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Startup wants to take gaming into the cloud

Tony Chan | March 30, 2009 | 0 Comments

A Silicon Valley startup with some serious clout on its executive team is proposing new service that will deliver video games from a cloud infrastructure to thin clients such as a web browser.

OnLive, founded by Steve Perlman – best known for his development of QuickTime and WebTV – recently made public its on-demand video game platform that will use cloud computing as the main processing platform for executing game code and the public Internet to present the data to players via video streams.

“OnLive is the most powerful game system in the world. No high-end hardware, no upgrades, no endless downloads, no discs, no recalls, no obsolescence,” Perlman, who is also the CEO of OnLive, said. “With OnLive, your video game experience is always state-of-the-art.”
In addition to Perlman, OnLive boasts an impressive management team that features former high ranking executives from the gaming, broadcast and IT industries, including the first Fellow at Netscape and founder of Mozilla.

According to the company, it has already garnered the support of major video game industry names, including Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Take-Two Interactive Software, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, THQ Inc. Epic Games, Eidos, Atari Interactive and Codemasters.
The service is slated for beta launch this summer with commercial launch scheduled towards the end of 2009.

The platform works by hosting games inside cloud computing infrastructures across the US, and delivering the games over broadband connections with the application of the company’s proprietary video compression technology. The games are run on a thin client off a browser, or via the company’s proprietary “MicroConsole” – essentially a net appliance that connects to the TV.

According to Perlman, the company will locate its game servers within a thousand miles of end-users to overcome latency issues and to ensure a quality gaming experience. Perlman promises that the platform will deliver an experience that is comparable to playing the game on your PC, or over a LAN.

The key to the platform will be the user’s broadband connection, which needs to deliver at least 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth for standard definition games and at least 5 Mbps for high definition games.

“OnLive combines the successful components of video games, online distribution and social networking into one affordable, flexible platform that offers a new way for game fans to access and enjoy content,” said Mike McGarvey, COO of OnLive and former CEO and board member of Eidos. “By substantially lowering the barriers between content and consumers, OnLive has created an environment that is highly beneficial for every facet of the video game ecosystem. With OnLive, gamers can play what they want, when they want, how they want. That level of freedom has never been possible until now.”

On top of giving access to its games portfolio, OnLive’s user interface will also be integrated with social networking tools, allowing users to share their experience with friends and even record so-called, ‘Brag Clips’ of their game player.

While the model isn’t new to the web, which is already home to many gaming sites that deliver Flash-based games to browsers, OnLive will be the first attempt to deliver full feature games online, pitting it against mainstream game consoles today. In fact, Perlman asserts that the current generation of game consoles, i.e. Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Sony’s PS3 and Nintendo’s Wii, may be the last for standalone consoles.

However, its heavy reliance on the broadband infrastructure has already generated some scepticism.

Comments from online forums already point to bandwidth caps (discreet or stated) by US ISPs that will likely constraint the viability of the platform, while others note that to maintain constant broadband speeds across the entire network while playing will also pose challenges.