Bruce P. Mehlman
David Sutphen
Larry Irving
Broadband Fact Book
Special Reports
The Internet Regulation Debate
The National Broadband Plan
The Digital Divide
Jobs and Investment
Data Calculator
Sign the Petition
IIA Broadband Symposium
IIA Internet Academy
Press Releases
Most Recent PostsA Gaming Revolution
As with music and journalism, the multi-billion dollar video games industry is facing changes due to the spread of high-speed Internet. Already, Sony has started making the shift to download-only games with its new handheld device the PSP Go, and now OnLive, a new service that kicks traditional game discs to the curb in favor of “cloud gaming” has received a jolt in funding from the likes of Warner Bros. entertainment and AT&T. Reports the Wall Street Journal:
OnLive has developed technology that it says will allow consumers to play graphically rich videogames without owning high-end PCs or consoles like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 that are normally required for such titles. Instead OnLive plans to run games on powerful remote servers in data centers and pipe high-definition game graphics over the Internet to consumers, who can play them on low-end PCs and Macs or through an inexpensive OnLive device connected to their televisions.
Questions remain about whether OnLive will be crippled by bandwidth issues—certainly a concern, given the amount of data-intensive services already challenging Internet providers. But traditional video game stores such as Gamestop, which count on the used games industry for a substantial amount of their revenue, are surely paying close attention to OnLive’s progress.
