Gaming is something that people are doing it more in the names of fun and excitement. Console games have been around for more than one generation, and the recent console platforms such as Sony’s PS3 — these are in the heat of everything. More money are pouring into the gaming market! This is truly great for the gaming industry! New ideas are still being brainstormed to improve the gaming experience for the mass. One of such ideas will be launched in June 17th, 2010, and the idea is to allow gamers to experience new games and play games at anywhere on different devices and at anytime; this idea which very soon comes into fruition known as Onlive.
Onlive promises better gaming experience to all, and it on a quest to change the gaming world. Some even speak about how Onlive will replace the many console game platforms! It’s an admirable mission, but will Onlive be able to execute its goals and meet its expectations? Onlive is one unproven idea, therefore it’s uncertain that Onlive will be able to compete against the array of console platforms. Onlive is a new gaming platform that comes with its own console. To play games on Onlive, gamers can pay a low monthly fee such as $14.95 a month to access Onlive platform, and on top of that, gamers also have to pay a rental fee for a specific game that gamers want to play. People who aren’t liking to the idea of renting games, Onlive does allow people to buy games outright. Onlive delivers games to gamers through broadband connection. This experience is known as on-demand video games!
Besides offering on-demand video games, Onlive provides other goodies such as a very sociable platform – it allows gamers to share video game clips, to chat, and to perform various other social functions. Playing new games on Onlive, one doesn’t have to wait for any download, because games can be started instantly. As of now, Onlive is not supporting wireless connection for various reasons such as wireless interferences, and so one needs a wire broadband connection to play Onlive’s games. Onlive allows gamers to play games in HD quality, but gamers need 5Mbps broadband connection for this.
In my opinion, Onlive has many cool features such as allowing gamers to pause games on any device and resume games on any device, but these cool features come with a great cost! One has to pay a monthly service fee, and on top of that one has to pay even more such as to rent or to buy a game from Onlive. In this respect, gamers can find a cheaper solution by renting games through online game rentals such as GameFly. Some people prefer buying games rather than renting them. Onlive allows gamers to purchase games, but when a gamers stop paying monthly service fee, gamers may no longer be able to access the games that they had purchased through Onlive. Although Onlive has not addressed about service fee could be raised, but who can guarantee that the service fee will be forever low or high?
Onlive may provide better game experience, but not all gamers are going to be able to afford the platform! The gaming market is filled with game platforms, and so it’s not a certain that people will flock to Onlive. PS3 and Xbox 360 and various other game platforms may release a similar game experience to Onlive; in a way, those other game platform creators are waiting and taking notes and let Onlive be a guinea pig. Onlive may change the gaming world by scaring other game platform creators into creating even better game platforms — to push gaming experience into a whole new level. Although without the hindsight, I boldly make an assumption that Onlive will be struggling in the quest of promoting its game platform to the world! You can visit Onlive’s website at here.
Vinh Nguyen
