OnLive demonstrates PC game on-demand client for iPhone
First release will support community and social aspects
Over the past months, we've seen various tech start-ups such as OTOY and Vollee (which has since folded apparently), demonstrating they can get high end PC games such as Crysis 'working' on mobile devices.
The premise - basically cloud computing, or previously known as distributive or thin client computing - is fairly simple.
1. The high end game runs on a high end PC server.
2. The video output from the game is sent over the internet to any device that can display a video stream, such as a smartphone.
3. The game frame is displayed and the player's control inputs are sent back to the game server.
4. The game is updated on the basic of those actions.
5. The next frame of the game is processed and the output sent over the internet.
6. To go 3.
The latest company to demonstrate it can do this is OnLive, which is significant as it's generally reckoned to be the best funded and most technological advanced of the streaming game companies.
According to Venture Beat, at the Wedbush financial conference in New York, OnLive chief executive Steve Perlman demonstrated OnLive could work on two iPhones, a TV, and a PC, with people able to play the same game simultaneously, as well as participate in community activities.
At present however, the mobile ability is purely a technical demonstration with Perlman saying he had no official timeline about a commercial service for phones. The company will also need to talk to handset manufacturers.
He did confirm OnLive would be coming to mobile phones, even if the initial release would focus on community and social elements such as spectating.
Still, the concept and longterm opportunity are certainly fascinating.
"It's amazingly cool - whipping out your phone, checking out what your OnLive friends are up to, and then spectating their live game play: Unscripted live user-generated content, available anywhere," Perlman wrote on the OnLive blog in a post entitled "OnLive in the Palm of Your Hand".
[source: Venture Beat]
