" @marrec:   The target resolution is rather unimportant if the game isn't being rendered at 1080p.  PC gamers choose PC over console so they can play at resolutions beyond what most console games offer (in the case of multiplatform releases) and games which consoles can't play well or at all (like RTS and MMO) so if your gaming experience is limited by both rendered resolution and detail (I've yet to see a DX10 game on Onlive rendered in full detail and I'm not talking about view distance, Anisotropic Filtering or FSAA) then it's hardly worth the effort as a replacement for PC gaming.  It's fine as a rental or demo service for those games which you may have a passing interest in but PC gamers would much rather have the experience in the fullest of detail on their own hardware.  While Onlive has made a tiny bit of noise (in their EULA alone) regarding supporting user generated content, I really don't think it's likely it will provide access to the wealth of mods available for free and I doubt even more sincerely that they will offer 1/100th of what's available due to game breaking aspects, copyright infringement and adult content which many mods are geared towards.  PC gamers bemoan consolification of games that they can play locally and a service like Onlive will only make that more apparent.  I just can't see this ever gaining any traction as a full on games providing service, though it may have some success as a rental and demo service. "

Is this really going to be a thing now?
As if consolls werent confusing enough for the average consumer. Cant wait until I have to start explaining this to people.

" Is this really going to be a thing now? As if consolls werent confusing enough for the average consumer. Cant wait until I have to start explaining this to people. "

" @Linkster7 said:

" Is this really going to be a thing now? As if consolls werent confusing enough for the average consumer. Cant wait until I have to start explaining this to people. "

Here's a good place to start:  "You buy it, plug it into your TV, buy games, and play them."  As for how it does what it does, just tell them magical elves travel along the internet line carrying their game one frame at a time back and forth. "

Also more the problem is to steer them away from it and it's low price point. Rather them buy an expensive bundle with a lot of extra accessories, thats why the Wii gets such retail loving :P 

I am very amped for this and want to buy it soon after it comes out.  This seems to be the fture of gaming.  If it works,  it may bring an end to: 
 
-Expensive next gen consoles 
-60 dollar ganmes 
-Defective expensive " next gen " consoles 
-Having to pay more for hard drive space (not sure about this)
-Slow load times  
-Paying for single games and then selling them back at a loss ( because I'm too stupid to have rented the game in the firstplace ) 
 -Game discs being messed up 
 
And there may be other problems that come in it, but for the positives of this machine and this service that I have seen so far makes it out to be the future of gaming. Keep in mind guys, music companies are looking into "cloud" services as well,  youtube works just as fine as what would be considered a free "cloud" service and pioneered it.  Could you imagine a youtube of  retail games? 
 
If this is successful, then other companies have to start cloud services as well to match it.  This only works out good for me. Of course, I don't care about having physical copies of  or "owning" games. My gaming habits are sporadic and I would've resold them anyway. 

I give this 5 years from really taking off. 

 
OnLIve really set the world alight didn't it? The future of gaming my arse ...

Tried it, didn't work well. The resolution was crap, there was a lot of compression artifacts and the game catalog is a joke.

I'm not surprised to see that OnLive opted for a monthly fee. PlayPasses don't make much financial sense, as they will have to keep expanding their server farms if the service is successful, and one-time payments of $50 or so per game are simply not enough to sustain the server farms. 
 
I have used OnLive on my work laptop and it works very well for me, but I imagine it is not a very good option for people with slow or unstable connections. I keep my gaming PC up to date ultimately there's little reason for me to subscribe. However, it will still be interesting to see what games this "backlog" contains. Hopefully it's more than just indie games.

This will fail before it even starts... people own their system on choice already !