HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

OnLive was a
Mountain View, California Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, it has a population of 82,376. Mountain View was integral to the early history and growth of Silicon Valley, and is the ...
-based provider of
cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may co ...
virtualization In computing, virtualization or virtualisation (sometimes abbreviated v12n, a numeronym) is the act of creating a virtual (rather than actual) version of something at the same abstraction level, including virtual computer hardware platforms, stor ...
technologies. OnLive's flagship product was its
cloud gaming Cloud gaming, sometimes called gaming on demand or gaming-as-a-service or game streaming, is a type of online gaming that runs video games on remote servers and streams them directly to a user's device, or more colloquially, playing a game rem ...
service, which allowed subscribers to rent or demo computer games without installing them on their device. Games were delivered to OnLive's client software as
streaming video Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...
rendered by the service's servers, rather than rendered locally by the device. This setup allowed the games to run on computers and devices that would normally be unable to run them due to insufficient hardware, and also enabled other features such as the ability for players to record gameplay and to spectate. The service was available through clients for
personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...
s and
mobile device A mobile device (or handheld computer) is a computer small enough to hold and operate in the hand. Mobile devices typically have a flat LCD or OLED screen, a touchscreen interface, and digital or physical buttons. They may also have a physical ...
s, as well as through
smart TV A smart TV, also known as a connected TV (CTV), is a traditional television set with integrated Internet and interactive Web 2.0 features, which allows users to stream music and videos, browse the internet, and view photos. Smart TVs are a techno ...
s and a dedicated
video game console A video game console is an electronic device that Input/output, outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home video game console, home consoles, which are generally placed i ...
-styled device known as the OnLive Game System. OnLive also expanded into the cloud desktop market with a sister product, OnLive Desktop—a subscription service offering a cloud-based instance of
Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2008 R2 is the fifth version of the Windows Server operating system produced by Microsoft and released as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became General av ...
accessible via tablets. The OnLive service received mixed reception. Critics noted that the video quality and amount of
input lag Input lag or input latency is the amount of time that passes between sending an electrical signal and the occurrence of a corresponding action. In video games the term is often used to describe any latency between an input and either the game or ...
Depending on your Internet connection and varied on a game-by-game basis and did not consider OnLive to be a complete substitute to owning games and playing them on local hardware due to these inconsistencies and other factors that prospective users may consider such as the overall cost of the service as opposed to simply upgrading their existing computers. Critics praised the service for allowing users to demo games without the need to install them along with its built-in spectator mode. On April 2, 2015, it was announced that
Sony Computer Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), formerly known as Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), is a multinational video game and digital entertainment company wholly owned by multinational conglomerate Sony. The SIE Group is made up of two legal co ...
(now known as
Sony Interactive Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), formerly known as Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), is a multinational video game industry, video game and digital entertainment company wholly owned by multinational conglomerate Sony. The SIE Group is ma ...
) had acquired OnLive's
patents A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
, and that all OnLive services would be discontinued on April 30, 2015. Sony operated
PlayStation Now PlayStation Now (PS Now) was a standalone video game subscription service the first on consoles developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The service offered cloud gaming for PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable a ...
, a similar service built using the infrastructure of
Gaikai is an American company which provides technology for the streaming of high-end video games. Its technology has multiple applications, including in-home streaming over a local wired or wireless network (as in Remote Play between the PlayStation ...
, a former competitor to OnLive, until it was merged with PS Plus in 2022.


Gaming platform

The game service was available via the
OnLive Game System OnLive was a Mountain View, California-based provider of cloud computing, cloud X86 virtualization, virtualization technologies. OnLive's flagship product was its cloud gaming service, which allowed subscribers to rent or demo video games, comput ...
and a number of different device categories: * Windows PCs: PCs running
Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...
,
Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...
,
Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released nearly ...
, or
Windows 8 Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012; it was subsequently made available for downl ...
(including Windows 8 with Bing for low cost devices such as the HP Stream). * Apple Macintosh:
Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
-based Macs running
Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...
10.6 or later. * Smartphones: Android smartphones running Android 3.2 or later. * Tablets: Android tablets running Android 3.2 or later. The OnLive Android player app was released to the
Android Market Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android operating sys ...
on December 7, 2011. * Gaming-centric tablet devices: Wikipad, Nvidia Shield, and Nvidia Shield tablet. * Android TV: OnLive announced that the OnLive Game Service will be pre-installed on Philip's new line of Android-based smart TVs. OnLive is also compatible with various Android set-top boxes for TVs (MadCatz M.O.J.O.). * Connected TVs: OnLive announced that the OnLive Game Service will be integrated into new VIZIO VIA Plus TVs along with LG TVs and GoogleTV. * Internet connected media players: Amazon's Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, VIZIO Co-Star, and VIZIO's line of VIA Blu-ray players. A web browser based demo service was also available for Windows PCs and
Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
-based Macs running
Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...
10.5.8 or later enabling trials of games to be played without the need to download the OnLive Client. The service was also demonstrated on the Apple iPhone. Network requirements: * The service required a 2 Mbit/s Internet connection (5 Mbit/s or higher recommended) with low latency. * OnLive initially required a wired connection. On September 15, 2010
beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; grc, βῆτα, bē̂ta or ell, βήτα, víta) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labiod ...
Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wave ...
support was made available to all members.


OnLive Game System

The OnLive Game System consisted of an OnLive Wireless Controller and a
console Console may refer to: Computing and video games * System console, a physical device to operate a computer ** Virtual console, a user interface for multiple computer consoles on one device ** Command-line interface, a method of interacting with ...
, called the "MicroConsole TV Adapter", that could be connected to a television and directly to the OnLive service, so it was possible to use the service without a computer. It came with the accessories needed to connect the equipment, and composite video users could purchase an additional optional cable. The MicroConsole supported up to four wireless controllers and multiple
Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...
headsets. It also had two USB ports for game controllers, keyboards, mice, and USB hubs. For video and audio output it provided
component Circuit Component may refer to: •Are devices that perform functions when they are connected in a circuit.   In engineering, science, and technology Generic systems * System components, an entity with discrete structure, such as an assem ...
,
HDMI High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant source device, such as a display controller, ...
,
TOSLINK TOSLINK (from ''Toshiba Link'') is a standardized optical fiber connector system. Also known generically as optical audio, its most common use is in consumer audio equipment (via a "digital optical" socket), where it carries a digital audio st ...
ports, and an analog stereo minijack. An
Ethernet Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...
port was used for network access, which was required to access the OnLive service. Pre-orders for the OnLive Game System began to be taken on November 17, 2010. File:OnLive controller.jpg File:OnLive MicroConsole TV Adapter top.jpg File:OnLive MicroConsole TV Adapter end 1.jpg File:OnLive MicroConsole TV Adapter end 2.jpg


PlayPack flat-rate plan

OnLive confirmed the details of its PlayPack flat-rate payment plan on December 2, 2010. With this option players pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to "recent, classic and indie titles" in the OnLive library, which includes new releases. PlayPack subscribers also receive a 30% off discount toward purchase of OnLive merchandise excluding PlayPack membership fees. This discount can be applied to sale items, OnLive wireless controllers, and the OnLive Game System.


Desktop service

On January 10 at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, OnLive announced "OnLive Desktop". OnLive Desktop used
desktop virtualization Desktop virtualization is a software technology that separates the desktop environment and associated application software from the physical client device that is used to access it. Desktop virtualization can be used in conjunction with applicatio ...
technology to create a remotely hosted
Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2008 is the fourth release of the Windows Server operating system produced by Microsoft as part of the Windows NT family of the operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on February 4, 2008, and generally to retail on Fe ...
desktop environment In computing, a desktop environment (DE) is an implementation of the desktop metaphor made of a bundle of programs running on top of a computer operating system that share a common graphical user interface (GUI), sometimes described as a graphica ...
. On March 12, 2012, Microsoft told OnLive that its OnLive Desktop service was a violation of the Windows 7 license agreement, and threatened legal action, contending that the license agreement did not permit the use of Windows 7 as a hosted client, nor for Office to be provided as a service on Windows 7 since this would be only allowed using
Windows Server Windows Server (formerly Windows NT Server) is a group of operating systems (OS) for servers that Microsoft has been developing since July 27, 1993. The first OS that was released for this platform was Windows NT 3.1 Advanced Server. With the r ...
and
Terminal Services Remote Desktop Services (RDS), known as Terminal Services in Windows Server 2008 and earlier, is one of the components of Microsoft Windows that allow a user to initiate and control an interactive session on a remote computer or virtual machine ...
. On April 7, 2012 it was discovered that the OnLive Desktop Service had changed and had begun to use Windows Server 2008, bringing it into license compliance.


Architecture

In the U.S., OnLive was hosted in five co-located North American data centers. There were facilities in
Santa Clara, California Santa Clara (; Spanish for " Saint Clare") is a city in Santa Clara County, California. The city's population was 127,647 at the 2020 census, making it the eighth-most populous city in the Bay Area. Located in the southern Bay Area, the cit ...
and
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
, with additional facilities in
Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...
, as well as
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
, and
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...
. OnLive stated that users must be located within of one of these to receive high-quality service. The hardware used was a custom setup consisting of OnLive's proprietary video compression chip as well as standard PC CPU and
GPU A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobi ...
chips. For older, or lower-performance, games such as ''
Lego Batman Lego Batman was a theme and product range of the Lego construction toy, introduced in 2006, based on the superhero character Batman, under license from DC Comics. The sets feature vehicles, characters and scenes from the comics and films. The i ...
'', multiple instances could be played on each server using virtualization technology. High-end games such as ''
Assassin's Creed II ''Assassin's Creed II'' is a 2009 action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montréal and published by Ubisoft. It is the second major installment in the ''Assassin's Creed'' series, and the sequel to 2007's '' Assassin's Creed''. The g ...
'' required one GPU per game. Two video streams are created for each game. One (the live stream) is optimised for gameplay and real-world Internet conditions, while the other (the media stream) was a full HD stream that was server-side and used for spectators or for gamers to record videos of their gameplay.


International availability

The service was launched in the United Kingdom on September 22, 2011 in partnership with
British Telecom BT Group plc (trade name, trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is th ...
as a bundled service with their broadband packages. The company planned to make its service available in the rest of Europe as well.Onlive could spell trouble for pc makers- The Inquirer
/ref>


History

OnLive was announced at the
Game Developers Conference The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival, and a variety of tutori ...
in 2009. The service was originally planned for release in the winter of 2009. OnLive's original investors include
Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
,
Autodesk Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that makes software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquartered ...
and Maverick Capital. A later round of financing included AT&T Media Holdings, Inc. and Lauder Partners as well as the original investors. In May 2010, it was announced that
British Telecom BT Group plc (trade name, trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is th ...
and
Belgacom The Proximus Group is a provider of digital services and communication in Belgium and the international markets. In Belgium, its main products and services are offered under the Proximus, Scarlet, and Mobile Vikings brands. The Group is also ac ...
invested in and partnered with OnLive. On March 10, 2010, OnLive announced the OnLive Game Service would launch on June 17, 2010, in the US, and the monthly service fee would be US$14.95. At launch the membership option available was through
AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...
's Founding Members promotion, which provides the service for free for the first year and US$4.95 per month for the optional following year. On October 4, 2010, OnLive announced that there would no longer be any subscription fees for the service. On March 11, 2010, OnLive CEO Steve Perlman announced the OnLive Game Portal, a free way to access OnLive games for rental and demos, but without the social features of the Game Service. It was stated that it would roll out later in 2010 after the OnLive Game Service launch. The OnLive Game Service was launched in the United States on June 17, 2010. Shortly afterwards, on December 10 Onlive was awarded a patent for cloud gaming The US Patent Office. The service was launched in the United Kingdom on September 22, 2011. On January 10 at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, OnLive announced "OnLive Desktop". OnLive Desktop used virtualization technology to create a remotely hosted Windows 7
desktop A desktop traditionally refers to: * The surface of a desk (often to distinguish office appliances that fit on a desk, such as photocopiers and printers, from larger equipment covering its own area on the floor) Desktop may refer to various compu ...
.


Layoffs and buyout

On August 17, 2012 the company laid off all of its employees. OnLive entered into a proceeding known as an "Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors", wherein OnLive shareholders lost their stakes in the company. OnLive then sold off its assets and started a new company, also called OnLive. On August 20, 2012 the company officially revealed Lauder Partners as the buyer. On August 27, 2012, founder Steve Perlman stepped down as CEO, Gary Lauder became Chairman, and Charlie Jablonski, former VP of Operations, was appointed COO and acting CEO. It was revealed in October of that year that OnLive was sold for only $4.8 million. For a company that analysts once estimated was worth approximately $1.8 billion, there was some surprise at the low figure for which the company was sold. Some analysts speculated that the true value of the patents held by the company was potentially in the hundreds of millions of dollars, but that the firm's poor bargaining position led to the cheap sale.


Relaunch

In March 2014 the company hired a new CEO, Mark Jung and released a new gaming service, CloudLift. Cloudlift links to selected titles in a player's game library and allows the player resume gameplay on another device.


Sale to Sony and Shut down

On April 3, 2015, OnLive announced it had sold most of its assets to
Sony Computer Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), formerly known as Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), is a multinational video game and digital entertainment company wholly owned by multinational conglomerate Sony. The SIE Group is made up of two legal co ...
and would be shutting down all services on April 30, 2015.


Reception


Pre-launch

Soon after the company's announcement at GDC 2009, there was skepticism expressed by game journalists. They were concerned about how the OnLive service might work and what the quality of the service might be. Both in terms of the hardware required in OnLive server centers to render and compress the video, as well as the impact of commercial Internet broadband connections on its delivery. During GDC 2009, which was held in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, the OnLive service was from its Santa Clara data center. The closed beta had "hundreds of users on the system". Near E3 in 2009, which is approximately away from their data center, OnLive demonstrated their service performed well with a consumer cable modem and Internet connection. Matt Peckham from ''
PC World ''PC World'' (stylized as PCWorld) is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. Since 2013, it has been an online only publication. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal tech ...
'' stated in his blog that it might be technically difficult to transfer the amount of data that a high definition game would require. He stated he believed OnLive customers would need a broadband line with "guaranteed, non-shared, uninterruptible speed", but "broadband isn't there yet, nor are ISPs willing to offer performance guarantees". He also mentioned his concerns that the mod community would be unable to create and offer mods since all game data will be stored on the OnLive servers, and that games played on OnLive might not be "owned" by the user, and thus if OnLive were to go under, all the user's games would be inaccessible. Cevat Yerli, the CEO of
Crytek Crytek GmbH is a German video game developer and software developer based in Frankfurt. Founded by the Yerli brothers in Coburg in 1999 and moved to Frankfurt in 2006, Crytek also operates further studios in Kyiv, Ukraine and Istanbul, Turkey. ...
, had researched a method for streaming games but concluded that Crytek's approach would not be viable until 2013 "at earliest". Yerli made it clear Crytek was not directly involved with the OnLive service, and Yerli had no personal experience using the service. Rather, Electronic Arts, the publisher of Crytek's ''
Crysis Warhead ''Crysis Warhead'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by the Hungarian studio Crytek Budapest and published by Electronic Arts. ''Crysis Warhead'' is a stand-alone expansion game and does not require the installation of the original ...
'', had partnered with OnLive and had tested and endorsed the OnLive technology. Yerli stated:
Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 and owned by alongside formed company Gamer Network. Its editor-in-chief is Martin Robinson. Since 2008, it is known for the formerly eponymous games trade fair EGX ...
's Digital Foundry was amongst the most harshly skeptical in an article published upon OnLive's unveiling and public demonstration entitled, "GDC: Why OnLive Can't Possibly Work" by Digital Foundry's Richard Leadbetter. The article's analysis characterized OnLive as a faked demo that was technically impossible to accomplish over a consumer Internet connection.


Post-launch

After the launch of the service in the United States, favorable reviews by game journalists stated that the service performed well, and they looked forward to the service improving over time. Hiawatha Bray of ''
The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' stated, "It felt exactly as if I had installed the software on my local computer." Chris Holt of
Macworld ''Macworld'' is a website dedicated to products and software of Apple Inc., published by Foundry, a subsidiary of IDG Inc. It started life as a print magazine in 1984 and had the largest audited circulation (both total and newsstand) of Macint ...
, in his review of ''Assassin's Creed II'' on OnLive using his Mac, wrote that he looks forward to future higher resolution improvements that are already promised, he "never encountered any frame rate issues," and "the game is on the whole every bit as immersive, rewarding, and free as the console version."
Dan Ackerman Dan Ackerman (born March 13, 1974) is a former radio DJ turned technology and video game journalist. Ackerman resides in New York City and has written about video games and gadgets for publications including ''SPIN'', ''Blender'', ''WWE Magazine ...
of
CNET ''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and televi ...
wrote that, "OnLive was an overall very impressive experience, and several minds around the CNET offices were officially blown – a difficult task among this jaded bunch." In examining latency,
Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 and owned by alongside formed company Gamer Network. Its editor-in-chief is Martin Robinson. Since 2008, it is known for the formerly eponymous games trade fair EGX ...
's Digital Foundry initial test found that in some of their test scenarios, users of OnLive could expect 150ms of latency over a consumer Internet connection; however, they also noted inconsistencies, in that some games had higher latency, and that this would also depend on the quality of the customer's internet connection. Furthermore, they also noted that while acceptable, these values ran contrary to figures suggested by OnLive before release of lag "being under 80ms" and "usually... between 35-40ms". In their later full-feature article on OnLive, Digital Foundry noted that "during intense gameplay, OnLive is hovering right at the boundary of what is acceptable lag and often exceeds it, resulting in a variable, often unsatisfactory experience", but that "the latency level is probably the most pleasant surprise with this system. Let's be clear: it is most definitely not a replacement for the local experience, but if the system can be tightened up and that 150ms becomes the norm, then it's clear there is potential here for the infrastructure to find a home with certain types of game or certain types of player".Digital Foundry vs. OnLive – Page 2 | Digital Foundry | Eurogamer.net
/ref> In terms of video quality, Digital Foundry noted that video compression meant image quality also varied depending on the title. Games with a lower number of frame-to-frame differences, or games where such changes were less important, such as ''
Assassin's Creed II ''Assassin's Creed II'' is a 2009 action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montréal and published by Ubisoft. It is the second major installment in the ''Assassin's Creed'' series, and the sequel to 2007's '' Assassin's Creed''. The g ...
'' or '' Batman: Arkham Asylum'' fared well, with these games being "strongly suited to video compression" and "cut-scenes in particular can look very good". However, games that had a greater amount of motion or relied on fast reactions, such as '' Colin McRae: Dirt'', ''
Dirt 3 ''Dirt 3'' (stylised as ''DiRT 3'') is a simcade racing video game developed and published by Codemasters for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It was the first game in the series without the ''Colin McRae'' moniker. A sequel, DiRT 4 ...
'' or '' Unreal Tournament 3'' fared less well, with questions about the playability of the latter when video compression artifacts were taken into account. Digital Foundry felt that the quality of rendering was mostly good, with high frame rates, but with less consistency than console counterparts and with screen-tearing in some scenarios. ''Gaming Examiner'' judged that the graphics were like "playing a PlayStation 3 on a 480p standard efinitionTV", that they thought that they experienced much lower framerates than expected, and that the controller was not working reliably. After the launch in United Kingdom, ''
Computer and Video Games ''Computer and Video Games'' (also known as ''CVG'', ''Computer & Video Games'', ''C&VG'', ''Computer + Video Games'', or ''C+VG'') was a UK-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot website ...
'' remarked that, after one month of use, the service was "working" and was adequate for trying or renting a game, but that it was not a substitute for owning a game on another platform due to the limitations imposed by internet connections (lag, freezing and smeary visuals, as well as high data usage for those on capped connections).


References


External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Onlive American companies established in 2010 Cloud gaming services Cloud gaming companies Microconsoles Eighth-generation video game consoles Computer-related introductions in 2010 2010 establishments in California