Valve and OnLive are Friends

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OnLive, the cloud game company, recently spoke with CVG about their relationship with Valve and how the two companies have become friends in the biz. Valve's Gabe Newell has expressed a lot of interest in the features that OnLive provides, and the two companies are constantly sending each other feedback about their services. OnLive?s VP of Engineering, Joe Bentley, even goes on to say that Steam will have some similar features rolling out in the future.
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OnLive is best known for its ability to stream games live to mobile platforms. We've been hearing a lot about mobility from Gabe and Valve in recent months, and how they want to bring Steam and Valve games to the mobile space, so this is definitely a sign of things to come. These are excitin' times!

 

[Krynn72]

I can't wait until I'm able to Steam my Stream games.

 

[StarBob]

I was never a fan of the concept of OnLive. Seems like it would suck for multiplayer games pretty hardcore. Stream video output of a game through your connection that is connected through their connection to the server you're playing on? Plus I don't like the idea of there being any type of lag in a single player game, but I think that would be more tolerable than doubling or tripling the lag you'd receive in multiplayer games.

 

[Acepilotf14]

Well ok.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

I tried OnLive yesterday because of this interview and had a great time. They have free 30 minute trials on a whole bunch of games so I played Batman, Hitman 2 Silent Assassin and Braid just for the fun of it and I was impressed with it.

I was putting myself in the shoes of someone who wants to play the demo without downloading large files and it seemed perfect for that, since you click the game and it just starts without any fuss. You also get random other people come to spectate you and you can do the same on this huge wall of moving videos which you can browse through. I watched some guy playing Splinter Cell terribly and someone else playing Hitman 3...terribly.

Anyway, the client isn't big and it's very quick to get set up. It's worth a try for free to get your own feel for it - http://www.onlive.com/go/signup

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

I tried OnLive yesterday because of this interview and had a great time. They have free 30 minute trials on a whole bunch of games so I played Batman, Hitman 2 Silent Assassin and Braid just for the fun of it and I was impressed with it.

I was putting myself in the shoes of someone who wants to play the demo without downloading large files and it seemed perfect for that, since you click the game and it just starts without any fuss. You also get random other people come to spectate you and you can do the same on this huge wall of moving videos which you can browse through. I watched some guy playing Splinter Cell terribly and someone else playing Hitman 3...terribly.

Anyway, the client isn't big and it's very quick to get set up. It's worth a try for free to get your own feel for it - http://www.onlive.com/go/signup

This message brought to you by OnLive.

 

[Asknoone]

By way of Valve.

 

[Lobster]

I have to say I agree with Glenn, while I wouldn't pay to use the service for full titles myself, it would be a great way for a lot of companies to distribute demos and trials. They had a free copy of Amnesia Dark Descent available the other day, the mouse lag was there, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Gaikai (a system similar to onlive) has been talking about streaming game demos directly into the browser window of articles and reviews like any other piece of video footage, and are about to trial the tech over on Eurogamer soon. I can see the technology being used more and more for advertising purposes in the coming years.

 

[Dinnesch]

I tried some games on OnLive, there was no fun to be had in any fast-paced game for me.
Slower-paced strategy games I tried were far more enjoyable, but I think it would be nice if it was possible to move your mouse 'live' and just have clicks sent to Onlive so the input lag isn't so apparent.

I would definitely like a service that combines the concepts of Steam and Onlive: Having an option between playing your game locally or streaming it.
It would be ideal in my situation: Being able to play my games in their full glory on my good PC, and at the times I'm limited to my shitty laptop having them streamed. But not paying the full price for a game and only being able to play it with input lag.

 

[Barnz]

oh come on

 

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Actual pic. ^^^ Not shooped.

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

The lag looks crippling, but I've yet to try it for myself.

 

[Joest]

I've used Onlive and it works. The games run smoothly and they look crisp. Obviously, there are some concessions. Games don't look or run at a frame rate as good as they would on a good PC, and the lag is noticeable, but it's getting better. Being able to play Assassin's Creed 2 on my HP netbook that has a 1.6 GHz Atom in it is incredible and is worth the downsides.

Go to their website and try it. Their timed demos are full featured and give you a good feel for what the entire game would be like.

 

[Warped]

I'd give it a whirl only because I was going to upgrade to a new Rig but this sounds better atm

 

[DoctorWeeTodd]

I'm an early adopter of Onlive. It runs well and is a great service. The video quality streaming quality is top notch, but like any streaming video quality it gets blurry and artifacts show up now and again but for a client that was originally smaller than a megabyte that's most impressive. Lag isn't really noticeable unless you're driving. The real noticeable thing is "audio lag" in which while the game doesn't appear to be slowed down, the sound slows, speeds, up and makes noises like a wrinkled cassette tape being stopped and played.

 

[ZoFreX]

I play on OnLive from the UK (it lets you as long as you connect via wireless...) and it's low latency enough for me to play some games, like Darksiders or Arkham Asylum. I imagine it's a lot better if you're closer to their servers!

For multiplayer it'd be a definite disadvantage, but for some people (like me) it might be less of a handicap than running the game on our crappy hardware. I'm also thinking that they could run their own multiplayer servers, and have them right next to the "gaming servers" so players handicapped by the OnLive latency could make some of it back by not having server latency. Any OnLive devs reading?