by Onix.
Technologies go faster than a leopard with a serious urge of taking a squirt… Can we keep up?
On Live TV Console. Click to go to the site.
It’s a new day ladys and gents of the gaming web… The announcement has buzzed the web for the last days, finally getting my attention on my personal homepage (Yahoo!). OnLive promises cutting edge graphics palyable on any PC that has a web browser. It even promises to take it even further with a TV appliance (the image) that’s no larger than a NDS. All of this is possible with the power of the broadband connection…
But hold your horses and pockets. The revolution promises, will it deliver? Undoubtedly, this is where games are going. Consoles are starting to see their end, just starting. The faster speeds on the internet made it possible to share media and all kinds of things with the admontion of the Web 2.0… It already has taken the step into taking onto serious games: MMORPGS are not possible without the internet. But the draw back on such games *cough*WoW*cough* is the technical specs. Individual gamers are not cash cows, some of them have the resources to keep up with the constant demands of this hobbie. PC’s over Videogame Consoles, PC has a double-edged knife: It’s constant evoultion, now measured in months. I’m sorry Blizzard, people don’t hop into your game cuz of the hardware specs WoW demands. Internet we allmost all have… High-end hardware in proccesors and cooling systems? Not so much. Videogame Consoles have a lot more success in their market because they evolve slower: Gives consumers a breath. Sure they strip our pants with the constant influx of games, but that’s a totally different matter I’ll discuss in the next “State”. Back to the buisness at matter, the avergage consumer of games starts to fail to keep up with the trends. OnLive is the glaring proof of it.
Why? The great weakness of the system that promises to end the aformentioned hardware issues: SPEED. CONNECTION SPEED. OnLive promises a smoothly run “Crysis” on a netbook with the condition you have a bloody fast internet connection. As in T1! As much as I hate to break it to the OnLive team, mortals have access to 3 Mbps at the most. You just relocated the big expense, that was it. In countries like mine, the gaming population has access to a 2 Mbps at a maximum. Needless to say other countries. For me, i have 1/2 Mbps. Is it enough to run “Mirror’s Edge” in my awesomely-not-for-gaming PC. I think not.
OnLive claims to be the worldwide revoultion. I’d agree as long as they made it precisely that: worldwide. May I remind you US ain’t the world? Will the games eventualy On Demand? Yes. Will we get rid of consoles in at least 20 years time? I think so. Will OnLive be the Trojan Horse of the revolution? Defintely not.
May 1st, 2009.
