OnLive Remote Gaming Service Turns On in June

courtesy of PCMag.com


After eight years of development, remote gaming service OnLive is scheduled to roll out on June 17.
The company also announced its service pricing: users will need to pay $14.95 per month, which will allow them access to the service. However, the company did not disclose the price to rent or purchase games.

The first 25,000 users who preorder via the OnLive preorder site will receive their first three months of service free, the company said in a blog post. (Preregistration does not require a credit card, at least initially.) In addition, loyalty programs and special deals at the June E3 show (when OnLive launches) will also add other discounts, the company said.

"Everyone here at OnLive is just incredibly excited about this milestone," Steve Perlman, the company's chief executive and founder, said in a blog post. "It's the realization of a dream that we knew would be a huge undertaking, but also one that would change everything."

OnLive's claim to fame is that it puts PC users closer to console gamers in terms of hardware investment. Instead of being forced to constant shell out hundreds of dollars in CPU, graphics, and memory upgrades, OnLive completely abstracts both the game as well as the processing power required to run it, placing both inside a remote server. The service turns the user's PC into something like a dumb terminal, meaning that, at least theoretically, even an older laptop with a high-speed broadband connection should be able to run the latest games.

The service will be enabled via a PC browser plugin; later, a "MicroConsole" TV adapter will allow users to play them on their HDTVs.

Because the service is video-based to begin with, normal features -- gamertags, friends, and chat -- are supplemented with live spectating, so-called "Brag Clips" video recordings, and instant game demos, which can be instantly accessed and shared, Perlman said. Users will also be able to pause and resume, even on a different platform.



Users will be able to buy and rent "instant-play, top-tier, newly-released games," but OnLive will announce the actual prices closer to E3, Perlman wrote, adding that he expected prices to be "competitive" with retail offerings. OnLive has put up a page with games it expects to support (including "Borderlands," "Crysis Wars," "Mass Effect 2," and "Dragon Age: Origins") although whether or not all of them will be available at launch is unknown.

Previous demonstrations of the technology have worked well, although it's unclear how the network will hold up under strain. Perlman has said previously that the OnLive service will render games at about the equivalent of 720p, so games on high-resolution PC screens may look a little fuzzy.

The OnLive technology could seemingly pose a threat to companies like AMD, which manufactures both CPUs and graphics chips. But AMD invited an OnLive competitor, OTOY, to a Sept. 2009 launch event where it announced its Eyefinity technology.

Meet PlayStation Move, Sony's PS3 Motion Controller

courtesy of PCWorld.com


Sony's upcoming motion controller finally has a name--the PlayStation Move--and it looks like a pair of aircraft traffic wands with glowing blue and pink bulbs on the ends. The company announced the name during the 2010 Games Developer Conference before proceeding to demonstrate several games and inviting attendees to give the technology a spin for themselves.

The buzzword throughout the presentation: Precision. From SCE Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida's inaugural lines ("A more precise, immersive, and responsive game experience") to SCE Senior Vice President of Marketing Peter Dille's use of the word over a dozen times thereafter, it sounds like Sony plans to square off against Nintendo and Microsoft by leveraging the Move's fine motor tracking capabilities.

When it ships this fall, Sony says the Move will sell in three configurations: A version with just the Move wands for those who already own the requisite PlayStation Eye camera, another option with the Eye, the Move wands, and a game, and a full bundle to include the Eye, Move wands, a game, and the PlayStation 3 console.

The "Eye, Move wands, and game" option should sell for "under $100," said Dille.

The company then demonstrated several motion-control games, starting with a medieval sword-and-shield beat-em-up. From right or left hand slashes to shield blocks to a hands-behind-your-back stance that triggers taunts, the Move--tracked by the Eye--appeared capable of deftly processing every gesture and angle.

Table tennis was up next, and Sony demonstrated how subtle shifts in wrist rolling or pitching could produce any of the effects a physical paddle would, from harder or softer hits and various types of spin to near court swats and far court slams.

Covering the family angle with a game that looked suspiciously like an EyeToy demo, Move Party used the PlayStation Move to "augment" reality by placing you--literally, as in a video stream snapped with the Eye--in micro-arenas with changing motion-related challenges. First, the demonstrator's Move wand became a tennis racket (or as Sony described it, the racket was "augmented onto" the controller) to swat objects that appeared around her. Next, the Move became a paint brush and the demonstrator had to color in shapes without going outside the lines before a timer ran out. At one point, the Move wand even morphed into a portable hand-fan, the demonstrator yawing her wrist to redirect airflow and guide falling baby chicks into nests on either side of the display.

Existing games were also shown using slight Move modifications. A cooperative-angled demo of LittleBigPlanet allowed one player with a regular PS3 gamepad controlling the onscreen character to play in tandem with a second player, who used one of the Move wands to manipulate the environment and ease progress.



In a surprise move, the company trotted out a complementary product it calls the "sub-controller" (see pic above). Think Nintendo's nunchuk, because that's what it is--an analog thumbstick with buttons you hold in one hand while waving one of the Move wands in the other. Sony noted you can play "all the way through" SOCOM 4 (shipping this fall) using a Move wand and the sub-controller.

Dille called the PlayStation Move Sony's "biggest effort of the year" and noted the company plans a major marketing push, so brace yourself for TV spots, retail promotions, public relations campaigns, billboards, and who knows, probably some stealth-viral stuff rattling around out there too.

Where World of Warcraft Screwed up

Released in November 2004, World of Warcraft (WoW) currently has over 11.5 million subscribers raking in over $100 million a month for Activision/Blizzard. It can safely be called a success, but it is not without its failures.

At this weeks Game Developer's Conference (GDC), Blizzard lead designer Jeffrey Kaplan discussed mistakes in WoW that Blizzard is aware of.

1 Christmas Tree Effect - This is when a player shows up to a new quest hub, and his or her mini-map is lit up like a Christmas tree with new quest opportunities.

2 "Too long, didn't read" Quests - Medium envy, where writers of one medium (in this case videogame writers) envy another medium's writers. (writers of books) And I quote, “We need to stop writing fucking books in our games because there are lots of better books out there". I remember playing WoW and constantly hearing this line.

3 Mystery - Trying to give subtle hints to where the next quest begins or consists of translates into when-players-aren't-clear-on-what-to-do,-they-become-confused,-and-that-provides-for-a-bad-game experience.

4 Poorly-Paced Quest Change - A long WoW quest that is impossible to complete until the player reaches a certain level. For players below that level who are failing at that quest, frustration sets in, which leads them to lose trust in the game's design. This also leads to frustration, and a bad experience.

5 Gimmick Quests without Polish - These are quests that are more fun for the game designer than the player. Kaplan described a vehicle quest in WoW. The game's engine isn't really designed for vehicles. If it's only designed as a gimmick, it's probably not really fun for the player.

6 Bad Flow - In WoW when players are given an inordinate amount of collection quests or kill quests in a row. It gets boring and repetitive.

Kaplan has a lot of great points. I remember those low points in an otherwise perfect game. He was previously a director in WoW, but is currently working on an unannounced Blizzard MMO. People have speculated that it will be World of Starcraft. That should be interesting.

Modern Warfare 2 announced!

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has a sequel in the works. Activision announced a couple days ago at the Game Developer's Conference (GDC) that due to C.o.D. 4 selling over 12 million copies worldwide, and as stated "-Modern Warfare has taken on such a life of its own...".

The first one was highly entertaining with a short campaign. Hopefully they can continue the success with the sequel.

Is OnLive the next step in Videogame Evolution?

The Game Developer's Conference (GDC), also known as E3's little brother, is releasing some very interesting videogame news stories. Rearden Studios is planning on introducing a gaming service and "microconsole", called OnLive in the near future. It is a new way to play games online without having to buy titles. It may sound alot like the vaporware Phantom console or the new Zeebo (also making a debut at the GDC), but it is much different.

OnLive will use your internet connection to allow you to "view" the game on your computer or TV while it is playing on 1 of 5 servers located at various locations across the country. Lag is reported to not be an issue and the developer's claim you only need a 1.5 Mbps connection for Standard Definition play and 5Mbps for High Definition.

The system is designed to allow players to stream on-demand games at the highest quality onto any Intel-based Mac or PC running XP or Vista, regardless of how powerful the computer. The system will also stream games directly to a TV via a small plug-in device, and players can use a custom wireless controller as well as voice-over-IP (VoIP) headsets in conjunction with it.

Deals have been made with nine publishers: EA, Take-Two, Ubisoft, Eidos, Codemasters, Epic, Atari, WB and 2D Boy, and, according to Perlman, it only requires minor modifications on Rearden's end to get titles to run on the service.

We may be playing videogames in a completely different way in the future.