OnLive: The Endgame

10 Mar 2010 at 00:00:00 by Andy Alderson

Never one to shy away from grand claims, OnLive's Steve Perlman promised “big news” in his GDC speech today. As if threatening to revolutionise the industry with his cloud gaming service wasn't enough, Perlman sought to silence the cynics by revealing that it will launch in less than three months. Bang in the middle of E3, as it happens, the biggest gaming show of the year. It's a brave move, undoubtedly, and Perlman will have the squinting, light-fearing eyes of the gaming world upon him. To fulfil a professional ambition in quoting Bad Boys 2 in an article, “shit just got real.”

What was considered an early April Fool's joke by many in the industry when announced back at GDC last year is suddenly only a few months from launch and it has the potential to be ground-breaking. What OnLive represents is a tectonic shift in the games industry, leaving neither console or PC gamer unaffected. The notion of cloud gaming - where all the intensive game data is processed not on the gamer's PC or console but in a “cloud” of remote servers – has huge implications for gaming. The removal of hardware (or at least heavy duty hardware) from the home means the big guns in the industry may be forced to adapt to a radically different business model; one in which hardware cycles and exclusivity wars suddenly become irrelevant. 

Also, cloud gaming may be the only thing that can save PC gaming if you believe the ever-increasing gaggle of doomsday prophets. The two main sticking points for PC gaming - the slippery hardware slope and piracy -  are all but eliminated by OnLive. You only need a PC capable of streaming hi-def video rather than a Deep Blue mega rig that, despite all its bells and whistles, still starts shaking like a battered wife every time a copy of Crysis approaches the disc tray. Of course, it's not PC gaming as we know it but then OnLive threatens to turn the entire gaming world on its head. With the need for consoles and expensive hardware removed, it's understandable that it's left many in the industry scratching their heads wondering what in the bleedin' eck's going to happen if it actually works.

But, there's still an awful lot of doubt over whether it will work. The universally-predicted connection issues are still considered to be a major concern for pretty much everyone apart from Steve Perlman. What it requires to stream HD games in high detail over the internet is scary. Proximity to an OnLive data centre is crucial to the performance of the service it would seem and it's going to be one hell of an undertaking for the company to provide the hardware the system demands. 

Leaked beta test impressions described a creaky system, plagued with lag, visual fidelity and framerate issues, although OnLive did much to play down the problems with some fancy science talk about the speed of light. But the fact remains that this was a beta test consisting of only hundreds of users. How is the system going to cope when it rolls out for real in June? Although the launch is limited to 48 US states, the demand is surely going to be enormous as what it represents is something of a curio for gamers. How many of us wouldn't be tempted to drop $14.99 USD on the service for one month, just to see if it works? With most big name online games suffering from some manner of server catastrophe upon launch these days, what on earth can we expect from such uncertain technology?

While the optimist in me wants very much for the launch to be an explosive success, with Perlman and co screaming “we told you so” from the rooftops, the more dominant embittered cynic in me suspects it will be an awkward affair that may not answer all of our questions. If the beta test reports are to be believed, we may have to settle for more modest performance until the technology beds in.  

But, the fact that Perlman has the the big name publishers on board surely speaks for the veracity of his claims. And there's his confidence. Whatever happens, E3 just got a little more dramatic this year.

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