Kinda-sorta OnLive Beta review

[PingSpike]

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=859

Its probably not a totally fair review, since the guy wasn't in the official area as he was using some one else's login ID...but it sounds like it sucks less than expected. Although it still sounds and looks like it sucks.

 

[xCxStylex]

I just read the article off slashdot.

While yes, he was borrowing someone else's ID and was probably outside the restricted area that they were accepting beta testers, I think it was clear that most gamers would not play an FPS with onlive.

If Onlive is indeed going to restrict their user base to people local to their datacenters, they're not going to have much business at all imho.


I'm no business major, but I'm having a really hard time trying to figure out who OnLive is going to be marketed at.

 

[PingSpike]

That's my problem with it. (Well, I have other issues with it) Who even wants this thing? Assuming they even get this thing to work, when the rubber hits the road all they're doing is duplicating the of owning a console. With worse graphics. That can't even be played offline and suffers latency problems when playing a single player game. We don't know the price of the monthly service, but I really doubt they're going to recoup the cost of building and running all those data centers at a price that could compete with a $200 console.

 

[zagood]

I don't know their business model, but the best way to go for them would be hooking up with internet cafes within the "optimal" radius of their servers. The cafes will save on upgrade expenses and OnLive gets a good testing base, along with (if the service works well) word of mouth.

 

[Karsten]

The guys a PCPER do a good job! I think it is a fair review and he makes some good points. As far as the business model... we have to wait and see. But Comcast and it's bandwidth limit will play some role. This is some serious streaming.

 

[PingSpike]

A lot of users on the slashdot discussion were pointing out the PCPER guy misread the bandwidth calculation. I'm to lazy to go back, but they said his screenshot indicated it was using 7-8mb/s instead of the 1mb/s he indicated.

 

[KeithTalent]

Nice article. I'll be interested to see how this comes along, it could be something I would use.

KT

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Anything new on this?

Everything seems like smoke to me.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I think it's more of a proof that it can work. I imagine cable companies could use this as a draw to higher speed tiers and most likely could host games at thier data centers