130°

Feature: One Thing OnLive Should have done at GDC

After spending the past week reading up on everything related to the new game platform OnLive, I've found myself in a interesting predicament. I've seen the videos and read the reviews, and like the feedback I'm hearing on the software. I'm hopeful this new service works because it would be great for gamers everywhere, and would especailly be great for me as a college student. There is just one thing I can't figure out.

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hiphopgamershow.com
socomnick5927d ago

Jesus christ really who approves hhg stories. They are all crap, I suspect that the people from hhg themselves approve their own stories.

Kakkoii5926d ago (Edited 5926d ago )

While every other time I would agree with what you said. This post of his is actually to the point. And I agree with him on it.

As someone who actually knows a good amount about technology, I am interested in the server specs, as I would understand the performance of them. Currently I'm wary about the ability of their servers to be able to handle the kind of loads 10's of 1000's or maybe even 100's or 1000's of players would place on the server. The kind of bandwidth coming out of each server array would be epic, even after their special compression. They will need a fiber optic bundle line going straight to an ISP station for routing to handle this.

That's why I'd like to know the specs.

DeadlyFire5926d ago (Edited 5926d ago )

Specs of servers are easy to find. Today's servers house a 256 core CPU. Mostly on boards with at least 2 CPU sockets. Thats about 500 core per board and blade servers can house up to how many boards? Some servers have room for up to 240. That should be more than enough for thousands of games to run off of the system. I say somewhere between 30,000 and 60 thousand games could run off of a server like that. Just my math though. Maybe I am wrong. Might be more. Graphics cards all play big part in it as well. It would have to run thousands of games to be a useful and cheap technology. If 30,000 to 60,000 games run off of this system. Then maybe only 83-167 servers would be required to support 5 Million people. Maybe?

Many servers house some number of big GPUs as well. There could be hundreds of cards per system and tons of RAM. All in All though the technology for this is out there.

They could be using many different techniques for reduced bandwidth costs as well.

Marceles5927d ago

I dont think any dev talks about their own hardware because the consumer isn't supposed to worry about that, you're just supposed to trust they have enough to satisfy you and make it playable. It's like PSP remote play...you're not supposed to ask if the PSP can render PS3's graphics because that's not what remote play does. The PS3 takes care of everything and all the PSP does is show it on its screen and you can control it with the PSP buttons. All OnLive is doing is enabling you to play it with OnLive's own hardware and the only thing your PC needs to do is be able to show video and control what's on the video. As far as hardware recommendations, you're only supposed to be required to need a REALLY good internet connection if you want to make the game look decent on your screen

kingme715927d ago

What hardware they have on their end is the least of the concerns. How they are compressing and how are they avoiding lag is the magic wand waving they are doing now. It doesn't really matter what system they have as long as it can play the game at an acceptable frame rate.

Kakkoii5926d ago

It does matter because people interested in technology like myself like to know these kinds of things. It's knowledge, it's nice to learn. I'd like to know what chips they are using to do this real time high compression. And what GPU's/CPU's they are using in their servers and how many servers they actually have in each area. I'm very interested in that stuff.

dirthurts5927d ago

What I would be more interested is at what levels will the games be ran? Sure, it can run Crysis, but will I be able to play it at max graphical settings like a high end rig? Will graphics settings scale forward and back when more or less people get on the service? That's what I'm curious about.
I would hate to be playing games at uber low settings due to server strain.

Kakkoii5926d ago (Edited 5926d ago )

From what was shown recently, they played Crysis on High settings (from what I saw analyzing the game footage) and in 720p (1280x720) (Which they said themselves). So overall, it's meant to give you a Console type experience, not a PC gamer type experience. Which is all they can really hope for if they want to make good profit. As it would be unfeasible for them to supply top of the line performance to thousands of players. Not to mention the bandwidth needed for those high resolutions (1920x1200) just isn't in place in most parts of the world yet.

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170°

Switch 2 accessory makers are “working hard” on magnetic analogue sticks to combat stick drift

Nintendo Switch 2 stick drift is already an issue, but accessory makers are already working on magnetic joysticks.

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videogamer.com
Neonridr7d ago

I've never had stick drift in any controller I've ever owned. All my joycons (3 sets) from my Switch are perfectly fine. My Switch 2 ones are good. Never had a dualshock / dualsense have it (did have a dualshock get a stuck trigger once). Even my Valve Index controllers which were notorious for drift were fine for me.

Goodguy017d ago

Varies. Just because you've never had one doesn't mean others won't. I've had PS, Xbox, and Nintendo controllers indeed drift on me. Remember the drift lawsuits that Nintendo has had.

Please stop trying to say that traditional potentiometers are absolutely fine when hall effect/tmr sticks are beyond superior lol, not sure why so many people keep trying to defend potentiometers when hall effects are so pro consumer.
Companies like nintendo, sony, and mcsft don't want to implement them simply because they want you the consumer to keep buying them. Most casuals will just buy a new controller if theirs difts, easy money for the big 3.
I've gone hall effects and have never gone back, can leave my controllers out absolutely fine without worry of dust ruining the sticks.

Neonridr7d ago

when did I say that traditional joysticks are absolutely fine? I'm sharing my own experience here. I never said that others don't experience issues, nor that this is somehow acceptable. Strange leapfrog from A to B on that one.

People love to say it's a huge widespread issue, yet you only hear about it because the minority is vocal whereas the majority don't report anything because they are fine.

I'm happy you switched to hall effect sticks, if that's what works for you, then awesome.

Christopher7d ago

Cool? Pretty sure this is for those who are having it happen. Not sure how your anecdote addresses other peoples' problems.

Neonridr7d ago

people around here act like everyone will get drift. I'm willing to wager more people won't get drift than will.

Pyrofire956d ago

lucky you. I've only had minor drift once in my L Joycon which I fixed with some card stock, but drift is an undeniable problem as a whole.

repsahj6d ago

My 2 sets of Joy-Cons from my OG Switch started to drift with just a month of use. That is why I bought Dobe Joy-Cons with just $25, and until now they are still fine. I hope this will never happen again on my Switch 2.

jznrpg6d ago

My left joy con for the OG Switch got stick drift right away as well. I never had issues with my PS5 controllers since launch until I got my kids PS5’s and they had stick drift with 2 controllers. They drop them because they are kids and although I have them wash their hands before gaming they still get gunk under them somehow. I got their controllers modded because they would have issues no matter what I have them do.

jambola5d ago

"people around here act like everyone will get drift. I'm willing to wager more people won't get drift than will."
no, nobody is acting like that, you're jsut exaggerating it and lying to downplay a problem

-Foxtrot5d ago (Edited 5d ago )

Nintendos biggest defender on here so it figures

gold_drake5d ago

you know, i said the same thing not too long ago and then BOOM both controllers ha.

one on the moving stick and one on the look around stick.

both suck arse. ha

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jznrpg6d ago (Edited 6d ago )

The tech is already there. I had a couple of my PS5 controllers modded with Hall Effect modules and they work great. They should come standard with them these days but they don’t.

OtterX6d ago (Edited 6d ago )

Nyxi already made some fantastic Hall Effect controllers for Switch 1. I don't know why Nintendo couldn't have it by now if Nyxi has had for years.

spoonard6d ago

Cheap, frictionless sensors ALREADY exist. Why are they "working hard to combat stick drift"? Stick drift should be a thing of the past at this point. The technology is here...NOW. It has been...for YEARS! Why is stick drift even still spoken about? It shouldn't exist!

Chocoburger6d ago

Because its a scam for Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft to sell more overpriced controllers.

jambola5d ago

because pathetic fanboys will continue to defend and support

Doomeduk5d ago (Edited 5d ago )

WD 40 if it's shagg.d anyway why not ? I ordered a new ps5 pad after Helldivers 2 and POE 2 became unplayable due to drift but in the meantime I fired a bit of WD on my balls just below my stick rotated in a clockwise fashion massaging it in so to speak and also did the pin reset thingy and all clean no drift and hit that cancel purchase button like I meant it

UltimateOwnage5d ago

Honestly I’ve used my original Switch JoyCons and Pro Controller since launch and only in the last year did I see drift start to show up on one of my JoyCons. I’m sure it happens depending on how much and how firm the joystick is used, but it seems like a minor issue that goes with wear and tear after thousands of hours of play. I wish there had been Hall Effect sticks on Switch 2 just so there’s one less thing to worry about, but I’m not really concerned about it.

290°

The Real Enemy of Gaming Isn’t DEI. It’s the CEO

From Horse Armor to Mass Layoffs: The Price of Greed in Gaming. Inside the decades-long war on game workers and the players who defend them.

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rushdownradio.net
jambola10d ago

maybe a real enemy is people who use terms like "the real enemy"
there can be more than 1 bad thing, t's not like a kids show with 1 big bad

senorfartcushion8d ago

This is very much a “dummy who volunteers themselves to the middle” comment.

The real enemy is a common phrase, people use it all the time.

Calm down.

jambola8d ago

i'm very calm
you seem very upset however

Notellin7d ago

You don't seem calm at all. Don't take this so seriously, you seem desperate responding to others defending your opinion that lacks any value or critical thought.

jambola7d ago

stop projecting
i'm not desperately dong anything, i'm tapping at keys on my keyboard bud

PapaBop7d ago

It's not like kids show with one bad guy? I present to you.. Bobby Kotick

ABizzel17d ago (Edited 7d ago )

DEI was never the problem and it was an ignorant take to begin with.

DEI is why games like Kena Bridge of Spirits, South of Midnight, and Ghost of Tsushima exist.

DEI is why we have a huge resurgence in Japanese, Chineses, and Korean developers producing games like Stellar Blade, Black Myth, and why Nintendo & Sony exist.

DEI is why more and more games have HUGE accessibility options with both Sony and MS fully behind this.

DEI was never a bad thing, the entire purpose of DEI is representation of all people, genders, disabilities, etc…

The problem was people used DEI as a default derogatory term to describe what they believed was forced representation, which allowed colorist, racist, sexist, misogynist, homophobic, and xenophobic fools to run away with the negative DEI narrative.

jambola7d ago

you don't get to decide other people's motivations
sorry to break it to you

ABizzel16d ago (Edited 6d ago )

To each their own, however, nothing you said invalidates why some people take offense to DEI incorrectly.

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Sciurus_vulgaris10d ago

Executives seem to often have an obsession with perpetual revenue growth. There is always a finite amount of consumers for a product regardless of growth. Additionally, over investment is another serious issue in gaming.

Killer2020UK8d ago

The fact that they also rarely have any real expertise in game development compounds things. They'll look at what's been successful elsewhere, lack the knowledge to properly understand why they have been successful and then force a team to 'reproduce' their badly interpreted idea of that success.

We see it so often with sequels to games that were successful too. The team are left well alone, they have a break through hit and all of sudden the money men descend on the IP and completely railroad the dev team's ideas. Usually winds up being 'make the same game but MORE'

LoveSpuds7d ago

This is true throughout all of the corporate and public sector organisations to be honest. CEO's generally move amongst the corporate world without any need to have experience of a particular industry, they simply need to rely on their senior leadership credentials. A CEO of a retail giant will just as easily transition to a CEO role in the energy sector for example.

Not defending CEOs here to be clear, I think it's a huge part of the reason the western world is so fucked up. CEOs don't need to care about the sector they work in, in fact it's better if they don't care if they want to screw everyone to make profits.

GhostScholar8d ago

Companies don’t hire executives to break even. If the goal is breaking even then why start the company in the first place.

Soy8d ago

That's understood; it's getting record profits and expecting to always beat those record profits, and seeing anything less as a total failure. Then they lay people off and raise prices to reach those record profit levels again, just to sate shareholders. It's setting expectations way too high just to spike share prices, then inevitably falling short. It's feeling entitled to being more successful than everyone else. It's the CEOs doing all this to boost their own bonuses.

ABizzel17d ago

Growth benefits the company’s profits and therefore the company’s stock if publicly traded, which pleases the shareholders making them more and more rich, which is why Growth is always at the forefront of the vast majority of any publicly traded company.

More growth = More Money and the people at the top want all the money they can get. I can’t really blame them anyone would love to see their profits go from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, to multi-millions it’s almost like a gambling addiction.

But it also goes to show someone how morals can go out the window for a lot of these people, and how amazing some CEOs are when they catch this early and provide a balance solution that takes complete care of their employees across the board while keeping the business sustainable IE: Insomniac Games ALWAYS on the best places to work list. The rest of the industry could learn.

jambola10d ago

honestly, the "real" enemy of gaming, is ourselves
if nobody bought horse armor, shitty dlc would have died almost overnight
if we stood firm and nobody bought games from companies that were bad with layoffs, it would be solved
we're the idiots supporting awful business practices, we are the ones enouraging it

TiredGamer8d ago

I think the reality that we don't want to convince ourselves of is that without the rise of "horse armor" and DLC, game budgets would have essentially stagnated (smaller teams/smaller games), or game prices would have risen much more dramatically than they have. There was an incessant drive for bigger worlds, infinite detail, and hundreds of hours of "gameplay" over the last two decades, that while perhaps a natural evolution of things, needed a suitable funding stream to accomplish.

HyperMoused8d ago

What...CEOs make tens of millions and that doesnt include SLT etc etc...we now have multiple editions of games, in game currency, MT's, battle passes.....and what do we get..worse game than what was coming out 20 years ago....dont drink the cool aid, its this nickel and dime crap that is absolutely leading us to gaming destruction.

senorfartcushion8d ago

This is the worst possible answer to this conundrum. Blaming the masses is blaming the only people who are constantly “told” to buy.

Consumers are the only ones not to blame here. People make their own choices all the time. Disney movies are bombing and DEInis being blamed. Has that been enough to put Disney out of business? No and it never will.

Christopher8d ago

Disagree. Businesses are able to do what they do because people are bad consumers and don't think critically about purchases. Disney got away with doing shit stuff for years and it's just the last year where people got tired of it. It's not like it didn't work for 5 years or so for Disney to do the things they've done. They'll just move onto another way to get people to see movies and it will be just as bad but more profitable until people wake up and realize it.

TiredGamer8d ago

Consumerism drives business behavior. It's not so much "blaming" as it is observing behavior. The point I'm making is that the direction that games have gone are driven by the spending. Consumers are spending on DLC and they are driving the expectation of more glitz and padded out (lengthier) games. If they continue to pay, they will continue to drive that direction until a threshold is reached that forces a change in behavior.

senorfartcushion8d ago

Corporate advertising is the most powerful force on the planet.

This is N4G for god sake, every day there are arguments between people who are Team Xbox and Team PlayStation because they’ve been convinced that having an identity built on paying money to Sony and Microsoft matters more than having one as individual gamers who can play whatever they want.

And THEN we get to the corporate advertising part: to play whatever you want is to sink MORE into the advertising pits, making it so that you can more than one specific product.

jambola8d ago

ah you're right
they were told to buy it, it's clearly impossible to avoid that
if enough people stopped supporting, it would stop
disney not stopping would only be because enough people didn't stop

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victorMaje8d ago

Agreed. I’ve been saying for years, announce you won’t be buying the upcoming game because of the practices of the previous game, then you only have to stick to your guns once, see how quickly things change for the better.

We have to unite in what we shouldn’t purchase.

jambola8d ago

just imagine a world, fifa came out worse, nobody buys the next one until they see proof it's better and stick to it
or games being forced online for single player and nobody buys it
things would change so fast

HyperMoused8d ago

Just like scooby doo, you have shown us the real monsters are us

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Inverno8d ago

Greed and greedy people have and always will be the main issue for everything wrong in the world. Everything is a product to be exploited for monetary gain. Even when there are things that could help progress us along for the sake of making our lives easier that thing must be exploited for monetary gains. Anything that tells you otherwise is propaganda to make you complicit.

coolfool8d ago

I've never thought "DEI" (although the way most people use it doesn't match it's real definition) is the problem with games. Good games have continued to be good when they have a diverse cast, and likewise, bad games have continued to be bad. There isn't a credible example I've seen where a diverse cast has been the direct cause of a game being bad.

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110°

PC Gaming Show 2025

Tune in on June 8th for this summer's PC Gaming Show, featuring exclusive trailers, new game announcements, and developer interviews from around the world. Hosted by Sean "Day[9]" Plott, Mica Burton, and Frankie Ward, the showcase will include 70+ of the most exciting games in development, all of which can be found on our Steam Wishlist.