The End Of The Console War

If you've been around since the 80's it may be hard for you to envision the interactive landscape without some sort of cumbersome console laying under your television waiting for you to put a cartridge or DVD into. Fortunately for you this won't soon be the case as our ability to stream vast amounts of content has increased substantially over the past decade or so.

[tunaks1]

"if only for the fact that Nintendo will no longer be able to make and market an excess of peripheral nonsense."
Yes, because they force you to buy them. Peripherals are nothing new.

As long as Zelda, Gow, and Halo are exclusive to their respective platforms, we will still see consoles from Nintendo Sony and Microsoft.

[hamoor]

Yep there is nothing such as the end of console war
It will NEVER ends and that's is a good thing because I don't think Sony or Microsoft or Nintendo will do well alone without competition

[Anon1974]

Consoles are expensive. They've expensive to make, they're expensive to buy. As we sit now, the Xbox failed to make money for Microsoft and at the current rate that MS's Entertainment division is making money they won't break even from what they lost since the 360 launched for 10 to 15 years. Sony also faces an uphill battle making back what they invested in the PS3.

As bandwidth becomes greater, I predict eventually we'll stop seeing game consoles being sold, instead replaced by network hubs that allow you to connect and play games on machines serviced by company's for a fee, much like how cable is provided. Your game provider would be responsible for the upkeep of the hardware and you'd just connect and play through your household TV set for a monthly fee.

It's just a more efficient method of delivery. This would cut down on distribution costs and piracy. Money wouldn't be lost to the second hand game market. Each game network would develop a stable of games and update their equipment to lure potential subscribers over to their networks.

You would still have your exclusive titles and rivalries as each game network would compete for your monthly dollar so competition and innovation in games would be alive and well, but the mammoth costs associated with developing generations of hardware would be eliminated, replaced with updating servers, networks and hardware. The idea of console cycles would be eliminated and the services would simply get better as new technology became available in the never ending bid for your subscription dollars.

I think this type of future is years off, possibly decades, but many in the industry are already discussing how they'll make this work. I think it's inevitable. DLC isn't the future. Cloud gaming is the future.

I'm still not sure how I feel about it, though. It's really not much different than connecting to a cable provider now.

[D4RkNIKON]

Yeah cloud gaming like onlive seems like it is the future, just not any time soon. Could could put an end to "Console" wars but then it will be something else like X-shooter is better than Y-shooter.

[Gawdl3y]

Steam on computers is pretty awesome. Just sayin'.

[BISHOP-BRASIL]

Steam has nothing to do with cloud processing. You only download the game from steam, the processing power is up to your rig. What cloud gaming do is moving the processing to elsewhere and your hardware will be just a basic weak PC with a lot of memory and a really good network card, so you can receive the result of that remote processing.

The problem is even if they make it to top consoles and cause this market's death, there will be a lot of cloud processing game companies, prabably each with it's own hardware, that will still fight for the market, 'couse war... war never changes.

[somerandomdude]

While streaming games is possible as seen in World of Warcraft, there are two main reason's that prevent streaming games to become the distribution of choice.

1. Ownership.
With streaming the only realistic option is a monthly charge. Exactly, how many games do you want to pay a monthly fee for and how cheaply do you expect game developers to price their games? In the end every game will feel like a rental, so if a console chooses to compete with this new service people may choose ownership of their games.

2. Distribution.
Game developers are out to make money the same way movie studious are. Currently, netflix has been offering a service that allows you to stream movies. The problem with that is big movies do not come to the streaming service because there is more money to be made in selling the movie. The same thing is true with games, in fact most consoles make most their money on software. Selling games at 60.00 a piece is a huge chunk of cash to pass up on so expect all the top games to remain on consoles.

[Britney Spears]

never happening just like digital distribution.people want tangible items to hold.

[Anon1974]

Like I mentioned above, we have no issue turning on the TV to watch programs. We have no issue tuning into a radio and listening to songs we don't own. It's not that much of a stretch to turn on our TV, connect to a game service and try some games out. It just makes sense from an industry perspective. Sure some people like to own everything they watch, including TV shows - but the times, they are a changing.

I'm not saying today, tomorrow, or even a decade...but we will see this one day. Just like Google wants to do with their OS. Just like Microsoft wants to put Office online for use with no software downloaded to your PC. It's a ways off but I don't even necessarily think it's a bad thing.

If these networks had the games I wanted to play, I'd be willing to pay a subscription fee to play them. Saves me from having to buy every game I want to play, I can play more games, I don't have to worry about upgrading my console every few years, I can play what I feel like, when I feel like. Think of it like Video on Demand services, but with video games.

Once hardware, networks and bandwidth catch up, this is the future. I'm against DLC at the moment. I like having a copy of my games. I like taking them to a friends house. I like being able to sell them when I'm done. I like looking at them on my shelf but I used to be that way about my CD's. They're now all boxed up in my basement and have been for years.

If there was a network that let me play what games I want, when I want without needing to buy an expensive console or buy every single game, and it was reasonably priced, I'd sign up today.

[Independent_Charles]

in the words of markus fenix,"it never ends"

[DaTruth]

I hate this idea. Any massive economic crash could wipe out gaming for me. As it stands, if something bad were to happen, I could still play my games I have already on my console I own and possibly loot some more. But with this method, these companies could close down and I would be screwed.

I realize that Television is the same, but Television has never been provided any other way and now I could download whole seasons off of torrent sites if it came to it.

[thewhoopimen]

I don't think we'll be seeing anything successful next gen with cloud computing sorry. When you read news like iphones causing bandwidth issue on the whole AT&T Network (15% of the AT&T phone population sucking up 80+% of the total network bandwidth) running online apps like Scrabble... It kind of gives you a good picture of what would happen if we started streaming games.

You think our nation's infrastructure is capable of handling the estimated 170 million or so gamers in the US out of our 305 million population? HAHA

US gamer population: 170 million - NPD
http://www.gamespot.com/new...

We need ALOT more bandwidth infrastructure. When AT&T estimated it would need an additional 15-16 billion dollars to upgrade their network to handle future iphone needs for 2010, guess how much they allocated? 2 billion. You know how many consoles a bandwidth provider would have to sell in order to make a 15billion dollar upgrade? Assuming $100 profit per console (generous i know given none of the current 3 make that much), you are still looking at 150 million console units. Who's sold 150 million 4-5 years into this gen yet? Who can back a 15 billion dollar project for a currently non-existant market for a unquestionably slow rate of return?

We won't see cloud computing until toward the end of at least the next console cycle if not the one after that. Games, movies, and media aren't getting any smaller, and our population starving for bandwidth is growing.

I'll Tell you EXACTLY how cloud computing gaming is going to be like in 2011-2012. OnLive will release their product to great fanfare. First 100,000 maybe 1st million gamers will have great connections and will trumpet the service. 5-10 million users later, people will be screaming and yelling at dropped connections during games, lag, interrupted service and horrible response times on customer service. Onlive won't be able to lease enough servers to handle the backend and probably run into infrastructure issues with our crappy copper wiring or whatnot. As a startup, they won't have the means to handle the outcall jobs or deal with hardware returns. OnLive will burn out of cash and pray somebody like Verizon or Microsoft will buy up their prospective business. Whoever does will either burn a huge hole trying to maintain OnLive OR conveniently shut down the company until our infrastructure matures (if they're smart). We'll burn and churn about 3-4 of these startups before MAYBE 1 company figures it out and will probably be promptly eaten up by the major players or...
someone in the big 5 figures out how to do it properly. By which time I estimate it will be closer to 2020.

[Christopher]

OnLive is the next thing just like 100% digital distribution.

Technology and, most importantly, businesses aren't at the stage where this will happen.

Things to consider that are currently beyond our current means:

1. Affordable, uncapped, extremely fast broadband Internet capabilities. Businesses are pushing extremely hard for capped amounts and fines for going above said caps.

2. Difference between ownership and purchased rights to use software with a specific service. Also considered entrapping by many who are forced to continue and subscribe to a service just to use their purchased digital medium as opposed to buying a piece of hardware and software and having the ability to use it openly and freely. Especially in an age where formats are not universal. Again, businesses want to force you to use their format and buy their hardware that supports their format, straining portability greatly as well as use considering limited use across various platforms. A DVD can play in any region-specific device, an iTunes media file cannot play in all media devices.

3. Production. What happens to businesses that rely on the business of creating hardware for the various consoles? What happens to those people who are no longer needed?

4. Software. With a larger focus on user-account controlled software over the Internet, it only leads to improved and larger attacks to overcome and obtain the information of others for illegal purposes. Look at the increased hacking of World of Warcraft accounts as an example.

[edgeofblade]

This is a viable future... if it works. The fact of the matter is that the Internet is not a guaranteed-delivery network. Our web browsers work in such a way that they re-request data packets they don't recieve because there is time for it. However, when you are playing a game, asking for where your enemy is in seconds 1, 2, and 3, it doesn't do you a lot of good to get that data back as 2, 1, 3. We call that "lag", in general (and "packet loss", in specific).

Now, imagine if your CONTROLS had to be delivered on that same network. Do you trust them to deliver [Down] + [DownRight] + [Right] + [Punch] in order? Or will we forever be cursed to miss our Hadokens?

I will remain a skeptic in this space until these cloud services prove themselves, but I predict that home consoles will remain the choice of the hardcore, and therefore will continue to be sold for the foreseeable future.

[morganfell]

Streaming will not get rid of consoles. Agreed. If anything it will increase and broaden their role in the home environment. Considering Sony is already heavily investing in cloud services (Folding @ Home is distributed computing) it should be obvious where this is going.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010...

The PS3 and it's successors will be the home hub for entertainment through disc or streaming connecting to and interfacing with all Sony and other manufacturer hardware.

And did anyone consider that the Sony removal of other OS wasn't just about stopping hackers but also to prepare for the institution of a Google based OS? There have been a great many Sony/Google partnership rumors as of late and where there is smoke there is fire.

[bjornbear]

and GT5

[ShinMaster]

There's dozens more to Sony than just GOW btw. So...instant winner! hahaha, jk.
But Nintendo also has Mario, Pokemon and Metroid.

[Dragun619]

The Console war exists in order to fuel competition between Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony. Without competition, Less productivity & less motivation.

Would Sony have push for PSN as hard as they would have if Microsoft didn't introduced XBL?
Would Have Sony & Microsoft push for motion control peripherals if Nintendo didn't have such a huge success with the Wii?
Would have Developers been able to push themselves to up the bar higher if other studios weren't so successful? Ex MLB The Show 2010/ MLB 2k10 or GT/ Forza

Cloud gaming will find a way to have a competitive market. Sony already registered a trademark, "PS Cloud".

[Sarcasm]

Steam sucks. There's always issues launching a game through it.

[yess]

It could end, if parents got a hold on what the children are doing on the web.

Then again..There is a lot of adult fanboys to, so maby not.

Game on

[evrfighter]

ouch glad I don't have to worry about stream gaming. shameless nod towards the awesomeness that is pc gaming.

It's gonna suck when the next console comes out and all the content the console users bought over their current console doesn't work.

[Consoldtobots]

sorry darkride but your logic is flawed are television and radio the only way receive their respective mediums of entertainment?

Actually I think people have been buying some thing called records/cassettes/CD for ages. Same argument with games.

[gtamike]

PS3 is the most powerful console out.
To me the war is over because the graphics bar gets bigger each year for PS3, but not the case with the other consoles.

[thewhoopimen]

I don't think we'll be seeing anything successful next gen with cloud computing sorry. When you read news like iphones causing bandwidth issue on the whole AT&T Network (15% of the AT&T phone population sucking up 80+% of the total network bandwidth) running online apps like Scrabble... It kind of gives you a good picture of what would happen if we started streaming games.

You think our nation's infrastructure is capable of handling the estimated 170 million or so gamers in the US out of our 305 million population? HAHA

US gamer population: 170 million - NPD
http://www.gamespot.com/new...

We need ALOT more bandwidth infrastructure. When AT&T estimated it would need an additional 15-16 billion dollars to upgrade their network to handle future iphone needs for 2010, guess how much they allocated? 2 billion.

We won't see cloud computing until toward the end of at least the next console cycle if not the one after that. Games, movies, and media aren't getting any smaller, and our population is still growing/integrating more people into the digital age.

[gtamike]

Really cause steam has just started cloud and it's free. e.g. for Half Life 2

[basicsameh514]

well sorry everyone but nintendo is wining the console war..

[spektical]

i think there is still room for one more console.

[LordMarius]

what good will that do?

[chrisnick]

It'll give apple a reason to sell us something else that's an even bigger version of the iphone.

[hamoor]

If it true then I hope its anything but not apple
Damn if you thought that the x360/ps3 fans are annoying wait til you see apple fanboys

[Yipee Bog]

And imagine what the price on that thing would be...

[OpenGL]

There are rumors that the next version of Apple TV will play games, and will be based on Apple's A4 processor. If this is truly the case it won't be able to compete with the PS3 and 360 in hardware performance.

[ALFAxD_CENTAURO]

¿Console War?

That kind of ''war'' exist only in the Fanboys.

I'm suprised this article is not coming from gamesthirst.

About Onlive, wondering how many KBps you will need to play some games.

[ExgamerLegends2]

Its not like Sony and Microsoft are having a tea party.

[hamoor]

LOL well said

[nveenio]

Exactly. The console war is not some made up thing. Microsoft and Sony don't go home and snuggle up together next to the fire. They're in this to snuff the other one out.

Fanboys are different. They (we) pick a side and fight for it blindly, regardless of common sense or courtesy.

[Tony-A]

They aren't exactly trying to drown one another, either. They, as a company, both know that sometimes they're going to have to rely on each other to make what they're existing for (MONEY).

It's why you see them make deals with each other like the recent Windows 7 + Sony VAIO deals.

[Mo0eY]

Without competition, AlfaXD, we'd still have video games like Pong. You clearly are a rich kiddie who has no idea of the history behind video games. Now go play Halo.

[ALFAxD_CENTAURO]

Who is talking about the Competition, I never said anything related with that.

I'm talking about the Fanboys and Console Wars.

And no, you can't judge a person if you don't know him and say such a thing like that.

[DA_SHREDDER]

No,, that kinda war exist whenever there is a dev or publisher involved that gets too much credit then they deserve while better devs get the finger because supposed "true gamers" and the "Trusted Media" down a game and results in a game that doesn't sell what it could. Supposed trusted sites and journalist are the main villians in this war. Even the likes such as rock stars and movie producers claims have a huge affect on games. Its like the war on Terror. The enemy is there, you just cant see him/her till she makes the move first. Then usually they just disapear as fast as they came.

[chrisnick]

"With the advent of downloadable content we will soon see the day when consumers no longer have to purchase hardware consoles that have recently broken the half a grand mark."

Screw all that noise, I want something unique from the company I choose to get the games I choose. It's a little more personal than just playing games. Its also about the special feeling of ownership and security.

[hennessey86]

i have an xbox and ps3 i like them for differnt things only fangirls choose one console ive had every console since the megadrive apart from the saturn i love console gaming ive never liked pc gaming i hate the key board i did nearly get a pc for crysis but wud hav had to spend a grand plus so i chose to buy a 1080p tv instead best choise i ever made.

[nveenio]

Only an idiot would buy a console that doesn't have games that interest them. I don't buy a 360 because I'm not interested in anything it has to offer. That's why I chose the PS3. I didn't buy a PS3 because I'm a fanboy (last gen, I sold my PS2 for an Xbox). I'm a fanboy because I have a PS3.

[Brewski007]

Onlive to me sounds like a guinea pig that the big players will watch closely. I think no matter what, it's probably destined to not be as successful as planned. If it was going to lift off and revolutionise gaming then the likes of sony microsoft and nintendo would also be doing this. However it'll serve as a foundation and maybe if it proves to have potential and selling power it might turn heads from the big dogs and they might consider doing something similar.

[nveenio]

Sony and Microsoft sat back and watched to see what would happen with motion controls and casual gaming when Nintendo set out to do it... Look what happened.

Personally, I think that Onlive has the potential to be the next evolution of PC gaming...if it comes out cheaper than top-of-the-line upgrades every two years.

[MysticStrummer]

All Nintendo did was sell a motion control focused console. Sony and Microsoft sat back and watched to see if anyone gave a damn. Both Move and whatever Natal is called now are evolutions of motion control so the "motion control war" is not exactly over either. Both Sony and Microsoft got into the console business after Nintendo by a large margin. Was it a mistake for them to not launch consoles at the same time as the Atari 2600 or Intellivision or NES? No. They did the same thing they are doing now with motion control, they spectated awhile and then jumped in. I think both companies are doing just fine despite sitting back and waiting all that time.

[Bigpappy]

It might attract some of the PC crowd. I don't see console users running over to cloud. It will have to perform better than what is currently offered and be a cheaper alternative.

[mcgrawgamer]

I've been accepted to get into the Onlive beta for 1 year free. I approach Onlive carefully. I don't expect a lot from it and for 14.99 a month It would surely need something to attract hardcore and casual gamers. We shall see how it performs.

[Brklynty1]

OnLive?....the console thats set to release in 2 weeks and we absolutley know jack shit about it? The online only console that will rely heavily on 3rd party support more than Microsoft with 0% first party studios? Plz, Virgin has a better chance at sucess than OnLive at least they know about the industry, unlike Microsoft and thats why they use money to solve every obstacle...

[ExPresident]

I agree, its release is around the corner and we know nothing about subscription plans and very little about everything else. Its absurd. They are beating Microsoft at their own 'how closed off can we keep coverage' game.

[ZombieAutopsy]

Doubt it's going to happen anytime in the next 20 years unless MS/Sony/NiN all go bankrupt....even then i bet SEGA would come out of nowhere and announce the DC2.

[CobraKai]

It would be nice if consoles were more like blu ray or dvd players. That way a game company only has to make one version of a game rather than 2 or 3, but this will never happen.

[gano]

it's more confusion this gen then the previous ones.
Sorry but there is only room for two, and M$ ain't one.

[Colonel-Killzone]

There will never be a end to the console wars until the world blows up.

[Atelierrorona9]

there flagship character was sonic and they stoped making consoles what makes you think one of these consoles wont stop making consoles and support others?

[ReBurn]

This article tries really hard to sound intelligent. In a few places it almost succeeds. But it falls into a fallacy that many of us who enjoy console gaming fall into.

The author makes the case that digital distribution of games will make consoles obsolete. But the console isn't about how the medium the games are delivered on. Consoles are about the platform and the features of the platform that allow developers to express their creativity. What makes consoles popular isn't price, but the focus and specialization on games and entertainment.

I could easily see Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft producing set-top boxes that are the consoles of the future. Games could be downloaded to internal HDD's and then run locally on the hardware. It isn't that big of a leap. But we're still quite a few years away from having the worldwide infrastructure to support it.

[karan8624]

Onlive seems on the surface to be a good idea. But it takes away from the "home console experience"

As much as I love technological advancement, I like it the way it is now. Big companies with home consoles vying for my money. Disks, not digital. Only thing I would like better would be one network, instead of PSN and Live being seperate and we cant all play together

[ShepardVasNormandy]

I am sure its not just me, I like the fact that I can have a console in my living room. Something physical being there makes me feel more secure that I can just sit down and play a game and not have to worry about internet access or download speed. Cause newsflash not everyone has wireless internet and would be forced to be connected to the internet in order to play their game.

[madpuppy]

there are to many variables with this service that could cause lag that the ONLive service cannot control.

[daghost1125]

Yea lag would kill my gaming experience. I'll stick to my consoles

[BillOreilly]

the real future is when a company like charter offer a $29.99 bundle with cable internet and gives tou a box similar to dvr and you get unlimited games to play and even newer releases as rentals like their movies they already have a monopoly on cable internet phones games are the next step consoles would be dead just add 20 dollars to your bill no hardware to purchase and you can play cod mw2 madden ect plus you will have to purchase their internet bundle charters a sleeping giant they will run all home entertainment

[skyblue14213]

This is not the first time this has happened, anyone remember sega channel?. While sega channel was decent to a degree it had some serious drawbacks: 1)Once the month was up that particular game that you liked and want to play again(granted you have already beaten it) probably would not be on the next month. 2) Half of the time you would get booted off the game that you were playing due to malfunctions and/or errors. These are just a few examples of the problems that would be experienced using sega channel. Now lets picture this scenario today with the digital distribution model, though server crashes during game play might occur less often than back then it would still happen, not to mention game play would get choppy at times because of bandwidth problems. Speaking of the bandwidth aspect lets discuss the idea for a moment: 1) Because games are getting larger and larger who wants to keep something on for days on end downloading a large game. 2) Now lets say that in order to have this service you would have to have a large bandwidth capacity connection(whether to stream it or download it on to a hard drive), it would either go one of 2 ways: 1. the telecommunications industry would foot the bill which in turn the cost would be passed on to the customer/consumer making it a lot more expensive than it already is for the consumer. 2. The company that is providing the service would foot the bill which they would either end up subcontracting the bandwidth issue with a telecommunications company or the company itself running high capacity bandwidth cable to areas that want the service(granted everyone wants a connection to the internet and is willing to pay another cost on top of the already existing cost of internet connection) and that's if their is a high demand for the service that would deem it fees-able to make the service available to a particular area, and like the article said not a lot of people play online a lot and prefer to play single player games offline(like myself). I think the former option that I mentioned would make more sense than the latter option. And besides the companies that make the consoles and games would be making a lot less money and a whole demographic of people(like myself) that don't need a service like this and prefer the physical medium of a console and a game will be ignored resulting in less money being made for game companies and console makers alike. 3. lets say the dd model uses a hard drive to store the games that are downloaded, well what if one day the drive messes up at a time when the games that were on it are no longer being supported, I guess that means those games that you spent so much time and money to get are pretty much gone for good which means that it was a big waste of time and money on your part. Lets look at the streaming part of the dd model, lets say that the streaming model goes into effect and lets say that up the road when a particular game is no longer being supported and/or being hosted on a server you get an urge to play "said" game, well now you cant because it is no longer being supported so I guess you be out of luck on that one. If either of these cases would go into effect, up the road when you want to play or access to re-download a game that you loss due to hard drive failure that is no longer being supported would be next to impossible because servers that store "said" games cost money to maintain and companies are not going to waste money storing these games way past their money making relevancy. These are just a few of the problems(out of many) with the digital distribution model(dd model) and would not be the case with the physical medium model(pm model) of consoles and games. When I buy with my hard earned cash a game or console I prefer in a big way to actually hold it in my hands. I support the physical model of consoles and games over the digital distribution model any day and anytime.

[reckoner]

Learn to use paragraphs, people will be more inclined to read your ramblings.

[skyblue14213]

I have tried to make paragraphs in previous posts on n4g but the format that n4g uses is screwy and for some reason disables me from making any, I have tried to separate sections of my previous posts into paragraphs using the space bar and tab(which are the only tools available that I know of) to separate my posts into sections of paragraphs but when I post my message the format that n4g uses combines it into one wall of text. N4g is not like forums were they have all the thread tools to enable you to make paragraphs in your posts, and maybe before you start insulting me maybe you should offer me advice to help solve this problem from happening again, because I would do the same courtesy for you.

[skyblue14213]

message was same as above.

[BillOreilly]

very true i hope it doesnt happen i love owning disks and having a huge game colection but most the public just want easy solutions less bills (even if one bills more than three)thats why movie rentals like blockbuster are dying or dead because renting from said company (charter for instance) is easier most of the public would prefer not buying a consle buying/renting games and be able to play the main blockbusters without ever leaving the home microsoft and sony are digging their own graves with dlc eventually you wont need sony or microsoft the game developers can cut off the middleman and go straight to the livingroom

[barakiu]

If Microsoft were to invest in google’s plan for 100x faster internet speeds,

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

the new format could be download only even sooner than later or streaming/cloud gaming.

It’ll probably be necessary for faster speeds anyways just to run games online. Could today’s PS360 games run on 56k?

[DigitalHorror81]

Quake III Arena, Dreamcast.

56K.

Good times.

[pat_11_5]

I totally remember those days. Unfortunately the people playing on PC used to pwn me

[N4g_null]

The only thing onlive will be good for is rendering CGI and baking other intense 3d package functions. I could see the maya guys and some other company offering a modelling package and cheap rendering farms. Thats about it. Online is too flaky.

Our FPS game still have to predict wherethe player is going to go because of errors in the network.

The only way this idea is going to work is if it is done locally like say on a ring bus ummm like an ati card.

Yet graphics cards will get to the point where this is no longer needed, it's an idea that is too late and the industry does not want it because the console hardware locks devs into them.

[DeathProof]

I hate to disagree with my header but I know they will make money. I just hope they do crash and burn. There are may disadvantages to this OnLive service. One, NO HD. You will be playing your games in the same resolution as the Wii... : ( Also the service give you "demos" and if you decide to buy a game, you better you hope no one else in the house is on the internet or your streaming low res game will be jumping all over the room. Also there is a monthly fee for the service which give you just the demos. If you buy a game and their servers go down or they go out of business you also will have NO rights to your game. OnLive will be for whinny kids, not hardcore gamers. Check out a look at the service and its flaws here...

http://www.airbornegamer.co...

[lightningsax]

It's a radical idea with technology that's too expensive (not the console, but the insane broadband connection you'd need in order to stream HD), created by an upstart company hoping to jump into the gaming biz. The whole thing just gives me 3DO deja vu.

I don't like that article you posted at all, though. It's some guy talking in an awful six-year-old writing style, basically saying that OnLive will crash and burn because some kid is going to steal his dad's credit card. There's no substance. And what the heck are whinny kids? Children of a centaur?

[Prcko]

There isn't a end of console war,in fact it just started.Much more exclusives for ps3 coming this and next year,2010/11 may be biggest game years in history for Sony,we gonna see like 5,6 exclusives maybe even more coming out for 10/11!
Anyway i gonna stop playing console games when i see that everything goes multiplatform!

[Run_bare]

But it's not the same everywhere else, streaming is only good if the connection is fast and cheap. In Australia is very expensive, especially if the area you are in is not been cover properly. It will get better, but not yet. At least another 3-5 years to go.

For some people, is YES, but not for all. So "media" still relevant.

[DeathProof]

Exactly....

[ATi_Elite]

Every since the release of Half Life 2 the console war was basically OVER and here's why.

in order to compete with the greatness that is HL2 consoles have become more and more like...you guessed it PC's. Now that a decent gaming rig can be built for $450 or maybe even less why bother with $600 consoles?

The PC has always been the end game in the console war.
Onlive is crap and not an issue. I'm just waiting for my Playstation 4 Hard drive to install into my already superior PC. It only plays encrypted Sony games downloaded from a Sony website.

So "Hail to the Victor" as the PC ended the console war years ago.

[pat_11_5]

Too bad PC gaming is practicaly already dead. Most major game releases don't even end up gracing "your victorious" platform. I've heard this argument so many times, people really don't play pc games anymore. Sure you have WoW and Starcraft and counterstrike. People play these games for a reason, there great games but here also isnt really anything else out there.

[SuperStrokey1123]

Once everyone has enough bandwidth and internet speed to stream 1080p 3d graphics we will see cloud computing and thats no time soon.

[The_Zeitgeist]

Bandwidth penetration that is needed to render consoles obsolete is nowhere near ready. If you read the statistics there is not even 50% of the population that gets more than dial up internet still. I think those of us always online sometimes forget that we are a minority in terms of internet access.

[theonlylolking]

Then people will be fanboys to the company that makes the game instead of both game and console.

I would get on-live if it were cheaper.