OnLive Game Console Announced

Cloud based gaming, not up there with the faries but a large collection of servers offering up interactive games over the internet with minimal local processing. OnLive has been stirring up quite a bit of interest over the last couple years with an interesting take on playing games. Instead of buying $1000 of computer parts every 2 years to play the latest PC games, how about using a cheap $400 PC you built 3 years ago to play the latest PC games in High Definition… over the internet? Better yet, how about playing them on a console, a netbook, or even a mobile phone? This is what OnLive wants to achieve and has made great strides to do it.

The concept is simple enough, people login to a service which allows them to play any game they want with all the heavy rendering being performed on a server. You don’t need to download anything, don’t worry about game updates, patches or keeping your PC hardware and software up to date. All you need is an Internet connection sufficient enough to handle the video stream. In fact, the processing required is so small that it can be done on a mobile phone or in this case, a small, dedicated, MicroConsole.

The MicroConsole that has been recently announced is micro indeed, smaller than a typical controller in fact. The console includes an Ethernet connector, HDMI, Audio/Component Jack, an Optical connector for digital audio and 2 USB ports. It will be retailing for $99 and includes a wireless controller plus 1 free game (worth up to $49.99).

Since no rendering is done on the local system (apart from video feeds), user input must be sent over the ‘net, rendered on the server, then set back to user. Can you say latency? This off-site rendering method, while cool in theory, might lead to some seriously aggravated players due to what will most likely be high latency thus ‘laggy’ gameplay. This is where OnLive has invested a significant amount of time correcting. It’ll be one of those issues where some people will be fine, others will not. High speed broadband doesn’t always translate into low latency, but we’ll see how the service fares as it evolves.

OnLive Games can be played for free then rented for 3-5 days at $3.99 to $8.99 respectively. A full PlayPass (unlimited play for a single game I suspect) ranges from $4.99 to $49.99. However, there are plans for an Unlimited game plan for a fixed monthly fee, but no pricing given just yet. Games such as Borderlands, Just Cause 2 and Mafia 2 are already available with a number of high profile games inbound.

Palo Alto, Calif. — November 18, 2010 — OnLive, Inc., the pioneer of on-demand, instant-play video games, today announced that the OnLive Game System is available for pre-order, with delivery starting December 2, 2010. Available in limited quantities, the OnLive Game System includes the OnLive MicroConsole TV adapter and OnLive Wireless Controller.