OnLive Denies It's Shutting Down, Won't Comment on Layoffs

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Jane McEntegart
Jane McEntegart
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Jane McEntegart is a writer, editor, and marketing communications professional with 17 years of experience in the technology industry. She has written about a wide range of technology topics, including smartphones, tablets, and game consoles. Her articles have been published in Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, MobileSyrup, and Edge Up.

23 Comments Comment from the forums
  • sacre
    Doesn't surprise me. Although the idea is just amazing, no longer would you need powerful computers, you can play all games instantly through this service.. the lag was the killer.

    I tried it, and although awesome, it sucked a LOT of bandwidth and there was always a lag with the input instantly killing all first person shooters, somewhat good for racing games.

    I don't think this service is ready for todays internet. Maybe in 10 years we'll see all internet connections at the 100mpbs+ mark, maybe then we'll see some insane gaming sessions done on crappy small laptops.
    Reply
  • beardguy
    Proof that "the cloud" still is not a plausible replacement for real hardware.

    Even if this technology were perfected, I still can't see a ton of people using it.
    Reply
  • alidan
    sacreDoesn't surprise me. Although the idea is just amazing, no longer would you need powerful computers, you can play all games instantly through this service.. the lag was the killer.I tried it, and although awesome, it sucked a LOT of bandwidth and there was always a lag with the input instantly killing all first person shooters, somewhat good for racing games. I don't think this service is ready for todays internet. Maybe in 10 years we'll see all internet connections at the 100mpbs+ mark, maybe then we'll see some insane gaming sessions done on crappy small laptops.
    you need to live within 50 miles of one of the onlive datacenters to get the best...
    raceing games are unplayable on a competitive level or the high end single player, because of lag
    fps games are more manageable, but not online, single player fps games are ok though
    where the service shines is with games that don't require precise down to the ms decisions.

    if the internet was better and they had datacenters for all major cities at least, you would probably see pc game renting become far more popular, to the point it may take a chunk of piracy out.
    Reply
  • mrkay
    Service is pretty cool on my tablet. Maybe steam should buy them up along with gamefly.
    Reply
  • robochump
    beardguyProof that "the cloud" still is not a plausible replacement for real hardware. Even if this technology were perfected, I still can't see a ton of people using it.
    Not until everyone has 20 mbps speed. OnLive is just ahead of its time and I forgot it existed until this news post...lol. I just vaguely recall some ads but nothing in the last year or so. Its too bad, hate to see good ideas fade, though I am sure PC hardware companies like Intel is all smiles....heh.
    Reply
  • alidan
    beardguyProof that "the cloud" still is not a plausible replacement for real hardware. Even if this technology were perfected, I still can't see a ton of people using it.
    with videogames, no, its not there yet.
    but lets say that someday your computer is just a hub to the internet and that's where everything happens. general computing could work as of today for the cloud, and input and lag aren't really a problem.
    Reply
  • Fokissed
    beardguyProof that "the cloud" still is not a plausible replacement for real hardware. Even if this technology were perfected, I still can't see a ton of people using it.It's more so proof that the internet has too much latency for video game input, which is really the only reason that this failed.
    Edit: also, the huge amounts of bandwidth it uses can be a problem for some people.
    Reply
  • beardguy
    I hear you guys on the latency issues etc. that made OnLive just not plausible right now.

    But I still see too many issues that will prevent the cloud from taking over even in the next 10 years. What happens if your internet connection goes out? What if your PC is literally a "dumb terminal" in the future not capable of running anything with it's own processing/gpu power? I mean you couldn't even cache your apps/games locally because your computer wouldn't be capable of handling it on it's own. There are no fail safes in place right now, it's not like you have a backup internet connection you can switch to, if it goes out you would be totally hosed.

    I just don't see it happening anytime soon. MUCH more likely imo would be a local home "cloud server" that would cache and serve up the data. This local cloud server could always be syncing with the internet cloud and when the connection drops out, you would still be good to go.

    Any technology that relies solely on a 24/7 internet connection is a fail. At least for now and the foreseeable future until we have really fast and rock solid internet connections available.
    Reply
  • buckcm
    robochumpNot until everyone has 20 mbps speed. OnLive is just ahead of its time and I forgot it existed until this news post...lol. I just vaguely recall some ads but nothing in the last year or so. Its too bad, hate to see good ideas fade, though I am sure PC hardware companies like Intel is all smiles....heh.
    It doesn't matter that much what download / upload you have. 5 megabit down is plenty for streaming the service. It's the latency that is bad.
    Reply
  • RADIO_ACTIVE
    otacon72Dear Subscriber,We're writing you today to inform you that you exceeded your bandwidth limit last month by a wide margin. If this happens again we will charge you up the ass. That's why all these streaming sites won't last. My friend tried and hated it. It sucked so much bandwidth and the lag was ridiculous.They would if ISPs build their networks to support it... Thankfully I have Surewest and they have no caps.
    Reply