Will OnLive Make Consoles Obsolete?

by Daniel Beckett on August 20, 2010

Xbox Live has been the core of my gaming world over the last few years, but a new challenger has risen up and threatens to steal away the attention and with it possibly many customers. That mighty challenger is none other than OnLive.

For those of you out there that haven’t heard of OnLive, let me give you a little introduction as to what it is and how it could possibly acquire the spotlight in the gaming world.

OnLive is the ambitious new gaming service with a unique twist; instead of downloading and running games traditionally on your computer, you run the games on their remote data centers and they stream the audiovisual output to your computer. Simply put – no matter how bad your computer is you can still play the latest-and-greatest games; for a small subscription fee that is. OnLive has been given a rather modest, certainly fair, subscription fee equal to that of Xbox Live. A meager 54$ a year.

To many gamers out there this may not sound all that brilliant, especially to PS3 users that boast a free online service, but you need to think about the amount of cost which can be saved using OnLive. Gamers no longer need to worry about whether or not their Graphics Card will be able to flawlessly play the newest release; all you need is an internet connection and not even the greatest one at that (provided you’re relatively near one of the remote data centers that is).

For those of you that missed Game Judgment’s little PC vs. Console debate last week between Nicholas and myself, the idea of widespread usage of OnLive easily tips the balance between the two. The turn-off from PC gaming for myself and many other gamers is the thought of all of the extra costs which come with hardware as well as many of the problems which frequent PC gaming. I’ve always been a Console gamer but hearing about OnLive has made me question where my ‘loyalties’ lie.

Although I love the (almost) no-limits gaming which OnLive offers there are the flaws to consider. The most obvious problem with streaming games is that you always require an internet connection. Currently if my internet goes off (which happens way too often) the only problem I have is that I’ll have to play single player. That’s never too much of a hasstle, since it usually just makes me bring out the more ‘unloved’ games to give them a little of attention. With OnLive, no internet = no games. I guess you’ll have to read a book or go outside then… yes, I’m scared too. In addition to the technical faults, there is the current lack of games. OnLive doesn’t have the biggest line-up of games currently on offer but they are sure working on it. A lot of new games have been promised. As the franchise grows I assume it will begin to get every new release without delay as well as a list of classics.

OnLive is in its beta stages across the United States and won’t be in the U.K. or the rest of Europe for quite a while. Sadly, this means I can’t tell you exactly how well OnLive performs because I can’t use it yet. Based on what I’ve read from other gamers that have experienced OnLive, it runs flawlessly most of the time. I can’t wait to try it once it gets released over here, but until then I’ll continue to give Microsoft my money.

Let us know in the comment section about whether or not you think OnLive could be a contender for Consoles.