Onlive: Gaming changes forever?

So imagine never buying another disk, imagine never having to update your PC/Mac to run the new game, and imagine you just open up a menu on your TV or PC/Mac and a list of games are there, you can choose one (pay a fee of course) and start playing. No downloading, no lag, with a host of features that makes Xbox Live look stupid.

I don't think it will work. But if it did, people aren't ready for that yet.

hmm could you not have done a search?

I think it's a neat idea, but it's going to take a while for it to really get established.  If you need at least a 5 mbps internet connection to get a HD video stream, most people are going to continue playing their games the old fashioned way.  The idea sounds cool.  I'm hoping it's not an unplayable, laggy mess.  If it's successful for PC gaming, I wonder what will it mean for the the future of console gaming?  Will the future xboxes, wiis, and playstations be built on cloud computing?

Here's a bit of blather about it from OnLive CEO Steve Perlman: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/47079.html

I think it a very promising idea.  Just look at things like iTunes and Steam, how they started out and what they've become.  And as for console games, in the above interview Perlman talks about porting both PS3 and 360 titles, plus there's a "mini-console" that you can plug into your TV for those of us you enjoy sofa gaming.

First, I like having the physical disc. I like a collection.

Second, our internet infrastructure is no where near the capability to have this as "the one way" to do this yet. Yes they are thinking about this for the future, but it is still quite a bit of a ways off.

It's a genius idea but currently can not be applied

 It's an OK idea, but it will fail (if it is ever even released). I would put money on this being vapor-ware.

I wonder how long it's gonna be until people stop make these threads.  It's starting to get annoying.

Anyways, I'll give it a shot when it comes out, but I'm skeptical.

Well the fact is its right around the corner, they already have big publishers backing this, they already have crysis running on this and tested it, the lag is non existant, like 1 millisecond.

Its got some pros and cons really which for me makes it hard to decide weather I back it or not...

Pros: You never have to upgrade your PC again which will save you hundreds a year, you can always play games witht he highest level of graphics, the box used to run the games are tiny as the gaming systems are somewhere else, it may be cheaper as there is no disk, you can rent out games, should eliminate host advantage in online games.

Cons: There may be a monthly subscription to keep servers running meaning if you only want to play a few games it will be like paying again for the same game, lag and graphics depend on your internet connection. If you lag is bad, your skrewed, if your internet fails, your skrewed, if the servers fail, you and thousands of others are skrewed...

The peoblem is I would rather pay £40 for a game and know i must never pay agin, whilst with this there will be subscriptions, and if you must pay again for the game like XBLG its like paying again for the exact same content...

Though obviously this does not mean the end of consoles, they will still stay so  will decide what to do when it arrives...

There are already over 200 replies to Jeff's article on this subject.  Please read through it and continue the discussion there.

http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/general-discussion/30/what-if-your-game-console-was-just-a-video-stream/235673/#200