OnLive To Be Built Into Vizio Devices 73
Gamasutra reports that cloud gaming service OnLive has reached an agreement with Vizio to integrate OnLive directly into the hardware manufacturer's TVs and Blu-ray players.
"Vizio also announced that it will introduce ... tablets and smartphones based on Google's Android operating system that integrate the gaming service through its Via Plus ecosystem. OnLive is already publicly available for Apple's iPad, but that app is exclusively for spectating other people who are playing Onlive through PCs or the MicroConsole. Perlman said Onlive is coming to Vizio's mobile devices with playable games. ... Perlman also said that thanks to the open nature of the Android platform, manufacturers are creating more traditional game controllers for Android tablets. Some resemble a gamepad cut in half, where one half snaps on either side of the table screen, Perlman said. Certain Android tablets will also potentially work with Onlive's official controller, if the mobile device supports the appropriate RF interface."
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Did you buy your UID? First, there were the "BSD is dying" trolls, then the GNAA trolls, then the "I ate bad shellfish and exploded in my pants" trolls, and now this. There's a reason why Slashdot has/had one of the best moderation systems out there -- terrible trolls have always lived under its bridges.
yes (Score:2)
That's "OnMom"
OR... (Score:2, Insightful)
Or hey! I could use this XBox thingie or this Wii or ANY NUMBER OF CONSOLES ALREADY OWNED BY THE TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC.
Cloud gaming: all the fun of the arcade but without the strange, sweaty man who comes by to empty the machine on Fridays (he's tapping your credit card once a month miles away).
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Or hey! I could use this XBox thingie or this Wii or ANY NUMBER OF CONSOLES ALREADY OWNED BY THE TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC.
Which won't work if the specific game you want to play is available on OnLive but not on any of the major consoles.
Good for them (Score:3)
Good for them, but I'm still saying way the hell away. This may appeal to the casual market, but I can't see myself ever wanting to use this service. It can never be as optimal a gaming experience as a local machine.
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Right now the main thing holding it back is the corruption and incompetence that seems to breed in the telecom industry.
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That being said, but my friend who has just about as much interest in gaming, and only owns an Xbox 360 and a netbook, was able to try the free demos in OnLive. Within 5 minutes of mentioning it to him he was already playing a recent, current-gen game that looked fantastic on his (small for my taste) screen. Sure, there was a little input lag, and the video quality was still not perfect, b
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Have you actually tried it? In my experience, it's much better than you would think.
Let's consider the obvious lag issue. Did you realize that it actually removes common multiplayer lag? You know, the kind where you shoot at a guy and he doesn't get hit because he had moved 300 pixels to the left. That doesn't exist in OnLive since all the processing is done on the same network (maybe even the same computer) as the other gamers. In this respect, OnLive performs much like a LAN or even local game.
I'm no
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Have you actually tried it? In my experience, it's much better than you would think.
Let's consider the obvious lag issue. Did you realize that it actually removes common multiplayer lag? You know, the kind where you shoot at a guy and he doesn't get hit because he had moved 300 pixels to the left. That doesn't exist in OnLive since all the processing is done on the same network (maybe even the same computer) as the other gamers. In this respect, OnLive performs much like a LAN or even local game.
I'm not trying to ignore the click-to-response lag. It exists. But it really is minuscule, to the point that most people I know can't tell much difference over running the game locally.
The round trip latency is the same, and on top of that your client can't extrapolate positions of moving objects or freely render player controlled objects so the perceived latency is worse. I'm not saying the latency isn't tolerable, but this method isn't gaining you anything.
That guy you missed by 300 pixels? Now you're looking at where he used to be instead of where an intelligent algorithm thinks he probably is. You'll have to mentally compensate for that latency now. You might get used to it after
That's not correct (Score:3)
For games to have no more lag than the transit to the Onlive servers, they have to be games that do LAN play or the like. While those exist, they aren't that common these days. Most games do client-server stuff. Now if Onlive hosted those servers, fine, but they don't. So say you are playing Bad Company 2. First you have to go to the Onlive data center where the game is processed for you, that then has to go out to the data center owned by gameservers.net, or whoever is hosting the given server you wish to
more anti-consumer 'choice' in the market (Score:5, Insightful)
lets pay full retail price for the game + monthly onlive subscription so we can:
1. get on a treadmill that gets harder and harder to get off each time a new game is purchased, because if a subscription is ever canceled all purchased games are gone forever.
2. get heavily bandwidth constrained lossy 720p video streams.
3. repeatedly peg bandwidth caps on our internet connections just by playing comparatively few hours of gaming a month.
4. get laggy input
5. lose control over yet another thing we're supposedly purchasing. (spare me the legal crap, games are presented as sales, not leases or rentals)
perhaps the terms have changed since the last time I looked at this, but I doubt it.
Re:more anti-consumer 'choice' in the market (Score:4, Informative)
1. get on a treadmill that gets harder and harder to get off each time a new game is purchased, because if a subscription is ever canceled all purchased games are gone forever.
[...]
perhaps the terms have changed since the last time I looked at this, but I doubt it.
They have changed, there is no subscription fee anymore.
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They have changed, there is no subscription fee anymore.
To my mind the lack of guaranteed recurring income makes them more likely to go under, resulting in NONE of my games being playable...
I question if that is sustainable (Score:2)
If they aren't charging a subscription, then all their money comes from game sales. Ok, but they only make a fraction of the sale price. A $50 game is going to net them maybe $25, and I doubt even that much as online/download sellers can't command as much of the cut as regular stores.
Now so long as people buy lots of games and don't play any one game too much, that'll work fine. However if people buy games and play them to death, that'll screw them over. Their costs are not going to be low for this kind of
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What I find really odd is that I was interested in oneLive when I thought it was a subscription service. Then I lost interest when it turned into subscription + buying games at effectively full price.
Maybe the market is small, but personally I
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Ah, but OnLive can command higher premiums because of certain advantages they have...
First, short of some really idiotic coding or social engineering hack that gets you into the admin console of OnLive itself, the games are unp
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But, when the stars align and the net allows it, the performance is more or less identical to PC gaming.
But, you're better off paying for a subscription or
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this post doesn't exactly sound like a standing ovation for the service. sure, in the future, average bw will increase, maybe even to the point where the net-cost is no higher than it is today. This still leaves the larger issue at hand: how much control should the vendor have over its products once they're sold? if gaming-as-service is the future, will it truly be superior to what we already have? I'm sure it'll be more convenient, but I'll trade a bit of that for the flexibility to extract a bit more va
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yup. I fail to see the benefit for me. I do see the benefit for the publishers. even without a sub fee, I'm still eating massive bw and I lose control over the media.
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sure.. or maybe onlive or the publisher has decided that one of your favorite titles isn't making enough money anymore, so they can it. What happened to xbox-classic's multiplayer?
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What happened to xbox-classic's multiplayer?
Online is gone, but to the best of my knowledge, LAN still works, as does shared-screen.
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more bandwidth than netflix?
I usually watch a movie once, so the bandwidth used* by netflix is indispensable. Just like buying a game online and downloading it.
Onlive uses way more bandwidth than it would be necessary if I simply downloaded and ran the game locally.
lose control? you mean like when ubi servers are down?
There's only a small number of publishers that require such online activation systems - most of the gaming market doesn't. I can live without their games, just as I can live without Onlive.
Besides, it has already been cracked, thanks to the game being run on your own machin
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There is no monthly subscription fee, and you don't need to purchase games at full retail price - you can get them as rentals and try the first 30 minutes of any game for free.
Some people have no interest in picking up a $400 console or building a gaming PC. This service allowed me to demo all of their games, realize I liked Darksiders and Assassin's Creed II and how the service worked, and play them on any computer. Granted, some latency is there when you're using a high-precision device like a mouse, but
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..at some point, there needs to be a barrier of entry, otherwise said activity loses its value. I"m not saying you should go out and buy a console or game pc to try one game, but at some point the watering down of the experience just to get it into more hands ruins it for those who really do enjoy it. sure, today there's plenty of choice, but I suspect this method of 'delivery' will become dominant within the next 10 years, turning gaming into just another passive corporate-sanctioned experience instead o
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I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'only people who win.'
last I checked, blockbuster is moving away from disc rentals because netflix is pummeling them in streaming services. Brick/mortar places like gamestop are done. online streaming is the future, whether I like it or not. I just think it's unfortunate that most people decided to trade ownership for convenience. by ownership I mean control over when/where I watch/play/listen to my movies/games/music.
oh and netflix streaming does suck. its quality is w
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haha true.
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lets pay full retail price for the game + monthly onlive subscription so we can:
1. get on a treadmill that gets harder and harder to get off each time a new game is purchased, because if a subscription is ever canceled all purchased games are gone forever.
2. get heavily bandwidth constrained lossy 720p video streams.
3. repeatedly peg bandwidth caps on our internet connections just by playing comparatively few hours of gaming a month.
4. get laggy input
5. lose control over yet another thing we're supposedly purchasing. (spare me the legal crap, games are presented as sales, not leases or rentals)
perhaps the terms have changed since the last time I looked at this, but I doubt it.
Now to challenge you.
1. First off, there is no monthly service. Please stop attacking a product without researching it.
2. How is this worse than what hulu, Netflix and youtube can do?
3. If it's bandwidth caps, that's your ISP's fault, not OnLives. Go back to my hulu, Netflix, and youtube statement.
4. What laggy input? I don't know what your mileage is, but it's pretty 1-to-1 for me. Sounds like you're just repeating all the rumors that were spread.
5. Onlive gives you a very huge window of playing the game.
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1. I wasn't sure, and I said as much. even so my other positions stand.
2. streaming is the future, unfortunately. plastic disks will eventually die out, taking with them the ability to control the media you purchase.
3. Nothing I can do about it, so it's not my fault either. In the case of gaming, what worked rather efficiently before (clientside executable at the very least) is replaced by a gluttonous bw sapping kludge.
4. if you're posting here, you must have some kind of idea how latency works on netwo
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2. streaming is the future, unfortunately. plastic disks will eventually die out, taking with them the ability to control the media you purchase.
Let's see, Slashdot has been around what, a dozen years or so? What has completely disappeared in PC gaming since then? The loss of floppies? CDs and then DVDs were a hell of a lot more convenient than 10 floppies. The better tech won. Are there still holdouts refusing to buy one of these magic plastic disc machines?
OnLive has its uses. If you don't want to, you're going to still be able to buy your PC parts and consoles.
Why is it that this site is so full of extremists? For every widget that comes
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6. Can't add mods or enhancements to a game. Counterstrike would never have existed in a world where everyone plays on OnLive
7. You can only play games OnLive allows. Indie games like Minecraft? You won't find them. AO-rated games? Might tarnish OnLive's reputation so they are gone too.
8. Competition to OnLive (because if it takes off, there will be competition) will fragment the player-base. You play Quake on OnLivebut your friend has Quake on the competetion, LiveOn. Sorry, no deathmatch for you two.
9. Ca
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To address your points:
6: Big whoop. Stated from the beginning that they were aiming more for a console experience, not a PC experience.
7: There are a bunch of Indie games on Onlive:
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!!
Braid
Madballs in Babo: Invasion
Shatter
The Ball
The Maw
Trine
World of Goo
In fact, Onlive was the #3 contributor for Humble Bundle 2: http://www.humblebundle.com/ [humblebundle.com]
I'm sure there are more on there, but those are the ones that immediately come to mind. I'm sure if Notch approached Onlive, they would have
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6: Big whoop. Stated from the beginning that they were aiming more for a console experience, not a PC experience.
[...]
9: Can't resell your PC games already.
Aiming for a console experience includes the ability to resell games.
There are a bunch of Indie games on Onlive
What's the procedure that a studio is supposed to follow to get a game in?
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Late to reply, but figured I will anyhow:
Aiming for a console experience includes the ability to resell games.
See my point 9...I bet you a nickel that the next gen of Xbox/PS/Wii will do everything in their power to eliminate resale.
What's the procedure that a studio is supposed to follow to get a game in?
Apparently that would be to send them an email or call them saying 'I am a developer':
http://www.onlive.com/corporate/plugin [onlive.com]
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Yeah, but you also gain a lot (as other have mentioned, no monthly fee):
* no more installing games, just click and run
* games become portable, play on every computer even potentially iPhone and iPad
* the console costs only $99
* savegames automatically carry over
* potential for gaming on Linux
* no DRM software that installs on your computer
* perfect piracy protection
* future potential to run regular PC apps everywhere
* free 30min demos of the full game
Yeah, you do lose ownership of the games, but with DRM an
Portability (Score:2)
games become portable
OnLive games won't run on the bus or train, unlike DS games, PSP games, iPod touch games, and laptop games.
even potentially iPhone and iPad
Service for an iPhone or iPad costs at least twelve times what I pay Virgin Mobile USA for my current phone. I can't foresee a lot of people on budget voice plans (e.g. Virgin's $60 per year for occasional use) upgrading to premium phone service just for games, especially with the monthly transfer caps that the carriers have enacted.
perfect piracy protection
Is it piracy for me to program a game with the same rules as an existi
Onlive has changed my life! (Score:4, Funny)
Before Onlive, I was throwing away over $50,000 per year on expensive consoles and PC upgrades, which is an average amount that any family can spend on gaming every year. Not only that, but I couldn't run games even on my netbook or portable devices like I can with Onlive!
When I saw how low Onlive's prices were compared to the $50,000 a year it costs to maintain my consoles/PC upgrades, I knew right away that this was the service for me.
Now for a low monthly fee*, I can get great Onlive service with zero latency whatsoever in all the latest games. It seems that Onlive has conquered the laws of physics!
Be sure to pre-order the Onlive MicroConsole like I did. I'm very certain it will be a big improvement on what is already a great Onlive experience!
*Games sold separately
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News for geeks^H^H^H^Hconsumer, PR that matters (Score:2)
Company X makes deal with company Y, determined to bring easily accessible Z to market. News at 11...
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convergance.... (Score:2)
My TV went kaput on Xmas eve so I bought a new one last week. I found a good deal on a 58" Plasma without the bells and whistles like Netflix built in for $1100. 5 years ago I used a Mac Mini hooked up to my TV to watch TV & Movies I purchased over iTunes.
Now I use my XBox360 mostly for streaming Netflix in HD.
I didn't spend $2000 or $3000 on a new TV because I figured it's only another 2 - 3 years to where the XBox services are built into the TV and it's all "cloud" based or whatever. I figured I'
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Amusingly, the only way I'd buy an OnLive device is if it were also a Netflix player, with as much buffer as a PC, because it would let me get a noisy PC out of my living room. I'm not willing to pay for Live Gold, so no Netflix on the 360. The 360 is horribly noisy anyway. My current plan is to go to some Google TV device that has it, but I'm waiting for prices to sink.
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I find that the PS3 works wonderfully for Netflix. I like it better than the Silverlight viewer on a PC.
Buy yourself one that's old-and-busted from Ebay, if you're feeling cheap and don't have any desire to play Blu-Ray movies -- the hardware is pretty solid, but the Blu-Ray lasers died young in a lot of older units, which brings the market price down for those which are useful as HTPCs. And they're far quieter than the 360's default drone, unless provoked by a hot room in the summer, and even then it's n
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My current Netflix player is a Gateway GT5475E (IIRC) with a 2 GHz Athlon 64 X2, upgraded from 1 to 2 GB of RAM, with maybe a 160 GB disk and an 8600 GT, I think. This is the $125 garage sale machine I'm always blathering about, the 20" LCD I got with it is on my desk. I have a DVI to HDMI cable hooked into my 1080p HDTV because if I use another connector combination then I have to force 1080p and scaling does not work as perfectly... but it all works very well save that I've already had that machine seem t
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I'm not sure if I should feel happy or sad that I haven't used Linux on the desktop for a few years now, after about a decade of just-about exclusive use.
Playing Netflix with some VMWare goodness sounds like fun, but I can just view it natively with 7 or the PS3.
I take it that you're a Linux user, primarily, and that's cool and all...but for me, the plate has turned. It used to be that the best and most reliable way to rip a CD, for instance, was with cdparanoia on Linux. But that hasn't been developed fo
Time to dispel some ignorance (Score:1)
-There is no monthly fee
-Only the brand-new games are full price, and the store has sales as often as Steam does.
-The latency issues are gone, give a demo a try. It is literally flawless.
and the BIGGEST point that no one seems to understand:
-The ENTIRE SERVICE can be upgraded indefinitely. After they fleshed out the latency issues they've been steadily increasing graphics quality, both in-game and the compression. You fucking morons seem to think it launched and they did nothing to improve it aft
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They Keep Changing Their Tune (Score:1)
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plus you have crackdowns on bandwidth at the end-user level. Give it a couple more years and we won't hear any more from OnLive.
Maybe they should take their technology to a country with a decent broadband infrastructure?
Great for casual games, meh for the hardcore gamer (Score:1)
However, the lag seems now, OnLive's biggest challenge will be to maintain playable connection speeds as the player base grows in number. Ask the millions of console/pc gamers out there now. Server load always is a problem and the OnLive solution does not address this.
Hmm Vizio keeps sneaking up on the big guys (Score:2)
Wow between this and yesterdays announcement that they will have sub-$300 3d tv's by the end of 2011 it looks like maybe the others should start taking Vizio seriously. I have Vizio in my bedroom that I picked up cheap...figured it was garbage but at a good price...so far it has outlast the samsung I had the living room and actually has what at least to me appears to be a better picture than the one that replaced it. I really dont see OnLive taking over the consoles any time soon but for the casual crowd i