A Consoleless Gaming World?

Imagine a world where top spec video games can be played on a netbook, or directly onto your pc; without a high end graphics card, or processor, or lots of RAM. A world where all games are delivered to your PC, Mac, or Settop Box through the internet. Now, how long do you think it will be until this happens? 5 Years, 10 Years, More? Nope… 6 Months; if OnLive (www.onlive.com) are to be believed.

OnLive could be the service that makes this all come true, and it is set to be released later this year. The service uses remote servers to render the game (with 1ms latency) and then transfer the data over the internet to any Windows (XP or Vista) PC or Mac. Over a 1.5Mbps connection you would be able to get graphics similar to that seen on the Wii, with a 5Mbps or higher connection speed offering a true High Definition gaming experience. The hardware in the machine you play on would only need to be enough to connect to the internet, the rest is dealt with by the servers.

But what if you dont want to use a PC for gaming? You dont have to. OnLive are also releasing a games console using this service, called the MicroConsole. This machine will give you all the stuff you need to play the games, including bluetooth for voice chat, optical audio out for HD sound, and HDMI for high definition video. All of this is supposedly going to cost less than a Nintendo Wii. Mix this with 9 signed developers already, and the potential more and you have a very cool platform that could see the future of video gaming change forever.

No high-end hardware, no upgrades, no endless downloads, no discs, no recalls, no obsolescence. With OnLive, your video game experience is always state-of-the-art

Steve Perlman, Company Founder

So, we have a cheap way of playing brand new games on a low end computing device, that connects to your TV for high definition gaming. There must be a catch, right… And there is (kinda), the service is subject to a monthly subscription. Available at different levels and tarrifs at a price level competitive to retail. We just hope that this service delivers on all that it promises, and that we will be able to try it out for real in the second half of 2009.