There are a number of convenient similarities between OnLive's Dashboard and the back-end designed for Xbox 360.
First of all, it's got the same name; the word 'Dashboard' was virtually coined by Microsoft for the original Xbox, with the always-modest logic of the Xbox launch team being that it'd share the performance of a high-end sports car.
'Marketplace' too is the destination for purchasing games on both Microsoft and OnLive's online platforms, and the latter has rightly made sure it's got all the friend lists, player profiles and chat options gamers have come to expect as well.
Let's get the mechanics out of the way; OnLive's game streaming tech really works and is hugely impressive at home in front of the couch.
But that's almost not the point. Forget for a moment that this technology could be the future of the games industry and consider that, even if cloud gaming was a bit rubbish and stutter-filled, instantaneous Xbox Live demos would be worth Microsoft's acquisition money alone. And we're amazed it's not got its wallet out.
Being able to trial any game on the service, immediately, at the press of a button is an incredible proposition on OnLive, and we're surprised Microsoft hasn't rushed to capture the tech for its own platform.
For Xbox 360 users it'd mean investigating games they wouldn't normally try in the world of 2GB downloads, leading to more purchases for publishers and more variety for us. Everybody wins.
Arguably OnLive's next most impressive feature, and one that Microsoft must be eyeing up with envy, is the ability to watch other players' game sessions - live. That's right, if you spot your mate playing Dirt 3 after dinner this evening, with the press of an A button you can watch what he or she is up to as if they were sat in the room playing next to you.
You can even watch your chum tear round a circuit on an iPad or Android tablet if you prefer, and leave them a glistening thumbs up if you appreciate their drifting skills, or down if you don't.
You can even spectate other users who are playing games you don't own yet, offering consumers the clearest idea yet of whether they should spend cash on a new release. It's impressive stuff, and returning to Xbox Live's comparatively simple game pages after an evening's OnLive session certainly makes the 360 service feel a little lacking.
Social Issues
But there's more. What surprises us most, after all the focus Microsoft's put on social gaming in the last few years (with Twitter, Facebook and more fully integrated into Live), is that OnLive's been able to do social gaming better from the off and in a unique way that's only possible with its technology.
The OnLive game pad looks quite similar to an Xbox 360 controller - alongside the DualShock it's become the standard for console games, after all. The cloud platform's plastic joypad packs one tiny, yet crucial difference though; Play, Stop and Record buttons in between its twin analogue sticks.
Every time an OnLive player nails a perfect shot in Virtua Tennis, or manages an insane vehicle stunt in Just Cause, a press of that exciting record buttons saves the last ten seconds of gameplay and automatically uploads your 'Brag Clip' to OnLive's version of YouTube.
Comments
36 comments so far...
c3dpo on 22 Sep '11 said:
So,
MS just steal the cool "brag record" button and you're back to the top
I will be testing this to see how well it really works, as been getting mixed reports.
Till I've played for at least 6-10 hours straight on a couple of different connections and not hit the streaming data limit I'm not convinced fully.
promising and very intersting times ahead though
gmcb007 on 22 Sep '11 said:
Oh sweet jesus not another one.....
spaced73 on 22 Sep '11 said:
cant get my head round this ,why is owning nothing such a great idea,are games cheaper to buy dont lool like it,do they give you credit when you want to exchange them no,and thats the only reason why publishers will push their games on this service,if this is the future of gameing i am glad i'm in my twilight years.
steve_2003 on 22 Sep '11 said:
Onlive only arrived today and I'm sick & tired of hearing about it already, I'm sorry but I just want to spend my hard earned cash and actually have something in my possession. I can enjoy walking around gaming stores, ask for a game as a gift and have it given to me, take it to a friends house to show them, I can read the instruction book and then finally I can finish it and part exchange it towards a new title.
Onlive has just bored the hell out of me already and to be honest so has all the coverage. Know I'm going to go back to playing Uncharted, Gears of War, Halo, God of War, Forza, Super Mario Galaxy, Zelda, Resistance, Kinect Sports and so on... which are arriving on Onlive.. when?
only_777 on 22 Sep '11 said:
Does the 360 allow for youtube uploads yet?
markyR on 22 Sep '11 said:
exciting record buttons saves the last ten seconds of gameplay and automatically uploads your 'Brag Clip' to OnLive's version of YouTube.
WOW
I can show everyone who has an ON LIVE account my action, rather then the ENTIRE WORLD through You Tube..
As for the rest of this article, it's pretty much written by an Xbox hater who has VERY conveniently forgotten about Steam and Team Speak etc...
And it's also quite pathetic to state On Live have 'copied' Xbox Live, yet somehow it makes Xbox Live crap and On Live fantastic..
Please CVG, leave this garbage of the website? Let us decide for ourselves if it's any good. I'll keep my Gears Of War, Call Of Duty, Battlefield thanks very much..
Kroll_GB on 22 Sep '11 said:
I'm keeping an open mind on Onlive- for me it's going to depend on the hardware, I'm too used to slouching down on the couch and booting up the xbox to go back to PC gaming.
I was particularly worried about trying Spotify when it started up and now I'm a card carrying premium subscriber; I love the service and I think that's where I place Onlive.
Provided the money's right I may give it a crack- particularly for those games where I just want to enjoy the single player once or twice, I just really don't have the time for long MP sessions anymore.
a3HeadedMonkey on 22 Sep '11 said:
Oh I can feel the desperation CVG! You are going to put a positive spin on this Onlive scam if it kills you, aren't you?
Are you afraid that they won't want to renew their advertising campaign with you if you can't convince people this is a good idea? Or maybe you're just contracted to publish a certain amount of Onlive articles...
Either way, you're both pretty pathetic right now.
Mmmmgrolsch on 22 Sep '11 said:
This.
I would like them to write a article about why exactly Onlive is such a bad thing for us consumers and point out like myself and many others have hundreds of times.
To many morons on here that are completely deluded into thinking they are the winners by choosing onlive. This isn't a simple thing of which console to play as you will be supporting us consumers for the good which ever decision you make, as it increases competition.
but Onlive has come out and offered nothing to benefit a single person. It is the total opposite. You pay a massive amount of more cash for less! You get worse gaming quality, give ISPs a very good excuse to stop Unlimited BB deals and take a role in encouraging devs etc to rip us all off.
f**k Onlive.
Fr33Kye on 22 Sep '11 said:
This thing is gonna replace our consoles....
Anyway social wise it's like what the vita should be able to do. Streaming and whatnot. All consoles should be able to do that next generation. We should make serious strides in social connectivity with our next consoles.
TOKEN on 22 Sep '11 said:
Played onlive and it is quite impresive and it has plus and negative points,large pc multiplayer games,pc games,simple and easy.
negative is over priced games,sound quality,no pc battlefeild 2,halfife series.
Mmmmgrolsch on 22 Sep '11 said:
Also is this article a total windup?
03b2wgm on 22 Sep '11 said:
Honestly, OnLive is worth a try. I was optimistic and tried the Dirt 3 and Bioshock demos (didn't have to pay a penny to sign up or anything), and it worked very well, with no noticeable lag. The graphical quality is a slight drawback to streaming everything live (which is to be expected, especially at my internet speed
), but everything worked fine, even at full graphics settings.
Just give it a try. It literally takes a few minutes to make an account and install it, then just try one or two of the demos. You can delete it from your computer forever for all I care, just don't knock it until you try it.
It works. I hope all the console makers take this on board, because this has a lot of potential I feel. It will be a couple of years yet though before every has the interent capable of running such a service, but once everyone does, it'll instant, lag free (and hopefully the graphics will look better as well) for the whole world.
We'll see.
dazmeister on 22 Sep '11 said:
I want to buy my physical copy of Uncharted 3 this November, unwrap it, cherish it, play it in my PS3, offline and online, and once i've finished with it in 2 years time when U4 comes out, put it back in it's case and stand proudly with my collection of games i own, can play at any time, without being constantly relying on my internet connection. If anyone is serious about gaming, you will agree. What SERIOUS GAMER rents all their games, never owns any of them, has to pay a subscription to play them and has nothing to show for it? OnLive: Not now, not in 10 years either.
gmcb007 on 22 Sep '11 said:
What in sweet jesus is the point of watching other people play? Seriously I want my privacy, not to recieve 20 odd thumbs down because i've paused. Plus, wouldn't that mean I would technically be live streaming as well as streaming the actual game? That's a bit of a strain on a wifi setup with multiple users. If they really think this is the future then they need to wake up and smell the coffee.
This is not a contender with consoles, it's a gimmick with too much flaws.
delmariachi on 22 Sep '11 said:
Just gave it a try... Its telling me i'm suffering from intermitent dropouts.. Errr. no Onlive but thanks for trying anyway. I'll stick to my console or HDD ta..
MattSwain on 22 Sep '11 said:
I can see a situation where Sony and MS overlook OnLive and get caught with their pants down if it takes off in much the same way that Nintendo and Sony have been caught napping by Apple in the handheld market, still trying to flog games for premium prices when the world has moved on. OnLive may not be for everyone but it's going to be more attractive to some than the price of a new console and £30+ for new games. I hope it succeeds cos more competition is a good thing.
For now I like the idea of being able to try new demos without the huge downloads but as I've got a PS3 and a 360 then I'm unlikely to drop them for OnLive. When they're no longer current-gen then we'll see.
ChotaDon on 22 Sep '11 said:
hmmm maybe Microsoft will buy Onlive and shut it down for good.
Dragon Furry on 22 Sep '11 said:
No matter how good Onlive might be. It is still depended on one having a active net. If your cable is down for the week or more because some road worker cut it over. You can still enjoy your Xbox or PS3 games.
Plus... as long as there is collectors alive.. there will be the need for physical game you can bring home.
damoxuk on 22 Sep '11 said:
Hard Copies or no $$$
Downloading Digital games to play at your leisure is one thing - streaming games (constantly downloading/uploading will make ISP's s**t hedgehog's).
Onlive I see is for people with weak PC's/laptops/netbooks. The rest not so much.
It's niche until next gen when Sony/MS will probably integrate similar services along with hard copies in there next gen consoles.
humanhand on 22 Sep '11 said:
Amen.
tmulford on 22 Sep '11 said:
This part of the article seems to sum it up for me. Onlive seems to me to be a company looking to get a foot in the door and then be acquired by a larger company (Sony, Nintendo, EA, Activision, someone anyway) once they've proved the technology is viable. Judging by the way that CVG is plugging Onlive as the future, of which I remain very sceptical, it would seem that they have stake in it Onlive's future.
Nitramuse on 23 Sep '11 said:
No, but I saw on Major Nelsons last played list a Youtube icon. So I think it'll be possible in the next dashupdate. Or maybe just downloads, dunno..
ricflair on 23 Sep '11 said:
Come on CVG, say what you really think, you're not Onlive's PR company. You realise you're basically lying to your readers when you say "it really works" - it doesn't. There is lag/stuttering in the controls that you would simply not accept in a PC/console game and you f**king know it.
And why is there an onlive section? Are they getting exclusive games now? Surely it can just be part of the PC section as they are PC games.
This site is so s**t sometimes.
Sangor on 23 Sep '11 said:
Does Andy Robinson work for onlive? what a crock of s**te article. While were on the subject, has cvg become the new advertising arm of onlive.
Barca Azul on 23 Sep '11 said:
Im clearly getting too old and going to go a bit Dennis Leary
I dont want digital downloads only (I like competitive games shopping), Id rather jam wasps in my a$$ than sign up to social media and being spied on by people whilst gaming. I play 95% of my time offline, playing single player, due to time constrictions and enjoyment level. I want a physical boxed game for Christmas, I want all media funcions I have today from my box under the TV.
I want something that looks HD when I play it on my expensive TV, its the reason i bought it! I want Spain to catch up with Fibre optics internet at a price that doesnt involve a small loan. I want the reason i die in a game to be because im crap, not that my connection has dropped.
and Finally, you can stick all cloud apps where the sun doesnt shine, im not interested in keeping my stuff somewhere thats open to the world and his wife to hack into it in one massive Database!
Yellowstreak on 23 Sep '11 said:
Had a look at onLive last night. I approached it as sceptical as everyone else but came away pretty impressed. Although the graphics on my laptop screen were not as sharp as on my HD TV - I was playing games my little laptop could never hope to run with no lag or dropouts across a wireless connection.
It's not quite there yet but I really think that this could make the next generation of consoles obsolete before they're even here.
I think everyone needs to wake up and face the fact that the days of physical media are most definitely numbered. It's starting to sound like all the people who clung to their vinyl records, convinced that CD's would never replace them completely. We think nothing now of ditching our CD's for downloaded music, films are going the same way. It's inevietable that games will follow. The biggest stumbling block on this to date has been the sheer size of a game download compared to a music album.
How often do you really go back to a game after you've finished it? Obviously the multiplayer titles would hang around longer but whenever I go back to older games for a bit of online gaming, there's no one there - the community has moved on to the next big title. I do think the trade-in argument has weight though although the 2nd hand games market is killing the industry because none of that cash goes back to the publisher/developer - it all goes in the shop keepers pocket. Maybe some sort of loyalty scheme needs to be put in place (get every 5th game you buy free for example).
This kind of streaming technology is only going to get better and I could see the next Sony and MS console employing this distribution method - at least as well as if not instead of physical media.
A console that can uses the cloud can play games from any platform, the hardware never really gets out of date and it would cost a fraction of the price of our current consoles because it doesn't need the super powerful graphics CPU's we have now.
I think onLive's biggest obstacle is that it is not in MS,Sony (or Nintendo for that matter) interests to allow their games to be up there. I think this will always make it a minority product. What they have done is prove that this concept WORKS and I DO think that it will give the big 3 serious pause for thought about what they do next.
ricflair on 23 Sep '11 said:
I haven't bought a CD for years, I only buy vinyl (as I like the physical item) and have never used itunes etc in my life.
Everyone I know who has tried it has found lag that ruins the experience, either people don't notice the lag (I don't see how they can't though) or it is so hit and miss, either way it's a deal breaker - I won't even pay the £1 for the special offer as the lag makes it pointless - I wouldn't play them if they were free if they lag.
The tech is snazzy, but we're not there yet and hopefully they'll go under before it is so this site and go back to writing baiting articles instead of somehow trying to convince their readers onlive offers something that it doesn't.
StonecoldMC on 23 Sep '11 said:
Everyone going a little bit Loco here
?
ricflair on 23 Sep '11 said:
I've no problem with the service, another option is fair enough if it suits the buyer's needs.
I just disabled adblocker for the site and now it all makes sense.
Yellowstreak on 23 Sep '11 said:
If nothing else - this topic seems to have united the fanboys and given them a common enemy. It's nice to read a comments page that doesn't just degenerate into childish "my consoles better than yours" sniping.
RichPerry on 23 Sep '11 said:
It's good to see some positive comments about OnLive, finally. Christ, you'd think OnLive came and ripped the money from your wallets themselves, then shat on your carpet and shagged your mum judging by all of the angry things I've seen posted about a service that has been available in the UK for two days.
I'm willing to give it a try - if nothing else, free streaming demos is worth the free sign-up. And I love snooping on the gameplay of other people.
CJG on 23 Sep '11 said:
You ever notice how people in the back of the line are the most vocal? Onlive still has yet to take down the Wii and they want to trash talk Live and PSN. IMO the only reason Onlive is trashing so much is because they are desperate and the service is about to fail.
gmcb007 on 23 Sep '11 said:
Their trash talking is the reason I don't like it. This isn't the next step in gaming nor is it a console killer yet they act like we should be thanking them. That and also the fact it's being rammed down our throat on this site.
Mmmmgrolsch on 23 Sep '11 said:
Same here dude. I can't bring myself to pay £1 as the games don't work well enough. They've done something today though with the image quality.
Anyway Onlive have done nothing for us as consumers. Why do I want to give them my cash for a very inferior service? I'd rather go back to last gen tbh/
jtthegame on 24 Sep '11 said:
The reason i come to cvg is because on occasionally they have a good bit of gaming news but i lately it seems to be a load of drival written by xbox haters. enough with it already and get back to reporting the news.