEAR run smooth on my ancient 7 year old laptop that could barely manage Quake.

The only limitation I can see is the massive amount of bandwidth that is used to stream these games. My household uses about 100 gigs just streaming with Netflix every month, I would go way over my bandwidth cap if I were to begin streaming my gaming as well.

[Nekomancer]

Massive amount of traffic, lag even in Singleplayer, no modding capabilities. I don't think that will beat classic PC gaming for a few decades.

Originally Posted by WiaW

I would go way over my bandwidth cap if I were to begin streaming my gaming as well.

Sigh, makes me want to move to some eastern European country (where it's nearly free and unlimited) with all the money hogging limitations they impose upon us here in the states...

Although some states are making it into a utility that's run by the state so that all people have equal and affordable access...not in my state though sadly.

Originally Posted by Nekomancer

Massive amount of traffic, lag even in Singleplayer, no modding capabilities. I don't think that will beat classic PC gaming for a few decades.

Netflix doesn't seem to be struggling, even at peak hours:

http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/17/net...ernet-traffic/

I would see gaming being no different since all it really is is an interactive streaming video feed. And even if there was a massive lag spike, I would imagine the quality of the video would dynamically adjust without interruption just like netflix...

[Bromazepam]

No modding capabilities is enough to make me not want cloud gaming.

Anyway, I tried Onlive and the performance was between barely decent and acceptable. If you've never tried input lag you can't understand how unplayable even the slightest delay is, especially if using a mouse: it feels the pointer is extremely heavy and you actually have to struggle to move it around.

[Moe45673]

I'm sure cloud gaming will be the way to go but the current infrastructure the internet uses is not sufficient to handle that kind of load, especially if every gamer on the planet is using it.

Being at the rate of upgrades the major telecoms and ISPs seem to proceed at, it'll probably be 10 years before it's mainstream

[RealityEcho]

eventually but not likely to come to Canada. The telecom companies here rule with an iron fist giving us sub par speeds and bandwidth caps

[crunchyfrog555]

I agree that it may be a future thing, but it is entirely dependent on future communications technology. Currently it is unplayable in most cases (particularly multiplayer).

However, even then, to be a true alternative it would have to be of a minimum standard in the majority of the world. It remains to be seen if such a thing will ever happen.

[serieus1]

I see this type of gaming becoming new console, but not a replacement of PC games. As someone has already said PC Games prosper because of the community mods and much more. That's the only reason that computers have survived the console vs computer market. The graphic quality, the modification capabilities, and many smaller cosmetics help keep PC Gaming on your machine alive. Onlive though, may take away from consoles more than they would take away from PC games.

[michael89]

No point.

Caps are slowly making their way to our connections, since the traffic is increasing insanely every year.
I´d say, that in the next 10 years we all have 25-50Gb caps.

UDK, Crytek, Source, and many others would-be novice developers are being herded to them as it's a pain in the ♥♥♥♥ for devs to individually cater to mod scenes that arise with each of their releases.

There's just no point any more for some joe schmoe to make simple edits to games that will ultimately die with the times.

@Serieus1

Agreed, it could potentially replace consoles but it is definitely a viable alternative to pc gamers who can't afford to build or purchase state-of-the-art systems.

Plus, I shouldn't have to mention that devs will only have to develop for one platform (the cloud server) as opposed to multiple platforms. And not only that, you get the added benefit of playing your games on multiple devices anywhere in the world since all it really comes down to is that it's just streaming media which is no different than netflix except that it's receiving mouse clicks and keystrokes to add interactivity with the streaming media.

Of course, I do agree it'll be a good 10 years before it becomes something of the norm...

Originally Posted by michael89

No point.

Caps are slowly making their way to our connections, since the traffic is increasing insanely every year.
I´d say, that in the next 10 years we all have 25-50Gb caps.

As the demand for greater amounts of bandwidth increases, so will the caps.

Although we shouldn't have bandwidth caps at all...

we need to push our local officials to make the internet into a public utility run by the state and nationally (and even internationally), turn it into a human right that is equally and affordably available to all.

There's already a couple cities that have done this and not only that, they've made the internet available virtually every where within the bounds of their city limits.

The internet should always be public domain in all shapes and forms. In fact, I urge you all to pay this site a visit and fight against the Protect IP Act(aka the internet blacklist bill 2.0):

http://act.demandprogress.org/call/p...3OXmJ&rd=1&t=1



We don't live in a democracy for nothing...

Note: this bill will affect everyone internationally...not just America.

[Washell]

Originally Posted by illianquinn

except that it's receiving mouse clicks and keystrokes to add interactivity with the streaming media.

And that exception invalidates all the great things about it. "Click, noticeable pause, shoot" just doesn't work.

Apart from that, Onlive's current technique uses a large amount of video compression with the games at low settings so it doesn't look great either. You'd be better off with a console or a $400 PC.

The concept is great, but until we have routers capable of switching light directly, it's not going to be more than a novelty in the real world.

[SilverMink]

Originally Posted by michael89

Caps are slowly making their way to our connections, since the traffic is increasing insanely every year.
I´d say, that in the next 10 years we all have 25-50Gb caps.

So true, with bandwidth caps reaching America I doubt these types of services are going to fair very well.

Comcast, AT&T, wonder who's going to be next to screw over there customers.

[bschuler]

I personally don't think streaming games is coming mainstream anytime soon. As more and more services (Movies, TV, Phone, etc) move to internet or IP based.. there will be little headroom for streaming games.

I think it is highly more likely the downloadable game will be the norm for the next decade. As a matter of fact, I anticipate the new Nintendo box may be download game only. Even having a bluray drive seems more and more useless.

I also expect discounted hardware based on acctepting to see ad displays to become common options.

[Seth.Sekhmet]

Cloud gaming is an option, but not the future.

It's like having a teleconference party, where each guest sits in his room and just looks at a monitor with the other party people. Well, perhaps not quite the same, but different.

Don't think actual games will be out of demand ever.