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Cloud service online. OnLive - gaming service in the clouds

Another question is how convenient it is to play shooters on the iPhone, but that’s not the topic today.

As I have repeatedly noted, the main trend in the IT industry is the transfer of power to the network. Adobe and Microsoft already have online versions of their applications; moreover, even the popular CAD system AutoCAD was recently presented online. All these projects are implemented using the principles of cloud computing.
Cloud computing) is a distributed data processing technology in which computer resources and power are provided to the user as an Internet service. (wiki)

Of course, Microsoft Office and Autocad on the Internet are good, but what about games, because the resources they draw upon themselves are much greater. The answer to this question was provided by the recently opened service onlive.com.
Onlive offers its users to play online any modern games including the already mentioned Crysis, as well as Assassins creed 2, Mafia II and many others.

When using the OnLive service, in accordance with the cloud computing model, all calculations necessary for a computer game (graphics, physics, sound, AI engines, etc.) are performed on a remote server. The server also hosts all game files, as well as user profiles and saved games. To play the game, the user must have means for input (keyboard, computer mouse, etc.) and output (display, speakers), a simple computer platform (for example, a netbook) and a fairly wide (at least 1.5 Mbit/sec) and stable Internet connection. Next, the user needs to go to the OnLive service and “request” the desired game, after which audio and video data will be broadcast to the user’s local computer. The game can run through a web browser or other client software. Thus, any computer that can play streaming video can work with the OnLive system. (Wiki)

In addition, you can organize access to the service without the participation of a computer at all. For this purpose, a special set-top box has been developed - MicroConsole. It connects to the TV via HDMI, and 4 possible players control their actions using wireless controllers.

Instead of conclusions.

The trend of moving power to the grid is gaining more and more space. And although we don’t think about it, it started quite a long time ago and we are all involved in it in one way or another: we store photos on Yandex or Vkontakte, we listen to music on Last FM, Microsoft Office or Open Office already online, soon except There won’t be any need for a browser on the computer, and will the computer itself be needed? A small TV set-top box like the one from Onlive or devices designed for Google TV will easily cover all the needs of the average user. The truth is that all personal data will be stored not at home, but with unknown people, and it is still unknown how these people will use it. But one way or another, the locomotive of cloud computing can no longer be stopped.

P.S. But MicroConsole, by the way, in the coming years, can destroy the entire console market.

With all this, OnLive technologies were advanced. The developers created a system that worked stably, without problems on the user side, provided there was a good connection.

After bankruptcy, all OnLive patents and assets were sold to the investment company Lauder Partners, and then the OnLive service was relaunched, but with a new team.

The latest effort to gain a foothold in the market was the CloudLift service, which offered modern games from Steam and instant continuation of an interrupted gaming session on another device. Just before it closed, OnLive even began offering a CloudLift Enterprise option: streaming business applications to low-power devices for large corporations and enterprises.


Screenshot from the OnLive website with information about the termination of the service

However, all this did not help and in 2015 the company announced the sale of all patents to Sony and the cessation of operations.

Gaikai's success

Gaikai was also announced at Game Developers Conference 2009. The company was going to do this later, but the announcement of OnLive at GDC 2009 forced the company to take a retaliatory step.


Screenshot from Gaikai website

On July 1, 2009, Gaikai founder David Perry published data on Gaikai, as well as a demonstration video, on his personal blog. The video showed some games, including Mario Kart 64 and World of Warcraft, running in a browser window. Perry stated: “We designed this [referring to Gaikai] for the real Internet. We don't claim to have 5,000 pages of patents, it didn't take us seven years, and we don't claim to have developed a custom hardware chip for single-millisecond latency encoding. As you can see, we don’t need all this, and therefore our costs will be much less.”

On the same day, GameSpot published an interview with David Perry, in which the latter talked about the Gaikai service, its differences from OnLive, relationships with publishers and the business model. Unlike OnLive, the company did not try to sell cloud services to the end user. Instead, it provided a platform for computer game makers where players could try demos of the latest titles for free.

As Perry said in an interview with OnLive: “They plan to fight Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo at the same time, which will be a difficult task. Additionally, they will have to use an expensive marketing strategy to attract players. And even if they can do this, they will only be able to take some market share away from Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft."

As history has shown, this approach worked, and in 2012 it was announced that the service would be sold to Sony for $380 million. At the same time, as of 2012, OnLive and Gaikai had similar technologies. For example, you can see a detailed comparison of the work of these 2 services using the example of several games.

Cloud gaming services today

The Wikipedia page lists a couple of dozen services, active and defunct. Let's try to understand this apparent abundance. I discarded projects that were no longer active, as well as projects that related to file streaming. As a result, the list of projects to be considered has been significantly reduced. The rest were divided into 3 parts: existing commercial projects for PCs, projects for consoles and TV, and small projects.

Commercial projects for PC

▍LiquidSky

The founder of the service is young 23-year-old Ian McLoughlin. The service itself is at the beta testing stage, which does not prevent it from currently having more than 500,000 users around the world. In September 2016, the service received investments of $4,000,000 from a group of investors. You can read more about this. The LiquidSky service is built on Nvidia GRID technology.


Screenshot of the LiquidSky virtual desktop

This service is interesting primarily because the Liquidsky service itself does not care at all what you do in this cloud. A typical situation is when players, using this service and having an account on Steam, quickly download any previously purchased game to a remote server, launch it and play for fun, saving it in Steam itself. At the same time, by paying a monthly subscription for $14.99, users receive an additional 500 GB of data storage on the server. If you look at Dropbox, which charges $8.25 for 1 TB of data, it doesn't seem that expensive. Subscription limit is 80 hours per month.


Screenshot from LiquidSky website

This service appeared quite recently and at the time of its appearance it had a huge number of bugs. Since the service is quite active on social networks and the Internet, you can see what shortcomings the service has at the moment. A few months ago, for example, when I logged into my account, I noticed that the cursor was moving erratically across the screen, and I had difficulty controlling its movement. When I finally went into my game library on Steam, I noticed that there were other people's games there. It turns out that I ended up in someone else's account and the owner of this account and I were fighting over control of the cursor, which explained its strange behavior.

▍Playkey

The service itself is a Russian project, also built on the Nvidia Grid. The implementation of the idea to create the project began in 2012, and throughout 2014 the service was in open beta testing mode. At the turn of 2014-2015. the project has reached the release stage, having gone into commerce.

Their website has a list of games that a user can play. When paying for a monthly subscription for 590 rubles. the user gets access to 150 free games on the service and gets the opportunity to buy some paid games and play them on Playkey. Subscription limit is 70 hours per month.

The project is local, which automatically protects it from other competitors. However, initially the service did not work. You can read more about this in the article.


Screenshot from Playkey website

According to Playkey CEO Egor Guryev, in May 2015 the number of paying users was only 282 people. However, the company managed to correct the situation by changing its business model. As of March 2016, the service had 200 thousand registered, 10 thousand subscribed and 4 thousand regularly paying users. To change the situation, the following changes have been made to the company’s activities:

  • They changed the business model - “At the first stage, we had a subscription, by purchasing which, the user received access to 120+ games, but in this way we could not get new products from the developers and offered old content, .... Users saw minimal value in such a selection. Games that are available at low prices on sales have been completed by many more than once and at the same time worked well on computers that were upgraded 1-2 years ago. The developers did not provide new content for subscription, and it is clear why - they were afraid of losing income from selling games at retail, receiving absolutely unpredictable income in subscription. We launched individual purchases of content and the ability to play games that were previously purchased. This gave us access to new products, which account for 85% of demand. At the same time, we transformed the subscription to the game catalog (which was abandoned) into payment for the use of our server capacity. Based on current metrics, we see that the average user plays 20 hours per month on Playkey.”
  • Rebuilt marketing - “We were faced with very low conversion, due to the fact that our communications did not answer the question - who we are, what we are, what problems we solve. Now we are focused on one thing - “Play modern games on a weak computer.” The video “GTA 5 on a calculator,” which we sponsored, has 820 thousand views on YouTube.”
  • Changed the content - “We talked about this in paragraph 1, but I’ll add that we focused our offer on those games that are demanding on the user’s computer and are in high demand (that is, new items). We abandoned everything else. That's why we don't have JA2, 3 Heroes, etc. These games work well on low-end laptops and can be played without using our technology, saving money.”


Screenshot of Saints Row 4 running on Playkey

If you compare Playkey's problems in 2015 with the reasons for OnLive's bankruptcy in 2012, you can see the similarity of the sources of problems for both companies: they both did not have a well-thought-out business model, did not offer customers content that would be in demand, and both lacked a thoughtful marketing strategy.

▍PlayStation Now

PlayStation Now is a game streaming service that allows you to play PlayStation 3 games on PC, mobile devices, TVs, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4. The service itself is the result of the use of technologies and developments from Gaikai, which Sony acquired in 2012 for $380 million. Officially launched as a subscription service in the United States on January 13, 2015.


Screenshot from the PlayStation Now website

In August 2016, the first PlayStation Now for PC was launched in Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands. Currently, the service provides access to more than 400 games released on PS3. There is a seven-day free trial for new users.

All you need to use is download the special PlayStation Now application and connect your DualShock 4 or other joystick. The service is not yet available in Russia, but some craftsmen have found methods to bypass this limitation. you can see how they managed it.

According to the latest data, the company has sold more than 40 million PS4 consoles worldwide - a huge market for the company. However, the service has a problem, which is that this service can only play PS3 games. The reason for this lies in the technology used by Sony.

Due to these same features, it is impossible to play PS3 games on PS4 consoles without a cloud service, because... These consoles are completely incompatible.


PlayStation Vue Discounts

In addition, Sony's service is quite expensive - PlayStation Now is the most expensive of the listed services and costs $20 for a 1-month subscription. And the prices of their PlayStation Vue video streaming service, to put it mildly, “surprised” me. By comparison, Netflix offers similar services in the US for $9.99 per month.

Services for set-top boxes and TV

I have never used such services, perhaps that is why I am a little biased towards them. However, the GeForce NOW and GameFly projects are large developing projects that I could not miss. They had to create a separate category. I took the picture below from the Nvidia website. It can hardly be called objective, but from it you can get a general idea of ​​the services GeForce NOW, PlayStation Now and GameFly.


Comparison of services from the Nividia website

▍GameFly

Previously, the company's business was expressed in the figure below. As you can see from it, the company used to provide games for rent. But time passed, and such a model ceased to be competitive in the modern world.


GameFly's old business model

Therefore, in June 2015, it acquired the Israeli company Playcast Media Systems and immediately launched a new service. The company is changing priorities and starting to look up to date.


Screenshot from GameFly website

At the moment, the main markets for the service are North America and Europe. According to the company, the number of service subscribers is about 334,000 people. To use it, you need to be the owner of one of the smart TVs made by LG, Samsung or Philips.

▍GeForce NOW

The GeForce NOW service allows you to play on Shield Portable, Shield Tablet, Shield Android TV devices with a subscription. The service offers 3 months free to Shield series buyers, and then requires a $7.99 per month subscription. Most of the games are included in the subscription, but the rest you need to pay for.


Devices to use GeForce NOW

I couldn’t find the number of subscribers to this service, but, according to the company, more than 100,000 people in 190 countries took part in testing the service alone.

Small projects

▍Ubitus GameNow

The service is more dead than alive. The latest articles and tweets on this service from the Taiwanese company Ubitus date back to 2013. The service has a working website with games, but I was only able to launch a couple of them after several attempts. I can’t say that my Internet is excellent, but the rest of my services started without any problems.


Screenshot from Ubitus GameNow showing King's Bounty: The Legend

▍PlayGiga

Despite the start of the project in 2013, the final product was never presented to users. The company maintains a website where information is updated, but the project has not yet taken off. It’s not even clear yet what platforms they are going to work on.

▍Gface

From the series everyone ran, and I ran. It seems that Crytek, the creator of the service, did not fully understand what gaming in the cloud was, and created a forum for communication between players of their game.

▍Kalydo

The Wikipedia page states that the service is active, but it appears that it quietly died in early 2016, or perhaps earlier. It was a file streaming service where you could start playing almost instantly after purchasing the game, and the rest of the data would be downloaded as you played.

▍LoudPlay

A Russian project that has not yet taken off. There is practically no information on the project website itself. There are several reviews on testing the service. The essence of the service is that the user rents a game server on which any game can be installed. According to some information on the Internet, the service is dead and its developers have disappeared.

▍Playincloud

Also a Russian project, very unique. According to the developer, the service is not commercial, but the website lists the rates for its use. Players use the service in turns: one comes in, the other leaves. The server comes pre-installed with games that users can play.

▍Leap Computing

It didn’t take off and maybe it won’t take off. The developers demonstrated the operation of the system under controlled conditions and the project stalled. The developers promised to provide a working version a year ago, but the problem is still there.


Screenshot from Leap Computing website

▍Turbo.net

The service does not apply to games. As the developers of the service indicate, it is intended for developers and IT managers and allows you to create a virtual space for developed applications.

▍G-cluster

Initially, I believed the information on the Wikipedia page that the service had stopped working, but this turned out to be not entirely true. Yes, the company G-cluster Global Corporation itself went bankrupt and was liquidated, but all its assets, patents, etc. transferred to its parent company Broadmedia Corporation, which continued to provide services. But the error on the page is understandable, because... I couldn't find a single rating in English, how really good this service works.

The service is a pioneer in game streaming and was created back in 2000, but never became profitable, which led to the liquidation of the company. During all this time, he never became popular in the world. It doesn't seem to be particularly popular in Japan, the service's main market, either, based on ratings on Google Play. You can see the history and business model of this service for 2010.

▍The rest

There are other players in the cloud gaming market that are not covered in this article. For example, Ubisoft Entertainment, Amazon, CiiNOW, GamingCloud, Google, Happy Cloud, IBM, Microsoft, Nintendo, Samsung Electronics, TransGaming, Valve were noted on it (I took this list from the analytical report of Technavio). As you can see in this list you can find almost all the major companies in the field of electronics. Probably, other companies offering network solutions such as IaaS, PaaS or SaaS could offer some kind of product to end users, but so far there have been no such attempts.

Comparison of using Playkey and LiquidSky services

For Russians, only these 2 specified projects are currently available from large gaming services in the cloud. There are also, for example, the Russian Playincloud or Ubitus GameNow, which you can also try to use, but they are either small or only partially functioning.

For a visual comparison of these services, I used the game Europa Universalis 4, a computer game in the genre of grand strategy, which was developed by Paradox Interactive. This is not the best game to compare the two systems, but its example is sufficient to illustrate the difference in operation between the two services:


As can be seen from the comparison of the services provided, both have their advantages and disadvantages. For me personally, the LiquidSky service is more interesting, but the remoteness of the available servers negates all the advantages and does not allow using this service.

Pros and cons of gaming in the cloud for end users

The advantages and disadvantages of cloud gaming have not changed since OnLive and Gaikai. However, with the development of technology, the quality of communication and the familiarity of more and more users with this technology, the priorities of these features change, i.e. how important they are to the user.

Advantages


Flaws

  • Picture quality – the higher the picture quality, the more resources will be spent in the cloud and the higher the requirements for the communication channel bandwidth and its stability will be. There is often a situation where cloud service providers compress the image sent to end users.
  • Internet traffic - cloud services require a large amount of traffic. At the same time, the Internet speed must be stable, at least 5 Mbit. When playing games in the cloud, a user can consume more than 3 GB of Internet per hour. As picture quality improves, traffic consumption increases proportionally. If game streaming becomes more common, network congestion will increase dramatically.


Picture quality in the cloud and on PC
  • The delay is something that cannot be avoided. The game will respond to the player's actions faster when it is running on the local computer.
  • Copyright protection - publishers can prohibit or limit the use of games in certain territories, set their own prices or terms of use.
  • The emergence of a monopolist - a situation may arise when a monopolist arises in the market and will be able to set rules in the local market.
  • Bankruptcy of the service or changes to the terms of use - the situation with OnLive could be repeated, when all purchased games and subscriptions simply disappeared in 2015, when Sony bought all the company’s assets, but did not compensate for any obligations to users.
As you can see from the comparison, if you need quality and reliability, then a traditional PC will suit you better. If you are an avid gamer and plan to play every day, then cloud gaming is not suitable for you. If we draw analogies with automobile transport, then games in the cloud are like a taxi, and a home PC and console are like your own car. Continuing the analogy with cars, using cloud services with the latest version of the set-top box is similar to using a taxi if you have your own car.

Technologies

In 2009, when OnLive and Gaikai emerged, they showed that game streaming was possible. Before this, there was an opinion that this was impossible due to the high latency between the server and the local computer: information must travel through networks to the server, be processed there, compressed and sent back to the client’s device.

Companies have taken different approaches to solve this problem. The OnLive service focused on hardware and developed its own video encoder. Their idea, according to this article, was to divide the stream into 16 rectangular sections and process each of these sections with a separate encoder. Gaikai approached the problem using existing hardware solutions, but using its software developments.


Own video encoder OnLive

Today, there are 3 companies that have and use their own game streaming technologies: Nvidia, Sony and GameFly. Most other game streaming services use Nvidia technology.

Nvidia

Nvidia developed the Nvidia Grid technology, which was announced in 2012. The company immediately announced that Nvidia Grid is not a gaming service, but a product that will be offered to cloud gaming service operators. At that time, this solution was used by almost all startups in this area, including Gaikai, Playcast, Ubitus, CiiNow and G-Cluster services. This technology is currently used by LiquidSky and Playkey. On this video shows how Nvideo Grid works for the end user.


Description of how Nvidia GRID works from the Nvidia website

The core element of Nvidia GRID is the Nvidia GPU. On the Nvidia website you can see the specifications and how it all works.

The company currently offers its gaming service GeForce Now. To use it, you must have an Nvidia device: one of the devices in the Shield Portable, Shield Android TV, or Shield Tablet product lines.

Sony

In 2012, Sony acquired Gaikai. This allowed the company to create the PlayStation Now platform based on Gaikai technologies in 2014. In 2015, Sony 2015 acquired OnLive's patents.

Sony's new division was tasked with developing technology that would allow PS3 games to be played in the cloud on PS4, TVs, tablets and smartphones. They first experimented with installing regular PS3s in data centers, but the experiment was not successful for obvious reasons. Sony then developed a motherboard that carries smaller components from eight PS3 consoles that can operate independently. By placing such boards in data centers, Sony created the PlayStation NOW service. The GPU used in this board was jointly developed by Sony and Nvidia 11 years ago, based on Nvidia's GeForce 7 GPU.


Motherboard for PlayStation NOW service

It is clear that due to this technology, the Playstation Now service can only work with games on the PlayStation 3.

GameFly

GameFly acquired Israeli company Playcast Media Systems in June 2015, which it claims offers its own “market ready and scalable” technology. This service is available on Amazon Fire TV and Samsung Smart TV devices. Compared to Nvidia and Sony, the company is much smaller, and Playcast previously used Nvidia Grid in its operations. I probably wouldn't add this company to this list if Nvidia didn't view GameFly as one of the main competitors for its own service. This can be seen from the comparison of their services from the Nvidia website in the article earlier.


Incumbents in the game streaming market with proprietary technologies

Market development and problems

When the OnLive service appeared, it caused a sensation. “The most powerful gaming system in the world” and “Gaming revolution” could be found in the headlines of magazines and newspapers. In 2012, shortly before its bankruptcy, analysts estimated its value at $1.8 billion. Four years have passed since then, but it remains difficult to predict the future of the game streaming market.

World situation

In its 2016-2020 Cloud Gaming Services Market Outlook report, Technavio predicts that the global market will grow at 29% per year. It looks like a great prospect for market participants, even outpacing the 18% growth in the video streaming market, according to Markets and Markets.

However, looking back, it is difficult to believe the accuracy of this forecast. In a previous report, Technavio named G-Cluster, Nvidia and OnLive as the main providers of gaming cloud services, 2 of which had already ceased operations by this point.


Picture from Technavio company presentation (collage)

There is no doubt that the cloud gaming market will continue to develop as... The speed and quality of the Internet in the world is constantly growing, and large companies have begun to invest in cloud gaming services market projects, but at the same time, the market remains risky.

There are several factors hindering the development of the cloud gaming market. Firstly, there is a delay in signal transmission, which cannot be completely eliminated. Unlike streaming video, where it is possible to use a memory buffer, this is not possible for cloud gaming.

The second problem is that large tech companies with established businesses simply don't need cloud gaming. With the development of games in the cloud, the market for games on physical media will be cannibalized and sales of computer equipment will decline. Perhaps this is why neither Nvidia nor Sony are seeking to implement these technologies en masse for the end user and only offer them as some kind of fashionable feature for their devices and only, basically, outdated games.

In the future, companies operating in this area may face problems encountered by the world leader in video streaming, Netflix. According to the latest information, during 2012-2016, the catalog of films offered by the service decreased by 2 times. The reason is the complexity and high cost of rights to purchase content and increased competition in the market. The same thing could happen in the gaming equipment market, because when using the cloud, it becomes unimportant what device the player is using.


Netflix's main competitors

Problems for market participants may arise not only with game manufacturers, but also with their distributors, for example, Steam, GOG.com or Origin services. So, according to the terms of the Steam Subscriber Agreement, all buyers are subscribers, i.e. do not own the rights to the purchased games and if Steam is liquidated, they may lose all games. Such an event could have a negative impact on market development prospects.

Situation in Russia

Research company Akamai Technologies has released the results of testing Internet access speeds in different countries. In Russia, the average Internet access speed increased by 29% compared to last year and amounted to 12.2 Mbit/s in the first quarter of 2016.


Picture from the Russia Insider website

According to representatives of the services, the minimum channel capacity must be 5-15 Mbit/s to use them. However, this is only the minimum required speed, which I would raise to at least 25 Mbit/s for comfortable use. For example, my provider provides me with a 60 Mbit/s channel. Despite this, it often turns out that Playkey detects that my connection quality is poor. Based on these estimates, if the same rate of Internet speed growth continues in the near future, then the required level of 25 Mbit/s in Russia will be achieved within approximately 3 years.


Picture from Yandex research

It seems that from the diagram above it follows that so far only in the KFO and FEFD the speed of the offered Internet is significantly lower than the required 25 Mbit/s, but everything is not so good. Just look at the reviews of one of the Internet providers offering speeds from 50 Mbit/s, such as these: “Rot in hell”, “NO WAY”, “It can’t be worse, deception”, etc. – and it becomes clear that these people are unlikely to become happy users of cloud games in the near future.

Conclusion

Over the past 7 years since the emergence of OnLive and Gaikai services, the industry has come a long way. At the moment, the market is growing rapidly and so far companies do not have to push their elbows to attract players. But this may soon change, the market will become saturated and large companies will begin a battle for end users.

While many gamers have become disillusioned with cloud gaming due to high costs, poor connectivity, or outdated games, talk of game streaming technologies is no longer surprising. The necessary technologies already exist, Internet connection speeds are constantly growing, and companies are offering players more and more advanced services.


Cloud Mario

After OnLive and Gaikai services leave the market, you shouldn’t give up on gaming in the cloud. Pioneers in business usually have a difficult fate. You don't have to look far for examples. The leaders of the modern market in most areas are not their pioneers. Amazon wasn't the first to sell books online—Books.com was the first. Internet search is not the idea of ​​Google, but of companies like AltaVista. Social networks do not owe their existence to Facebook - MySpace came before. Add tags

OnLive for PC- a free client for the cloud service for digital distribution of games. In the case of using computers with low performance, it turns out to be simply irreplaceable. After installing this program, the user significantly expands his capabilities and gets access to a huge library of a wide variety of online video games.

It is noteworthy that even those devices that do not have a rich configuration are beginning to support games with advanced graphics. The only requirement in this case is a stable high-speed Internet connection.

Program OnLive protects the user from the need to monitor system drivers, since it takes care of all the work.

To work with the cloud service, you need to create your account on the official website or in the client itself. After checking the characteristics of the Internet connection, the service's home page will appear on the screen of the device you are using. From here you can go to the online video game store and purchase something suitable.

Features and capabilities of the OnLive program for PC:

  • Support for high-quality games with advanced graphics even on weak devices;
  • Availability of demo versions of games;
  • Purchased games do not require installation, do not cause device incompatibility errors, and launch with one keystroke;
  • Friendly interface, thought out to the smallest detail;
  • A detailed description of each game presented (including a trailer for it);

OnLive is a client of the digital game distribution service of the same name, using cloud computing technology. It will be especially useful for gamers who have weak computers or generally prefer a Mac. The fact is that by downloading this client you get access to a large library of games that you can enjoy online. More precisely, the game itself will run on OnLive servers, which will process the player’s clicks and transmit gameplay to his monitor in the form of streaming video. That is, it will be possible to run the latest games with advanced graphics on computers with the poorest configuration. The main requirement is to have a stable and fast Internet connection. In addition, OnLive will save you from many problems associated with game incompatibility and will protect you from the need to constantly monitor system drivers.

Getting started with the service is not that difficult. To do this, you will have to create an account on the official website, or in the start window of the client itself, after which the program will check your Internet connection and display the service’s home page. From it, users can go to a virtual store, where, in turn, they will be free to purchase the game they like and start playing it. Before purchasing, you can try the trial version, or watch other users play. The developers of OnLive call their service the future of computer games, and, given all of the above, it’s hard to disagree with them.

Key Features and Functions

  • allows you to enjoy the latest games on weak PCs and Macs;
  • You can start working with the service in a few seconds;
  • before purchasing, you can try the game you like;
  • unlike regular disc copies of games, games purchased from OnLive launch with one click, do not require installation and do not bombard the user with errors related to incompatibility;
  • the client has a pleasant, well-thought-out interface;
  • each game has a detailed description, screenshots and trailer.

OnLive is a video streaming service that allows you to play any modern game on any computer connected to the Internet or on a TV using a special micro-console. This microconsole is slightly larger than a DVD box; on the body there are USB connectors, connectors for connecting to a monitor/TV and a broadband Internet connection (speed - at least 1.5 Mbit/s). Control - via Bluetooth, wireless mouse and keyboard or proprietary controller. The latter is honestly copied from the Xbox 360 gamepad and is studded with control buttons.

And this seemingly harmless box can already be played in Crysis, F.E.A.R. 2, Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts, Burnout Paradise and Race Driver GRID - a total of 16 launch games were shown at GDC. It’s not a matter of the filling of the mini-console, it’s a matter of data compression technology, for which OnLive is going to receive a patent, and the principle of cloud computing (when all calculations are carried out by remote servers, and a ready-made picture is transferred to the user’s machine). To play Crysis via the OnLive Game Service at maximum settings, you don't need a top-end graphics card or powerful processor, just a fast Internet connection and a TV or monitor.

But OnLive's ambitions are not limited to a set-top box for a TV - by downloading a browser plugin from the OnLive.com website, you can play the same Crysis on a regular PC or Macintosh. This is not an exaggeration: at GDC you could play Burnout Paradise on an entry-level laptop and Crysis with maximum settings on a MacBook Air (which, as you know, has an integrated Intel GMA X3100 graphics card).

On a connection with a speed of one and a half megabits, OnLive gives a picture of 720x480 (480p, as on Wii), on a connection of five megabits - in 1280x720 (720p, the main resolution of PS3 and Xbox 360). This, in theory, should be enough for a 24-inch monitor or a 40-inch TV. Theoretically, the plugin or set-top box receives information from the controller, uploads it to the server, the server sends a command to the game, performs the necessary operations, and then compresses and downloads the image to your computer 60 times per second. In practice, Burnout Paradise feels a bit lacking in fps, but the game is more than manageable.

Representatives of OnLive say that the video compression itself occurs with a delay of only one millisecond, that they have invested in a network of powerful data centers to process the stream (the company's investors include Autodesk, Warner Brothers and Maverick Capital), that the equipment will be updated once every six months and that they also “did not ignore the issues of delivering video to players.”

We in Russia will not be able to evaluate OnLive on our own any time soon: the service is going to be launched only in the winter of 2009, and this summer conditionally open beta testing will begin in the United States (“conditionally” - because only selected players using the services of the seven largest American providers will be allowed there ).

The OnLive initiative is supported by Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Take-Two, Warner Brothers gaming division, Eidos, Atari, Codemasters and Epic Games. Publishers are attracted by 100% protection against piracy (all games will be made for server architecture and simply won’t run on anything else), the opportunity not to pay licensing fees to console manufacturers and, of course, the prospect of complete elimination of the retail market with its royalties to retail chains and resale of games. Developers are attracted by the fact that they will no longer need to program for specific systems, think about the user base and the average level of modern hardware (any standard PC game can be adapted for OnLive in a few weeks).

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