As of late, cloud computing has been garnering a metric ton of attention in the world of computers, business productivity, and even gaming thanks to a new service called OnLive. While OnLive has gained a decent following in the realm of PC gaming, the service is looking to expand beyond its current offerings onto devices that gamers already own.
OnLive is a “cloud gaming” platform for on-demand gaming where the titles are hosted, stored, and run on servers leaving virtually no hardware restrictions to the user. The software is currently available on Mac OS X and Windows PC’s, an affordable home MicroConsole, and is on its way to coming to a variety of other devices such as televisions, Blu-ray players, iPhone/iPad’s, and maybe even the existing consoles. In an interview with the vice president of engineering at OnLive, Joe Bentley, the company would love to see current gaming platforms host the cloud-gaming service:
Our controller is a hybrid between a PS3 controller and an Xbox controller. It’s all compatible, it would just work. There are OnLive guys chatting [Sony and MS], but we’ll see where it goes. But it would absolutely work, we’re ready to work with everybody. What people are realising and waking up to is everything could be a console, why shouldn’t you be able to take your game everywhere. I think the timing of this is perfect.
While cloud-based gaming is indeed an interesting and intriguing concept, it may be difficult for core gamers to adopt as a primary means for gaming especially on consoles that gamers familiarized with for high-fidelity and sophisticated games. Have you tried out OnLive and experienced it? What are your thoughts on the service and cloud gaming in general? Post your thoughts in the comments section below.
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