The buzz over streaming PC games through broadband is steadily increasing as services like OnLive and Gaikai butt heads to bring about a new age in digital game distribution. Appeal for streaming games comes from the ability to play even the most demanding titles no matter the end-user's PC/Mac hardware configuration, as such games are run remotely from servers. OnLive is also offering a "micro-console" that allows these games to be streamed to televisions instead. Streaming service providers are quick to harp about the impending benefits, but game developers themselves aren't expecting gamers to see these for a little while. Crysis developer Crytek for example believes such services won't be feasible until at least 2013.
Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli explains that it won't be until 2013-2015 before broadband connections in households become more viable globally, with the bandwidth to match. OnLive's president Steve Perlman earlier noted the company overcame a major obstacle in streaming gameplay through development of a custom-built video-encoding chip used in their hardware setups; before then, their gameplay demos were limited to pitifully small resolutions. In other words, the key to their strategy lies in a custom video compression algorithm designed specifically for PC games, capable of encoding and compressing video into data in a matter of milliseconds. However, Yerli believes a more pressing bottleneck will be the broadband providers themselves, and what infrastructure improvements will be possible over the next few years. Crytek isn't a stranger to the topic, havingresearched streaming game servicesas far back as 2005 before holding out:
"It doesn't take a lot to make a video-based renderer, but what you need is the right infrastructure that is beyond the technology we have, it's more like cable net providers and communication networks... They have to provide fast bandwidths and connectivity in order to allow such technology to excel. So as it was dependent on somebody else, we decided to wait."The advent of OnLive certainly spurred some head-turning headlines pondering the end of hardware-based gaming as we knew it. Since then, there's been healthy discussion over just how feasible the streaming of games over broadband connection will be when put in practice. Perhaps the fact that OnLive actually has a demo that works is already a big win, but there's always more devils in the details that will need to be addressed and tackled as such services gradually roll out.
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