Readers might have noticed that I don’t like doing a story without doing the research and getting the facts. After all that’s what separates rumors from news. However this time I was ill prepared for what awaited me during my nightly patrol through the quit streets of the internet super highway.
OnLive.
Get used to the name, because I have a feeling we’re going to be hearing it over and over again for a long time to come.
It started when I refreshed the link for Gametrailers.com and found an interesting video post from this years GDC. Onlive GDC 09: Debut tech interview.
I was amazed but what I heard in fact I was highly skeptical having been burned by pass promises of a “console killer” that even the reputation of Gamtrailers didn’t stop me from completely disbelieving the interview at first.
OnLive is both software and online service. A kind of on demand gaming platform that combines the ideas behind services like Steam and Xbox Live with cable boxes and TV satellite receivers. The idea in a nutshell is to stream video games over a high speed internet connection allowing a subscriber to play high end video games that they might not necessarily be able to run on their own PC or Mac. OnLive will also be offering a “micro console” a mini pc that can plug directly into a television and allow access to the streaming games with one small box. Nine publishers have been named as supporting the service with content including Atari, Codemasters, Eidos, Electronic Arts, Epic, Take two, THQ, Ubisoft, and Warner Brothers Home Entertainment.
THC.com confirms that Warner Brother Home Entertainment will be backing OnLive as well as an expected release date of this winter and the service featuring parental controls. Different tiers for subscriptions to the service were mentioned but right now all I really have is a bunch of second hand info. The only thing solid I was able to dig up (with a lot of help from my friend Joe) was that OnLive bought up a
massive number of IP addresses in 2007 which shows that OnLive just may well be ready to be released later this year.
Like I said there isn’t a lot of info right now.
The OnLive website currently has a count down timer which stops later today at 7:15 pacific time that hopefully will signal the flood gates of information to be opened. Until then all we can do is watch and re-watch the interview conducted by Gametrailers.com and speculate.
