OnLive could be the future of all gaming. One box and no physical games to purchase. While this sounds like my worst nightmare others probably think it's the bee's knees. Thankfully for me and my addiction to holding something in my hands OnLive has been having some issues in Beta concerning lag. I'm sure some of our readers who are in the Beta may have run into the issue. The CEO of OnLive, Steve Perlman, has given the reason for this, and guess what. It's your fault.
"If you change any of these factors, OnLive Beta may not even run, or if it does, the lag and/or graphics performance may render games unplayable. OnLive will try to detect these conditions and warn you, but when you are using OnLive in a different location, you are not providing us with usable test data," he said.
"The reason location is so critical is because of the speed of light. If you are more than 1000 miles from an OnLive data center, then the round trip communications delay ("ping" time) between your home and OnLive will be too long for fast-action video games...
"OnLive has 3 data centers for its US Beta test, with a... 1000-mile range. Your Beta account will only connect to the data center it was originally assigned to. So, if you are assigned to our West Coast data center and then try your Beta account from the Midwest or East Coast, you'll find the lag impaired to the point where most games are unplayable."
Does anyone else feel like that statement is the equivalent of distracting someone with a shiny object while you steal their money? Damn, shiny objects. So hard not to stare at.
OnLive lag explained by CEO [CVG]
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Contest:
11:00 PM on 01.23.2010
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The irony is so great you can taste it in it's sweet glory.
Mine too, to be honest.
Sorry OnLive, you guys have a pretty cool idea, but the timing isn't right.
Well, there's always Peng. Ahahahaha.
Just saying.
Also, his words are assuming that the entire country is hooked up by fiber optics when the real amount is more like 5% (maybe). And even WITH the fiber optics you need to be near a data center to get decent performance.
What I'm reading from this statement is "If you have regular cable internet or live more than a couple of hours away from these three places, don't even bother with our service."
Motherboxx
To be the guy who walked 1000 miles to get within working range of OnLive's data centers.
After playing games on the internet for so long, I really don't want to play my single player games over it too. Internet will always have lag, somewhere. I don't care if I live inside the data center, it will probably still have small amounts of lag due to the nature of streaming content.
This concept might be intriguing when fiber is about as widespread as phone lines are today…which is going to be awhile, by which time we'll have such amazing local hardware that there really won't be a point.
On the other hand, there's no reason games can't do "progressive downloads," which lets you start playing a game before its finished downloading/installing while the rest of the game continues to download in the background. Windows Vista introduced something called Tray 'n Play that does this except it's limited to disc-based games, I believe.
It's basically like a LAN party, with every foot of wireless distance from that server equals total disappontment.
Also, having it spell L-I-V-E on the buttons only confirm that this product is a big joke...
Shame on people for knocking things before they've tried it/given it a chance.
It's a great idea, just far too forward compared to current internet infrastructure.
I'd compare it to the dreamcast, which was a great console, but more importantly ahead of the curve massively with it's features. Online play AND internet access on a console, 7-10 years before they got really popular? The dreamcast was a brilliant console, both software and hardware wise.
Again this will become huge, but not for at least a decade.
Good call.
No. It sounds like someone explaining the exact technical reasons you're not supposed to share your OnLive beta login credentials.
"So what, are they going to setup an OnLive server every 1000 miles?"
Yes, in fact they've already done that. There are OnLive servers in California, Texas and NY. Their coverage overlaps to serve almost the entire continental United States. Currently, however, beta accounts are tied to the service center that was closest when you set up the account. That's helful in ensuring a user travelling all over doesn't add an unwanted variable as they troubleshoot the service. When it goes online for public consumption I imagine there will be a system to either automatically assign you to the closest servers each time you login or allow you to migrate your account if you change locations.
Remind me to wish ill upon your venture when you have something that will leave a lasting mark on the history of gaming.
OnLive was from the start of it's conception always going to be a fail. Therefore this would fail number how-times-someone-has-metioned-OnLive + 2
But seriously, giving someone controllers and then blaming them when it doesn't work is just rediculous. It's like buying a game from your download service and then they saying it's your fault it's not working because you did what they told you could do.
Glad I'm not the only one.
bullshit. OnLive will fail....like THE PHANTOM console who had a..mh..more or less similiar idea.
Besides that though, PEOPLE LIKE TO COLLECT AND OWN SHIT, OVER RENTAL ANYDAY.
How many people here rent their TV, console or car? Very few, to none I bet. And what the likelyhood you'd want to choose a DLC only service over physical? Again, more than likely, very few people. This is the one key factor why such dedicated online gaming will never take off properly.
If you fuckers want me to download DLC, and send out a physical disc of said game too, then we'd be getting somewhere, that I'd consider it. Anything less is not negotiable, IMO, and gamers should stand for no less, or be bullied into creating a supposed perfect market, for suits to bleed us dry and lock down content.