I have high hopes for OnLive but right now in the present day at 2010, I don't think the OnLive business model is feasible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OnLive
Steve Pearlman of OnLive says that HD-level gaming will require 400 - 500 Mbps. That's 500 - 625 KB/s. Just think of how much bandwidth that would suck up. One hour of gameplay (3600 seconds) would require 1.8 - 2.25 GB of data transfer. If you have a bandwidth limit with your ISP (mine is 60 GB/month), that means your entire monthly bandwidth would be gone in just 30 hours! No thanks. I need that bandwidth for other things and even if all I did on the internet was game, 30 hours a month wouldn't be enough.
OnLive is a brilliant idea but it is ahead of its time. We aren't ready for server-side cloud gaming yet. Only people with unlimited (more and more ISPs are getting rid of unlimited bandwidth because of how much this feature gets abused by heavy bandwidth users. Especially if they use that bandwidth for illicit means. ie downloading and uploading copyrighted material on torrents) or colossal bandwidth usage allowances would benefit from a service like OnLive.
I know that its my ISP's policy to impose a max of a $25 penalty for going over the limit (so if I say downloaded something crazy like 200 GB/month, they can't give me more than a $25 overusage fee) but even if I paid that $25, I'm sure my ISP would scream at me if I went way above the bandwidth usage limit and threaten to cancel my account (I'm sure it says in the contract somewhere that they reserve the right to do so. lol). ISPs don't like bandwidth hogs for customers. They hurt their profit margin.
When my ISP used to have unlimited bandwidth, I think they sent me a letter once for using up a ridiculous amount of bandwidth (I can't remember what it was. But I had spent the entire month (even when I wasn't there or sleeping, I left the downloads running) downloading shit off torrents and limewire. lol. Even if these companies claim unlimited transfer, they do bully customers into not taking advantage of that promise. False advertising BS.
