Cloud gaming

[Calcium Deposit]

I was wondering if anyone else had heard about this kind of service.

Basically, Video games get "streamed" to your computer, you don't have to download/install the game.

Benefits:
-Multiple platforms can play games that were built for Windows. (linux/mac)
-Zero performance impact, since the games are run completely on the service's server. Meaning you can run these games on really underpowered computers at maximum settings, including tablets. (Inb4 crysis 2 on iPad)
-Anti-piracy, I guess this is more of a developer benefit.
-Ability to instantly play games.

Drawbacks:
-Requires a decent internet connection.
-Anti-piracy, sorry pirates.
-Relatively small selection of games, so far.

I haven't found many services, yet.

www.Onlive.com is pretty good, the selection of games is fairly small though.
They have the subscription service, for 10 USD a month you can play a selection of games for an unlimited amount of time. Or you can rent each game at a reduced price for 3 or 5 days, or purchase the game full price and play it indefinitely on their servers. Making an account is free, and with a free account you can demo quite a few games for free.

EA's Origin seems to be getting its feet wet with this kind of service. I've noticed a few demos here and there being streamed. If they start expanding the service, that would be pretty awesome (Want battlefield 3!).

If anyone has any other cloud gaming services they know about please post them!

[Zageron]

I'm not really sure what to think about this kind of service. I like having my own copy of everything I own. Though Steam is somewhat of an exception since if you lose your account you lose all of your games. I'd personally like to have a super powered computer that can run all of the games locally.

I'm not a game pirate, and I buy all of my games.
In addition, Canada has terrible internet.

[IAAW]

I like the concept behind cloud gaming, but I don't see it getting too popular, primarily because I really only see cloud gaming being utilized by people who either are content with not having physical copies of games, or people who do not have the money (or patience) to either be buying games (i.e, waiting lines and whatnot), and/or putting the effort (and dosh) into a gaming PC (which isn't necessarily THAT expensive IMO, but then again not everyone exactly has 1,000$ lying around).

Admittedly though, cloud gaming does have it's benefits. Not having to worry about computer specs when playing a game on your computer is a great concept, and not having to wait in lines for console games is a great concept as well. Personally however, I don't really like cloud gaming only because I would rather prefer having a physical copy of a game that I don't have to be constantly streaming over an internet connection just to play it. And what if you lose your internet connection for some rhyme or reason? You can't necessarily stream a video game over the internet when your internet connection itself isn't working.

Overall I like the concept of cloud gaming, but I only see such services being used by those who are capable of doing so, since ultimately with cloud gaming you have to have a dedicated internet connection just to be able to utilize cloud gaming, and even then, if your internet absolutely sucks (like mine tends to be), then it would be unnecessarily difficult to play even a singleplayer game through cloud gaming because then you have to compensate for lag. (And then raging ensues.)

[ELRayford]

I have been a member of Onlive for a while now. It is PERFECT for casual gamers. Quality is pretty damn good for what it is. Latency hasn't been an issue at all in any of the very popular games. I play on wifi and get very few interrupts. 10Mb down 3Mb up cable. I would suggest this to anyone that cannot afford to build a gaming system. 10/10 for onlive.

As for lag, We were playing an 8v8 game of Homefront lastnight and not ONCE did someone whine about latency/lag. They really have done a great job with keeping it under 80ms latency. You can try it for free for 30 mins on a few games. Check it out xD 10.00 usd a month for 100+ games.

You can also get a console setup for Onlive and play directly on TV. Sooner than later there will be iphone/droid applications

[hi19hi19]

I think it would be wise to watch this kind of service.
Like how the movie industry has transitioned slowly from purchasing each movie individually to services like Netflix, I think the same will slowly happen to video games. Steam is already sort of the "middle ground" between owning a hard copy and streaming the game.
Video games generally require a greater time investment than a single movie but in the end it's a similar idea.

[fido123]

The problem with cloud gaming at this point in time is a movie can be buffered because you know what's going to need to be streamed since it doesn't change based on the users actions, however cloud computing for games means when the user makes a decision at his computer, it's sent to a server which makes some decisions which then spits out the next frame of data for you to interact with. The internet can't support that kind of traffic, nor could servers render graphics for thousands of customers instantly without dumping some unreasonable and unheard of sum of money. I'd say within the next 5 years easy everybody is going to be using Steam like service which is cloud computing, just not to the extent where the game's process is on a computer somewhere on the internet.

Originally Posted by Zageron

In addition, Canada has terrible internet.

Not in Toronto. We have pretty good internet over here

Originally Posted by IAAW

I like the concept behind cloud gaming, but I don't see it getting too popular, primarily because I really only see cloud gaming being utilized by people who either are content with not having physical copies of games, or people who do not have the money (or patience) to either be buying games (i.e, waiting lines and whatnot), and/or putting the effort (and dosh) into a gaming PC (which isn't necessarily THAT expensive IMO, but then again not everyone exactly has 1,000$ lying around).

I'm pretty sure most people don't care about owning a physical copy and find it far more easy to buy a game from their computer rather than WalMart. Also you don't need a gaming PC to play a game using cloud services. You could run Crysis 2 on your grandmother's pentium 4 better than a $1000 PC. I don't understand this want to own a physical copy of digital data. You get the same data just through a superior medium. You won't be able to buy physical copies of data in 20 years.

Originally Posted by IAAW

Overall I like the concept of cloud gaming, but I only see such services being used by those who are capable of doing so, since ultimately with cloud gaming you have to have a dedicated internet connection just to be able to utilize cloud gaming, and even then, if your internet absolutely sucks (like mine tends to be), then it would be unnecessarily difficult to play even a singleplayer game through cloud gaming because then you have to compensate for lag. (And then raging ensues.)

In 10 years though we'll laugh at today's bandwidth because we'll be utilizing the magic of fibre optics and a few changes in lower level networking protocols such as the death of the Ethernet protocol I expect to see start happening in the not to distant future. The internet is going to be far more reliable and faster in the future.

[Calcium Deposit]

Never had to "buffer" any of the games, everything has been quite responsive.