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A new competitor for Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony has emerged after 9 years under development. The OnLive Game Service and OnLive MicroConsole form a gaming-on-demand platform new to the industry. What makes this service different from Xbox Live, Steam, PlayStation Network and others is its ability to stream gameplay instantly on a TV through a microconsole or with a PC web browser via a plug-in or add-on. Basically all computers, even old ones, can let people play the latest games even without upgrading them. If connected to a TV, the microconsole could take care of your gaming needs. As with Xbox Live, players could download demos to try them and buy them if they want to. It looks like PlayCast (read this blog for more on it) won’t be the only company competing for the crowd interested in playing games without having consoles. Each one of them seem to have an advantage over the other. PlayCast may have to catch up by allowing gamers play with Internet Explorer or Firefox. Meanwhile, OnLive does need a microconsole box when played on a TV, but not with PlayCast. Could this be the future of gaming as we know it?
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Un nuevo competidor para Microsoft, Nintendo y Sony ha salido tras 9 años bajo desarrollo. El OnLive Game Service y la OnLive MicroConsole forman una nueva plataforma de juegos a pedido para la industria. Lo que lo hace este servicio diferente de Xbox Live, Steam, PlayStation Network y otros es la habilidad de transmitir el juego al instante a un TV a través de una microconsola o con un navegador de computadora via un “plug-in” o un complemento (add-on). Básicamente, todas las computadoras, hasta las antiguas, pueden permitir a la gente a jugar los últimos juegos hasta sin actualizarlas. Si está conectada a un TV, la microconsola podría encargarse de sus necesidades para jugar. Como con el Xbox Live, los jugadores podrían descargar demostraciones para probarlos y comprarlos si los quieren. Parece que PlayCast no será la úinca compañía compitiendo por la multitud interesada en jugar juegos sin tener consolas. Cada uno de esos parace tener una ventaja sobre el otro. PlayCast tal vez tenga que ponerse al día permitiendo a que los jugadores jueguen con Internet Explorer o Firefox. Mientras tanto, OnLive sí necesita una caja microconsola cuando se juega en la tele, pero con PlayCast no. ¿Podría ser esto el futuro de los videojuegos?
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Instant, High-performance Gameplay
“OnLive is the most powerful game system in the world. No high-end hardware, no upgrades, no endless downloads, no discs, no recalls, no obsolescence,” said Steve Perlman, Founder and CEO of OnLive. “With OnLive, your video game experience is always state-of-the-art.”
Designed for gamers of all skills and ages, the OnLive Game Service is easy to use. The elegantly designed OnLive MicroConsole—about as small as a deck of cards—easily connects any TV and home broadband connection to the OnLive Game Service and is operated by an OnLive wireless controller. Gamers can enjoy the same experience on almost any Internet-connected PC or Mac via a small browser plug-in from OnLive.com—even entry-level computers will play the highest performance games. Whether on TV, PC or Mac, OnLive provides instant access to the most advanced games in the world, solo and multiplayer.
“OnLive combines the successful components of video games, online distribution and social networking into one affordable, flexible platform that offers a new way for game fans to access and enjoy content,” said Mike McGarvey, COO of OnLive. “By substantially lowering the barriers between content and consumers, OnLive has created an environment that is highly beneficial for every facet of the video game ecosystem. With OnLive, gamers can play what they want, when they want, how they want. That level of freedom has never been possible until now.”
Vibrant Community on a Massive Scale
The OnLive Game Service supports a live community of unprecedented scale. A revolutionary user interface allows video game fans to watch thousands of live games in action, join in at any point, share their exploits with friends through social networking tools, or make Brag Clips™ that showcase their skills. With OnLive, gamers have immediate access to demos and can instantly try, buy and play top-tier games, whether playing solo or with friends.
Benefitting the Game Ecosystem
“With OnLive we’ve cleared the last remaining hurdle for the video games industry: effective online distribution,” said Steve Perlman, Founder and CEO of OnLive. “By putting the value back into the games themselves and removing the reliance on expensive, short-lived hardware, we are dramatically shifting the economics of the industry. Delivering games instantly to the digital living room is the promise game fans have been waiting for and OnLive makes that promise a reality that’s affordable, flexible and focused on their individual needs.”
OnLive offers significant benefits to publishers and developers. It costs far less to develop a game for OnLive, and the economics are far more efficient than retail or download distribution models. It typically only takes a few weeks to extend an existing version of a game to work on the OnLive service, so there is little cost incurred by developers and publishers to support the OnLive platform.
Through a partnership with Epic Games, an industry leading developer of triple-A games and cross-platform game engine technology, the award-winning Unreal® Engine 3 is compatible with the OnLive platform. Games leveraging the cutting-edge technology and versatility of the Unreal Engine will easily run on the OnLive service.
Play Top Games from Top Names
OnLive will be showing 16 great titles playable during the 2009 Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco at the OnLive Booth, North Hall #5128.
Coming Soon…
The OnLive Game Service will be offered through a monthly subscription in Winter 2009. OnLive will be available in a variety of different pricing packages and tiers, competitively priced to retail.
About OnLive
OnLive is the pioneer of on demand game services, delivering real-time interactive experiences and rich media through the Internet. Today, OnLive is developing solutions and services specifically for the video games industry, with the world’s first video game on demand platform, the OnLive Game Service, launching later this year. With groundbreaking, patent-pending video compression technology, OnLive harnesses cloud computing to provide the power and intelligence needed to instantly deliver the latest, high-end games titles directly to TVs via a sleek, inexpensive MicroConsole, or on PCs and Macs. Founded by noted technology entrepreneur Steve Perlman (WebTV, QuickTime), and spun out of Rearden, the media and technology incubator behind MOVA, Ice Blink Studios and Moxi, OnLive spent seven years in stealth development before officially launching in March 2009. OnLive technology is backed by over 100 patents and patents pending. The company is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA. OnLive investors include Warner Bros., Autodesk and Maverick Capital. MOVA is a wholly owned subsidiary of OnLive. More information is available at www.OnLive.com.
OnLive, Brag Clips, MicroConsole, MOVA, and Contour are trademarks or registered trademarks of OnLive, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are used by permission.
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