Cloud Gaming the Future of Gaming?

There is this application called Onlive which is a cloud gaming application. What is cloud gaming you ask? Well in cloud gaming games are syncronized and renderd on a remote server on the internet. Because these games are on the internet, to play the games smoothly, you dont need a powerful device. You only need a stong internet. Just the other day I was playing Dirt 3 high quality without lag. I was playing on a crappy laptop. Not only does Cloud Gaming allow you to play games without a powerful system, you can acsees and play these games instantly as long as there is internet. This means no downloading, no installing, no memory usage. Can this be the future of gaming? Probably. There are some bugs with Onlive but I am sure that these will be fixed in the future. Also probably someone will say the game devolopers can delete the games permanantly when ever they want but, 1. why the hell would they do that. 2. There are zero cases of this happening. Anyway post your thoughts down below! :D

I'm playing Lego Harry Potter on my phone. It's awesome. This is the future. Developers can develop games for Android and iOS using OnLive's hardware. Just imagine how awesome that would be.

Right now Onlive is poor at best unless your sitting next to there servers. I have a 80/80 connection at college and online will not even let me play. There is many issues with it. And really until they make major imrpovments they aren't going to compete with consoles or pc's. I think possibly this is the future, but i don't think onlive will be the company who does it. I think we will see a company take off in 5-10 years.

It would be sick if we didn't have to upgrade our computers or download large files, but the quality of the stream is too low and it's too shaky to be able to play reliably.

It would be sick if we didn't have to upgrade our computers or download large files, but the quality of the stream is too low and it's too shaky to be able to play reliably.

ArchonOver

Upgrading is part of the fun! Without it, you wouldn't get that rush when you're able to play the latest games. It'd be a sad day when that challenge dissapeared.

We need internet speeds to catch up first.

I doubt we will see it take off if it does till the next gen of consoles is over. Which may not be til 2020 or later.

The powers that be will be pushing it, because it does kill piracy, completely. It is the only true anti piracy solution I have seen yet.

I don't think it will be all that popular because bandwidth costs money in most countries. A few years ago, I had unlimited internet in the USA, now I have limits and overlimit fees. Bandwidth seems to be increasing in price, when it needs to decrease for cloud gaming to have a future. You are downloading hundreds of Kb/s while playing these cloud games.

As already mentioned, latency matters, and it is noticable in cloud gaming. It might be a great platform for turn-based strategy and rpg games, but real-time, especially competitive games are not going to ever work so well. The whole infrastructure is too much of a mess in the USA. Connections are taking too many slow, inefficient hops to get to their destinations.

I don't think gamers like being in a position where they have so little control over their games. They are depending on internet infrastructure, possibly hundreds of miles of fiber and copper lines, and let's face it, they are prone to problems. They are depending on government and private entities to keep that infrastructure reliable. I would rather depend on my own computer hardware.

Of course it's the future of gaming. A lot of PC elitists will insist that it's not because they don't want their $1500 gaming computer to become obsolete for gaming...but the cloud is most definitley the future.

The technology is only going to improve, and I'd say within a span of 3-5 years cloud gaming will be a major force. In 10 years, traditional desktop gaming won't exist anymore.

Of course it's the future of gaming. A lot of PC elitists will insist that it's not because they don't want their $1500 gaming computer to become obsolete for gaming...but the cloud is most definitley the future.

The technology is only going to improve, and I'd say within a span of 3-5 years cloud gaming will be a major force. In 10 years, traditional desktop gaming won't exist anymore.

xxxLUGZxxx

I've tried it with saints row the third. Game played pretty good for me on a wired connection.

Besides if your far from the server or internet not up to speed. There is a bit of data usage issue. 3GB per hour could eat my 250GB comcast data cap. Depending how much I play.

Edit: I really like the idea of not having to upgrade my computer ever again or on my smart phone.

I do see it as the future of gaming. Maybe as far no more consoles if catchs on and if internet gets upgraded more.

We need internet speeds to catch up first.

realguitarhero5

This. Except I don't think the ISPs (at least in Canada) plan on laying down enough fiber optics to make this feasible across the country, any time soon. They are making a killing already with the limited bandwidth plans.

Hopefully no. I refuse to play a game that I don't even have the disk of the files on my Hard Drive Disk. Miroku32

[QUOTE="realguitarhero5"]

We need internet speeds to catch up first.

True_Sounds

This. Except I don't think the ISPs (at least in Canada) plan on laying down enough fiber optics to make this feasible across the country, any time soon. They are making a killing already with the limited bandwidth plans.

You won't need options when you'll be maxing anything at any resolution you might dream of, as for the rest, not a big problem, not a problem at all and definitely irrelevant since you'll have your saves online and accessible anywhere you want.DanielDust

The average person doesn't have fast enough internet. That problem will go away in time. Some people don't even have access to high speed internet in their area. That problem is going to be around for a while. In some areas it's just not profitable to build the infrastructure for high speed. The government doesn't consider high speed a utility. That means they aren't willing to subsidize infrastructure costs for those no profit areas. I think Europe has better and cheaper internet, so it might work there. America is a long ways off though.

I'm playing Lego Harry Potter on my phone. It's awesome. This is the future. Developers can develop games for Android and iOS using OnLive's hardware. Just imagine how awesome that would be.

Rikusaki

The average person doesn't have fast enough internet. That problem will go away in time. Some people don't even have access to high speed internet in their area. That problem is going to be around for a while. In some areas it's just not profitable to build the infrastructure for high speed. The government doesn't consider high speed a utility. That means they aren't willing to subsidize infrastructure costs for those no profit areas. I think Europe has better and cheaper internet, so it might work there. America is a long ways off though.

James00715

I'm playing Lego Harry Potter on my phone. It's awesome. This is the future. Developers can develop games for Android and iOS using OnLive's hardware. Just imagine how awesome that would be.

Rikusaki

If streaming data is the future of gaming, then that is one bleak future.

iv always wanted to ask, is onlive your only way of gaming? do you not own a console or pc? cuz if you restrict yourself to just onlive... LMFAOTH1Sx1SxSPARTA

I find it strange that they are marketing fast-paced games with Onlive. It seems like an excellent platform for turn-based games. It is also strange that they aren't focusing on regions with strong internet infrastructure, like Japan. Targetting areas with poor internet latency like the USA and UK with fast-paced games is a poor marketing strategy. They need to focus on the audiences that would get the best experience with their system.

It would be sick if we didn't have to upgrade our computers or download large files, but the quality of the stream is too low and it's too shaky to be able to play reliably.

ArchonOver

Right now Onlive is poor at best unless your sitting next to there servers. I have a 80/80 connection at college and online will not even let me play. There is many issues with it. And really until they make major imrpovments they aren't going to compete with consoles or pc's. I think possibly this is the future, but i don't think onlive will be the company who does it. I think we will see a company take off in 5-10 years.

James161324

You guy's act like internet speeds won't improve over time. Ten years ago DSL wasn't even that widely available, and I was still using dial-up. Now, my current DSL plan damn near seems like my old dial-up speed.

Google has already started deploying it's super high speed internet...in 10 years time it will probably be spread nationwide.

The cloud concept is starting to become pervaise...it's on everyones iPhone, tons of people are using dropbox...there are several popular cloud OS's, so it's only a matter of time until it entrenches itself in gaming. Onlive is already picking up steam, and it's still very rough around the edges.

In 10 years time, we probably won't even have desktops. With the way the mobile market is skyrocketing, we'll be doing 99% of our computing on handheld devices...further increasing the need for something like cloud gaming.

And yeah, it's highly possible that cloud gaming will be a step or two behind a local gaming machine...but I don't think that's going to be a very practical advantage for very long.

It's bad enough having multiple YouTube junkies at home. Sometimes, I can't even surf when they're streaming off YouTube all at the same time. What more if they decide to game on Onlive? Once fiber-optic is standard everywhere then I might give Onlive a go.

In 10 years time, we probably won't even have desktops. With the way the mobile market is skyrocketing, we'll be doing 99% of our computing on handheld devices...further increasing the need for something like cloud gaming.xxxLUGZxxx

Oh, come on. Not everyone is ever going to like using mobile or handheld devices for gaming. Sitting at a desk with a full size keyboard, mouse, monitor, and surround sound is always going to be the preferred way to game for a certain amount of gamers. A more logical answer is that we are going to see growth on all platforms. Gaming at desks, or sitting at living room couches, or on the go, are all going to exist 10 years from now.

This all depends on cheap, unlimited internet plans that are reliable. Like I said in a past post, my internet costs have gone up. I used to have unlimited internet, and now I have to pay for bandwidth. This happened in the USA. People in Canada and many European countries have it way worse than me. To me, 10 years is a little early to believe that the internet infrastructure will get where it needs to be. Take into account that human population is growing, and internet usage is growing in most of the world.

You guy's act like internet speeds won't improve over time. Ten years ago DSL wasn't even that widely available, and I was still using dial-up. Now, my current DSL plan damn near seems like my old dial-up speed.

Google has already started deploying it's super high speed internet...in 10 years time it will probably be spread nationwide.

The cloud concept is starting to become pervaise...it's on everyones iPhone, tons of people are using dropbox...there are several popular cloud OS's, so it's only a matter of time until it entrenches itself in gaming. Onlive is already picking up steam, and it's still very rough around the edges.

In 10 years time, we probably won't even have desktops. With the way the mobile market is skyrocketing, we'll be doing 99% of our computing on handheld devices...further increasing the need for something like cloud gaming.

And yeah, it's highly possible that cloud gaming will be a step or two behind a local gaming machine...but I don't think that's going to be a very practical advantage for very long.

xxxLUGZxxx

[QUOTE="xxxLUGZxxx"]In 10 years time, we probably won't even have desktops. With the way the mobile market is skyrocketing, we'll be doing 99% of our computing on handheld devices...further increasing the need for something like cloud gaming.Falconoffury

Oh, come on. Not everyone is ever going to like using mobile or handheld devices for gaming. Sitting at a desk with a full size keyboard, mouse, monitor, and surround sound is always going to be the preferred way to game for a certain amount of gamers. A more logical answer is that we are going to see growth on all platforms. Gaming at desks, or sitting at living room couches, or on the go, are all going to exist 10 years from now.

This all depends on cheap, unlimited internet plans that are reliable. Like I said in a past post, my internet costs have gone up. I used to have unlimited internet, and now I have to pay for bandwidth. This happened in the USA. People in Canada and many European countries have it way worse than me. To me, 10 years is a little early to believe that the internet infrastructure will get where it needs to be. Take into account that human population is growing, and internet usage is growing in most of the world.

Hopefully no. I refuse to play a game that I don't even have the disk of the files on my Hard Drive Disk. Miroku32

I'd say DD websites are the stepping stones to Cloud gaming. We used to get the disk. Now we get the rights to the files. Then we'll just get access to the files through a service?

[QUOTE="Miroku32"]Hopefully no. I refuse to play a game that I don't even have the disk of the files on my Hard Drive Disk. Cwagmire21

I'd say DD websites are the stepping stones to Cloud gaming. We used to get the disk. Now we get the rights to the files. Then we'll just get access to the files through a service?

No one says that a super powerful future handheld won't be used as the computer and simply hooked up to a keyboard, mouse, surround sound, and monitor.realguitarhero5

Our technology may one day get to a point where increasing size from a handheld device to a mid tower desktop does not in any way yield a more powerful device. I don't think that will happen in 10 years, but I can't say it will never happen. Handheld devices are getting more powerful.... but so are desktop computers. The mid tower design not only allows more space to include technology, but also better airflow. If my handheld device heated up like the video card in my desktop, I would probably burn my hand, or the handheld would need a cooling fan powerful enough to cause it to fly away. ;)

[QUOTE="realguitarhero5"]No one says that a super powerful future handheld won't be used as the computer and simply hooked up to a keyboard, mouse, surround sound, and monitor.Falconoffury

Our technology may one day get to a point where increasing size from a handheld device to a mid tower desktop does not in any way yield a more powerful device. I don't think that will happen in 10 years, but I can't say it will never happen. Handheld devices are getting more powerful.... but so are desktop computers. The mid tower design not only allows more space to include technology, but also better airflow. If my handheld device heated up like the video card in my desktop, I would probably burn my hand, or the handheld would need a cooling fan powerful enough to cause it to fly away. ;)