Preview: OnLive

Spring cleaning applies to computers as well, so I been going through my Steam library, the largest component of my C drive. I want to delete Counterstrike, but I can’t, it’s the cornerstone of Valve and Steam. Plus, you never know when you really-fuckin’-wanna-play-Counterstrike.

Announced at Game Developers Conference 2009, OnLive is new independent cloud server for games like Steam or Xbox Live, but they claim you never actually download any content to the console, a small machine about the size of an external hard drive. A whole game from affiliate companies like EA and Ubisoft that will no doubt be very large and graphically detailed will be streamed to your machine for play, even online multiplayers where minimizing latency is key. The OnLive console will support Bluetooth and wireless controllers and accessories like microphones, possibly from all consoles and third parties assuming the console does not require its own specific controllers. Obviously that would mean creating a whole new console that would most likely meet the same fate as the Atari Jaguar and the Sega Saturn in a world of Xbox’s and PS3′s. Still, OnLive is boasting compatibility with a great number of games and hardware.

Here’s the kicker: By hardware, not only do they mean controllers and accessories, they claim the ability to use the OnLive with any TV, PC, and/or Mac. The games accessed by the OnLive, rather than on the OnLive, are from there fully playable on the screen of your choice. With the OnLive, RTS Halo Wars can be played on a PC with an appropriate keyboard and mouse, rather than weep at its exclusive and miserable existence on the Xbox. Hell, you could play Halo on a Mac. Wouldn’t that piss Microsoft off.

More about OnLive

No longer will this poor soul have to suffer the lag of conventional online gaming.