OnLive is convinced that cloud-gaming is the future, and when that future comes, it wants to be front and center.
Cloud-gaming company OnLive has announced that it would like to see its technology integrated with the next consoles released by Microsoft and Sony. The company, which has recently expanded to both tablet computers and mobile devices, feels as though placement on mainstream consoles would be a synergistic step forward.
“If they decide they want to use our technology, that would be a great discussion because we’ve already got the infrastructure,” said Bruce Grove, General Manager of OnLive. “We know how to do it. There are a lot of things we could bring to the table and they could bring to the table. It would certainly be a discussion we would love to have. It would be very interesting.”
OnLive has already tested its software on the PlayStation 3, back when the device still offered Linux support. According the Grove, the application worked well and would be entirely feasible to offer publicly in the future.
For those of you unfamiliar with OnLive and modern cloud gaming services in general, the platform allows gamers to play anything from their library by remotely accessing it from a home computer. Because the games are hosted and rendered by OnLive’s remote servers, it allows even low-end rigs to play high-end PC, Mac, or console games. Players get the rest of the perks of cloud storage as well, meaning remotely accessible saves, and the ability to play anything from your digital library from anywhere you’d like.
According to Grove, it’s a near certainty that the next Xbox and PS4 will be hybrid systems, splitting game distribution between cloud services and physical media. In fact, OnLive, launched just last year, was built with this shift in mind.
“We’ve built this technology to fit the growing broadband trend,” he said. “Hybrid is got to be the way they’re thinking about this. But knowing the technology works, seeing it works, they’ve also got to be thinking: This is going to be the future in some form. Just in the way with Xbox Live and multiplayer, they build them in, but not everyone takes advantage of them. It just becomes another feature that is part of the general gaming quiver.”
Clouds and media hubs certainly seem to be the way things are heading. With Xbox offering access to dozens of new services, and almost no technology company creating a device that doesn’t somehow connect to “apps,” I don’t think it would be surprising if Microsoft and Sony allow an OnLive portal via their consoles as long as they’re getting something out of the deal for themselves. Whether or not a hypothetical integration of these technologies will ever reach a foundational level, however, is a different question entirely.
Source: Eurogamer
