About onlive

[greenmedic88]

Subscription rates, which haven't been disclosed, would be a pretty significant factor.

If it was say, the same price as a Netflix for games or similar monthly unlimited rental subscription service, assuming the consumer has the appropriate bandwidth connection, it would mean getting your games faster. And while services like Steam do have an offline mode, you still need that connection to download, update and play games with online features.

The flaw with any cloud based service will naturally be a loss of connectivity.

But basically, it's about the same thing as paying for cable TV service. You buy or they give you a box that accesses the content, you pay your monthly subscription, and probably call the service department when you lose your connection.

Naturally something like OnLive isn't going to be for every gaming consumer. If you play a ton of different games and tend not to finish them, or you trade your games in as soon as possible for the "best" trade in value, a cloud based gaming service could be for you. If you collect or tend to play the same games over and over for years, probably not.

I hoard games personally, but I've already dropped this habit for PC gaming (having everything available through Steam on any system is just more convenient without having to fuss with discs). Of course it's easier to separate from physical media with PC seeing as how most game discs these days are usually no more than installer discs or DRM checks.

I think it's still a bit too early to get a service like OnLive to work better than the current mix of DD games and physical media, but it's definitely in the future. I still remember "future" commercials from about ten years ago advertising telecom services that provide every film ever made available instantly at any time on demand, even in remote backwater locations, and that hasn't exactly become reality yet.