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Dave Perry gives first video tour of Gaikai
Between OnLive and Gaikai, we're not sure who to trust less. Both systems are clearly operating under some form of unknown dark magic, allowing the mysterious services to stream high-def gaming directly into your television and computer browser. Both services though -- luckily and necessarily -- have representatives willing to happily test our skepticism in OnLive's Steve Perlman and Gaikai's Dave Perry.The video (found after the break) has the latter demoing Gaikai, streaming games from Mario Kart 64 to Spore to EVE Online, all from his Vista-powered PC running Firefox on an 800-mile trip between the server and his home. He claims in the video to be streaming all of the games demoed from sub 1-megabit internet speeds and says that "even a NetBook" could run Gaikai with no problems. From what we can see, things are running smoothly, though unlike OnLive, we've yet to get our hands on the equipment. Perry says we'll see more at this month's Develop Conference, so for those of you itching for more Gaikai, you've got a two-week wait on your hands. Perhaps you should play some of those old, less magic-filled gaming consoles you have. [Via Edge Online]
Pachter: Crysis via OnLive like 'playing on a fully-optimized gaming PC'
No, it's okay. You can read that again. According to a report released by Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter, the company was given a demo of streaming game service OnLive this past March. Pachter states that latency between the user and OnLive's servers is supposed to be no more than 80 milliseconds, while the games he demoed were running at 25 milliseconds. While Pachter isn't certain if OnLive will "dominate any time soon" he believes that the micro console's video conferencing feature "will likely attract widespread demand." (Wait, it plays Crysis like a gaming PC and it's video conferencing that will sell this thing?)Pachter states that OnLive should appeal to families that have yet to buy into the current generation of consoles, especially if the service is priced right. The sweet spot, apparently, is right around $5 a month. A higher price could be met with "consumer resistance," says Pachter. Furthermore, Pachter is already predicting that OnLive may not last long as a standalone service, suggesting that it might be purchased by another company and offered as "part of an expanded service offering." For example, Microsoft could purchase the company to further expand the Xbox as an entertainment hub -- Pachter notes Microsoft's previous acquisition of WebTV, which was co-founded by OnLive CEO Steve Perlman. That's assuming neither Apple nor Verizon beat Microsoft to the punch, of course.It's too early for us to say if any of this will come to pass -- we're not analysts, after all -- but we were certainly impressed with our own OnLive experience. Still, until we can plug OnLive into our internet and play Crysis for ourselves, we're a bit skeptical. That's okay though, because we're supposed to be.
Verizon to offer GameTap-esque service in the Northeast starting this summer
Announced today and starting "this summer," Verizon will be offering "more than 1,400" PC games through its broadband service, for $9.99 per month. The service boasts a variety of games, ranging from Bejeweled to Splinter Cell, allowing customers to play the games over an internet connection or download the games directly to their computers -- provided the computer is connected to the internet, that is, presumably for license verification.For now, the service is only going to be offered in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York, with no word on when other areas will be able to sign up. Between OnLive, Steam, GameTap, and now this, that digital download future we're all expecting seems to be more feasible every day. We've contacted Verizon for more information on the service and will update you accordingly as more news comes in.
Impressions: online and live with OnLive [update]
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Impressions_online_and_live_with_OnLive'; Even though OnLive said it wouldn't be at E3, we still got to give the streaming game service a shot. It wasn't actually on the show floor, but inside an actual home ... as in luxury downtown condo that no one actually lives in. OnLive rented the place for the experience, and the service was running over a normal at-home internet connection. As proof, it showed off an actual Time Warner cable modem to prove that the experience was real, complete with blinking lights (pictured above) and bundles of cables. Update: An OnLive executive told us that speeds through the modem were peaking at four to five megabits per second, which is near the top limit of a low end cable modem usage tier, although average speeds were two to three. They were able to dial up or down what the OnLive service was using on the fly, although the cable internet connection maxed out at six mbps, which again is standard for a low-end connection.We wanted to crack that sucker open to make sure it wasn't filled with pixies armed with LED lights, but time did just not allow. So how did everything work? You'll have to head beyond the break to find out.%Gallery-48395%
Gaikai and OnLive both a no-show at E3 Expo 2009
We heard about two competing gaming services at GDC 2009 that could revolutionize the video game industry, if the technology announced can live up to its claims: OnLive and Gaikai. Both services aim to stream game content to users while the graphics crunching is handled on company servers, thereby eliminating the escalating hardware barriers to playing the latest and greatest titles -- a home user's low-end machine would be able to run high-end games. Gaikai head David Perry (of Acclaim) has said that the company's "Streaming Worlds" technology is suited to handle MMOs, and has specifically stated that World of Warcraft and EVE Online can already be streamed to browsers. When we heard about these companies at GDC we were hoping to hear more a bit later in the year, but it seems that neither OnLive nor Gaikai will be at the E3 Expo 2009. Gaikai cites patent filings as the reason they've had to pull out from E3 while OnLive states that their service doesn't fit in with the 'retail-orientation' of E3. We'll keep an eye on both companies as time goes on, though at this point only Gaikai has announced that they plan to stream MMOs.
Gaikai (the other OnLive) won't be at E3 either
The Gaikai game streaming service will not be shown at E3 2009. Never heard of it? Well, if all goes according to plan, Gaikai would become the competition to the much better publicized OnLive service. BigDownload reports it was informed by the company that its previous expectation of attending the event in LA were cut "until various patent filings are complete." It appears we'll have to wait until both services go into beta to get a better idea of how each will work. OnLive announced last week that it would not attend E3 and would have "plenty" to show throughout the rest of the year. We're definitely looking forward to testing out the server-based future of PC gaming.
OnLive won't be AtTending E3
Wünder product OnLive will not be shown at E3. The company's COO, Mike McGarvey, noted in a recent blog entry that E3 is a "retail-oriented conference, both for retail platforms and retail publishers, and OnLive is neither." McGarvey did confirm that the company will show "plenty" this year in preparation for its "external beta and launch." Oh, OnLive, you sound so magical. We want to believe, make us believers![Via BigDownload]
BigDownload pours one out for failed PC online gaming services
If you're climbing the walls with anticipation for Reardon Labs' streaming game service, OnLive, there's something you should read to ground your expectations. Our compadres at BigDownload have compiled a list containing some of the failed PC online gaming services that have appeared throughout the history of the internet. Among the failed services featured: Infinium Labs' $73 million disaster, the Phantom (which now exists only as a lonely lapboard) and Sega's lukewarm Heat.Net. The feature isn't speaking against the idea of OnLive but it does pinpoint where some of the industry skepticism is coming from.
2K's Hartmann predicts shift to server-based gaming in 'the future'
2K Games Global President Christoph Hartmann believes server-based games are, like, the future. Not really the most surprising revelation from the exec, considering 2K Games is helping mix pitchers of OnLive Kool-Aid by placing its games on the mystical device. Hartmann expresses to GI.biz that in the future, "the market will shift to more server-based games - similar to the movie business where most people just rent instead of view films in the cinema." 2K plans to release Major League Baseball and the BioShock franchises on the service.Hartmann believes the OnLive technology will meet expectations, noting that the service will have more competition soon. It'll be interesting to see if OnLive (or some other similar service) proves the doubters wrong. Hartmann's right, though -- server-based gaming is the future, but just how far ahead do we have to go for it to be the present?
GDC09 interview: OnLive founder Steve Perlman, continued
You didn't think that was it, right? Following up on part 1 of our interview with sounds-too-good-to-be-true cloud gaming platform OnLive's Steve Perlman from yesterday comes ... part 2! In our final installment, we ask about bandwidth caps, cable box integration, DLC, server cost, privacy concerns, second-hand sales, classic games, and more! Don't believe us? We know, Steve Perlman wants you to be skeptical, but read on!Joystiq: So you're working with developers. Say you're working with Ubisoft on Prince of Persia, is that Prince of Persia the same exact Prince of Persia that would be on the PC? Are they changing parts of the game and if so what are they changing? What are the differences?Steve Perlman: It's the exact same Prince of Persia and the only things that are being changed are really externalities like, you know, if you pick up a controller we've got to recognize the buttons the right away. For example, you can't change the resolution to anything other than HD, but even if OnLive figures out that your speed or your connection is too low and they've got to make it small screen, it still runs in HD and anybody who's spectated you sees you in HD; or if you do a Brag clip it saves in HD. So, we don't want you to changing the resolution. So, there's a couple of switches to turn off. We don't want you to bring up the Windows dialogue box for saving games. I don't know about that particular game, but some games, it actually shows the Windows so that you can navigate through the hierarchy for saving games. You know, we've to disable those kinds of things. The actual gameplay is the same.Then you were talking about something like FIOS for example, that really improves the experience?It doesn't improve the experience; it just lets you go further away from the service center.%Gallery-48395%
Crytek believes streaming games will be viable ... in 2013
Crytek revealed that it has considered the possibility of a streaming game service like OnLive or Gaikai before, but abandoned the idea due to technological limitations. "We had our research in 2005 on this subject but we stopped around 2007 because we had doubts about economics of scale. But that was at a time when bandwidth was more expensive," CEO Cevat Yerli told GamesIndustry.biz. High-speed connections have yet to be cheap or reliable enough to work, in Crytek's estimation: the company determined that a streaming service may be possible sometime between 2013 and 2015. This is also the approximate period in which most consumer PCs will begin to be able to run Crysis. Yerli said that such services must rely strongly on broadband providers. "We're not involved [with OnLive], we just allowed Crysis to be tested on it," Yerli said. Publisher EA is behind the addition of Crysis Warhead to the service.
Sony questions OnLive's promises
SCEA director of corporate communications Patrick Seybold isn't optimistic about the upcoming OnLive service. When he spoke to Edge Online recently, he criticized the overall setup of the game-streaming service, questioning the difficulty of its implementation and the final cost to consumers. Seybold wonders if Rearden Studios can actually maintain the amount of resources that will be needed to support OnLive, such as a vast network of powerful (and most likely expensive) servers, and actually have them functional in a "real world environment."How much of the initial risk is going to come over as final cost to consumers? Rearden has yet to announce a subscription fee. Adding on to that, cost doesn't necessarily just mean money; there are questions over bandwidth caps and hardware specs that still need attention. Of course, there are always these sorts of doubts with fresh ideas like OnLive. Its founder, Steve Perlman, told us in an interview that he expected this sort of skepticism with the product. With Rearden beta testing OnLive this summer, putting its five nationwide servers to the test, we'll soon get a taste of what OnLive is actually capable of.
GDC09 interview: OnLive founder Steve Perlman wants you to be skeptical
Early last week, a new gaming startup was announced, kicking off GDC with an immense focus on "cloud computing" and, specifically, "cloud gaming." Everywhere you turned, people were talking about OnLive. "Can it be done?" or "Sounds too good to be true." You may have heard some of this debate on our podcast or in the comments on our announcement post. We gathered up a lot of that skepticism and barged into Steve Perlman's office (read: the OnLive booth) and demanded answers. The interview was quite long, so we'll be bringing it to you over three days, beginning ... now: Joystiq: So OnLive ...Steve Perlman: Yeah!First, congrats on the launch ...Thank you.Everybody's asking, "What's going on at GDC? What's the thing this year?" You know, it's not LittleBigPlanet this year and it's not Gears of War 2. I think the biggest thing at the show, in terms of buzz, in terms of coverage, has to be OnLive. So, congratulations on that. Thanks.But there's a second side to that buzz story. Everyone's talking about it, but they're all saying the same thing: "Yeah, it sounds really good, but ... it also sounds like magic."Uh-huh.%Gallery-48489%
The Daily Grind: Will streaming technology revolutionize MMO gameplay?
Along with much of the gaming world, we were excited to hear the GDC 09 news about OnLive and Gaikai. The services both companies will offer (likely to enter beta testing in the next year) will eliminate the graphics performance of your computer as a barrier to play. The concept is that the company's servers do all the graphics crunching and stream the output to your computer, so all you would need is a decent broadband connection. In the case of Gaikai and its Streaming Worlds technology, they've specifically mentioned MMO play through their service for World of Warcraft and EVE Online. You don't need to download clients or patches to your own machine, that'll be done remotely on the Gaikai servers. They'll stream games right to your web browser via Flash. If this all pans out as they say it will, it'll be feasible to run MMOs on older machines as well as on laptops that are normally considered below spec to run these titles. While there are some big "IFs" with how this will work out, particularly as it concerns latency, do you feel the accessibility these services can offer could revolutionize MMO gaming?
GDC09: Gaikai digital gaming service to stream MMOs to web browsers
One of the more interesting announcements to come out of GDC 2009 is OnLive, which will allow low-end PCs to play high-end games via streaming technology, piping in a game experience where all the heavy (graphics) lifting is done on the company's servers. It's a significant step forward in gaming provided it lives up to expectations, and the fact that it's fully cross-platform means that Mac users will be able to play PC titles never ported for the OS. OnLive isn't alone in wanting to make games more accessible though, particularly when it comes to MMOs. Acclaim CEO David Perry told GameDaily, "We have already filed a patent on what OnLive is doing. I'm working with a team called Gaikai... we have World of Warcraft and EVE Online running." Since Gaikai's "Streaming Worlds" technology involves servers which remotely do the graphics crunching required of most modern games and streams the game to a web browser, all one needs is a machine with a good internet connection. No game client downloads are required. "You can play World of Warcraft anytime, on any browser," said Perry. The OnLive and Gaikai services are still in development and beta testing for both may begin this Winter, if not sooner.
Eurogamer on why OnLive is UnLikely to work
The new OnLive game streaming service sounds amazing -- being able to play PC games from basically anything with a TV nearby is a dream for people tired of paying thousands of dollars to upgrade their equipment. But are Rearden Studios' claims about OnLive's capabilities amazing because they're impossible? Eurogamer's Richard Leadbetter thinks so.First off, there are the hardware requirements. In order to run a new PC game at 720p, Leadbetter notes that each individual instance of the game will require "... the processing equivalent of a high-end dual core PC running a very fast GPU - a 9800GT minimum, and maybe something a bit meatier depending on whether the 60fps gameplay claim works out, and which games will actually be running. That's for every single connection OnLive is going to be handling." So OnLive is going to have to essentially buy one computer for each simultaneous connection it has.Second, there's the video encoding. "The bottom line here is that OnLive's 'interactive video compression algorithm' must be so utterly amazing, and orders of magnitude better than anything ever made, that you wonder why the company is bothering with videogames at all when the potential applications are so much more staggering and immense." There's a video example of the kind of compression needed even to approach this level of speed, and it's not pretty.Finally, latency. In order for any of this to work, OnLive has to maintain "sub-150 millisecond latency from its servers at least, and a hell of a QoS (quality of service) to guarantee that this will in any way approximate the experience you currently have at home."Leadbetter offers a few solutions, but they're as unlikely as Rearden's claims -- like licensing OnLive data centers to ISPs in order to be closer to users.%Gallery-48489%
GDC09: OnLive bosses talk bandwidth caps
As much as we love the Utopian vision of the future that OnLive -- which plans to offer game streaming direct to PCs, Macs and set-top boxes -- provides, we're still left with plenty of questions. For one, what does piping in games mean for those with bandwidth caps?As an example, at the 5 Mbps OnLive requires for HD gaming, a Comcast user capped at 250 GB monthly could expect to get around 3.8 hours per day of game time -- assuming they used their connection for nothing else.When questioned about it at a press event for the device last night, OnLive founder Steve Perlman didn't seem concerned. First, the console is rarely using the full 5 Mpbs. In fact, he said, it's often far less. Also, Perlman hopes that ISPs will give special consideration to OnLive as the service may well drive cable customers to upgrade their datastream. For now, consider it another challenge for OnLive will have to handle when their product launches in winter of this year.We'll have more for you regarding OnLive when we give it another hands-on, this time on the GDC show floor.
Video: OnLive gaming demonstrated live, network latency discussed
After yesterday's announcement, we've all wanted a first-hand look at OnLive's gaming performance. Can Steve Perlman, the creator of QuickTime and WebTV, really "change the landscape of the Games industry" using OnLive's new interactive video compression algorithm? Latency through the algorithm is just 1-ms instead of the 0.5- to 0.75-second lag inherent in conventional compression algorithms used in corporate video conferencing solutions, for example. While OnLive's backend servers do the heavy crunching, pretty much any PC or Mac has the power to decompress the video at what's perceived to be real-time. As Steve puts it, "video is trivial for us now." The demo starts at about 10 minutes into the video and looks damn impressive running on a Dell Studio 15 (16 minutes in) -- yes, it runs Crysis. Controlled yes, but very, very promising. See for yourself in the video after the break.P.S. Don't forget to sign up for the Beta starting this summer.Update: During the Q&A, the very real concern of network latency was raised (35:20 into the video). Perlman said that OnLive will work with a data center that is about 1,000 miles away from DSL or cable connections (probably 1,500 miles away with fiber). OnLive data centers already exist on the left and right coasts in the US with a 3rd coming on-line in the mid-west. When streamed to gamers in Australia "just for fun," OnLive found that "you can kind of play the game, but you see the lag."
GDC09: Rearden Studios introduces OnLive game service and 'microconsole'
click to enlarge Rearden Studios introduced a gaming service and "microconsole," called OnLive, at GDC today, and we're still trying to wrap our heads around everything. If we had to describe it in one sentence, we'd call it a new way of playing games online without having to buy titles, but that sounds a bit too much like the vaporware Phantom console. Plus, there's another new "console" called Zeebo making a debut at GDC, which adds more confusion to the issue. Luckily, we have more than a sentence to work with here, so bear with us.OnLive, as a company, a service, and a console, is being spun off from Rearden, and is run by Steve Perlman (founder & CEO) and Mike McGarvey (COO). The entire company is structured around a new way to stream video that the company has created -- "interactive video compression" -- which, according to the official line, has extremely low latency, and brings video lag down to "about a millisecond." Using that technology, the complany plans to have five servers across the country that will host your games completely, and it'll be streaming the video from the game to your Mac, PC, or television. Sound ambitious? It is. Read on to find out more. If you're at GDC, you can check out the press conference on Tuesday evening at 7:15 p.m. PST, or give the system a spin at Booth #5128. We'd been working on this story after getting a sneak peek earlier along with a scant few other journos, but Variety broke a major embargo. Translation: you get it early.%Gallery-48395%
OnLive killed the game console star?
What if you could stream games, any game, over a decent broadband connection to your PC or Atom-based netbook at the same quality as the PS3? Would you walk away from your beloved console? That's the of hope of Palo Alto-based OnLive. But this is much more than empty rhetoric -- OnLive's been dropping jaws of the press who've seen it working this week. GameDaily dubbed the play "fantastic" after seeing Crysis streamed "smooth" off a server to a plain ol' MacBook laptop. See, OnLive claims to have perfected the interactive video compression technique so that latency is low enough to support on-line multi-player setups. Broadband connections of 1.5Mbps (71% of US homes have 2Mbps or greater) dials the image quality down to Wii levels while 4-5Mbps pipes are required for HD resolution. At the moment, OnLive is showing 16 high-end titles at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco and expects to be able to release new games within the same window as traditional retail launches. The games can be played on "any PC (Windows XP or Vista) or Mac" without the heavy cash-burden of a high-end graphics card, fast disk, quad-core proc, and truck-load of memory. Otherwise, OnLive plans to release what it calls a MicroConsole with Bluetooth (for voice chat) and optical audio-out that can be connected to your HDTV over HDMI -- pricing has not been announced but it will cost less than a $250 Wii. There's a community element too, of course, with OnLive reps boasting about it operating on an "unprecedented scale." This includes the ability to join live games at any point, the creation of "brag clips" that saves the last 10 seconds of game play for sharing, as well as leaderboards, rankings, and the rest. And if you think publishers will never buy in to the model, think again: Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Take-Two Interactive, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, THQ, Epic Games, Eidos, Atari Interactive and Codemasters are already on-board. Expect OnLive to launch this Winter with monthly subscriptions available in "a variety of different pricing packages and tiers, competitively priced to retail." Damn.Update: GameDaily's quote of 1-ms latency is in reference to encoding/decoding video, not Internet delay, obviously. Added a few more pics including one of the MicroConsole to the gallery.[Via FT and Venture Beat]
