gamers will love this

[jedi tom]

http://www.onlive.com/

i soooo want one of these when they are realeased they look so cool although they only have plans to release in the U.S.A :(

[Jedi-Loreen]

That's pretty cool.

[astromech_kuhns]

YYYYYYYYEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!

that is super sick! im glad i just started the beginning of my gaming computer( or it will be later on)

i like that!!!!!! im betting you get a account and you get unlimited games to play whenever. thats cool!

[Rhyen Skytracker]

That is so awesome. Must have it.

[sithlordfaust]

NoOoOoOoooooo

this is the beginning of the push for the loss of physical media.
software companies dont want you to own physical media that you
can do what you want with. want to bring a game to your friends, tuff luck you only have a digital copy. wanna trade in your game for something new? tuff luck you have a collection of 1s and 0s that are worthless to anyone other than you.

if this trend progresses, your money will be spent on a license to play a game.
a licensed that can be revoked at any time for any reason. leaving you with worthless 1s and 0s taking up your harddrive space that are no longer playable because the companie chose to discontinue the server service to the game.
this already happens with physical media games, but at least you are still left with a single player game.

[Jedi-Loreen]

Oh. :o

I didn't think about that.

Not good and UNcool, then. :-(

:-x

[DJMoonbass]

NoOoOoOoooooo

this is the beginning of the push for the loss of physical media......................................

well when you put it thaaaaat way. it does sound bad.


theres pros and cons. i mean it would be nice not to have to install EVERY game on your computer and have to worry about compatabilty and hard drive space. then theres all those disks to keep track of and if you want a new game you have to go to the store.

now you can just get one click booyah.

then the cons are what SLF pointed out.

so like i said: Pros and Cons. everybody has there own opinions.

[X]

It reminds me of "The Phantom" gaming console that was supost to come out back in 2002-2004. I was working for Gamestop at the time and I went to E3 2004 and they had private rooms with units set up. The phantom was going to be like this Online service, but they pulled the plug before giving a release date for it even.

[astromech_kuhns]

never thought about that SLF, uncool........

plus it says it runs on lower end computers so im betting its quality will not be that great.

[sithlordfaust]

it would be cool, if the idea wouldnt encroach on established gaming comerce and the abliilty to own a physical copy of a game.

I suspect though that it will be a while before something like this can take off.
prbably the smae reason the Phantom didnt release.

Our IT infustructure doesnt currently have the capacity for ondemand gaming like this. Broadband penetration still hasnt reached many nonrural areas much less the rural ones.

and if you read the specs, the delay is several hundred milliseconds btween the unit and your computer, not to mention network ping times. it may not sound like much but, depending on the game type, this kind of lag/delay can destroy a gaming session.

as for PC gaming, youve got steam. not totally on demand but you dont have to go to a store to buy the game and can even get a physical copy from them as well

[Novastar]

Yup... thumbs DOWN on it.

It's as bad as stuff like the Starforce "anti-piracy" thing and SecuRom. And they solve absolutely *NO* real-world problems. Mind you... REAL WORLD problems.

Sure, sure... they make it SOUND the part though, don't they... :)

[Darth Zion]

The future of most media wil be the loss of a physical disc. Look at music, how many of you still carry around a walkman. Even peolple like George Lucas have said within the next 5 or so years DVD's will be no more. Not only are disks costly to make but are bad for the enviroment. Xbox 360 and PS3 all ready have games that can be dwnloaded direct to your harddrive. they are great, not haveing to look for a disk. Also when you can just jump in to a game and not have to go and switch the disk, it makes playing with friends easier. I am willing to bet thet with in 5 more years we will not be buying games from a "store."

[Rafalema]

I don't think I would like this idea, either.

When you download a game, you don't get the exciting feeling first putting it to the console/PC.

It's true, that most propably in the future we will lose the physical discs, and move onto downloadable games.

[Invisas1979]

The future of most media wil be the loss of a physical disc. Look at music, how many of you still carry around a walkman. Even peolple like George Lucas have said within the next 5 or so years DVD's will be no more. Not only are disks costly to make but are bad for the enviroment. Xbox 360 and PS3 all ready have games that can be dwnloaded direct to your harddrive. they are great, not haveing to look for a disk. Also when you can just jump in to a game and not have to go and switch the disk, it makes playing with friends easier. I am willing to bet thet with in 5 more years we will not be buying games from a "store."

But you can't play the games without the physical disk.

Walkmans have been replaced by IPods which you generally still need physical disks for. Yes you can buy the mp3's as downloads but they do cost more in things like itunes.

Being totally reliable on another company is not good should they revoke your membership or something similar. There will, as in most contracts be a clause saying they reserve the right to revoke or change the contract as they see fit (though probably not in those words).

Yeah saveing space is great, not having to go to the shop to buy our games great, though in reality that is just leading to the couch potato side of the force and soon we won't even be able to lift our lightsabers let alone swing them......

[Scars Unseen]

In addition, some ISPs(such as, I believe, all of them in Australia) have a monthly bandwidth caps. So now you have one company(the distributor) that can tell you that you can no longer play the game you paid for, and another(the ISP) telling you how many games you can buy/play per month. And the problem is made worse if the game is streaming. Now you have to essentially download the assets of the game every time you play.

[cannibal869]

Ever notice how "instantly" doesn't always mean "instantly"?
Like others said, it really depends on the robustness of your network and broadband connection. Especially if you're planning on playing stuff in HD...

[Nineteen]

Digital distribution(DD) probably won't see any popular use within the next decade. There are plenty of people who testify that they won't buy DD games because they like to have something physical. In fact, there was a non-scientific study done(this is hearsay by me, I'm not sure what the source is) that said people wouldn't even buy a console game that was DD for $9.99. In fact, there is already a pure DD console out there: the PSP Go!. However, it's a testament to how DD is not popular: it failed miserably as a console.

TL;DR: The world isn't ready for a pure digital distribution console or a DD market yet.

[jedi tom]

why do you have to make everything cool look bad i still think this is pretty cool though even if they will ban you or watever

[TimeRender]

Yeah, I'm not really sure what the big deal is. I heard about this months ago and thought it was a great idea. People felt the same way about giving up gold coins for paper money, and giving up paper money for credit and debit cards, but eventually the convenience won out over the desire for a tangible product. Personally, I'd rather give up my disks and pay a subscription fee if it meant not having to shell out $500 every few years to buy the newest hardware. Sure, I lose the right to trade my games in, but the games will probably cost less to begin with anyway. And since I don't need to buy the consoles, I will always have the most up-to-date gaming system out there. That will be especially appealing to people like me who want to play a game every now and then but aren't really hardcore gamers who will get their money's worth out of a new system.

[Sunrider]

The taking of ones right to own your own media is not cool.:( I myself do not see what is cool about the interactive universe. Long distance data transfer has a long way to go before it will work in even yesterdays games.

[Darth Zion]

I personally have bought and dwnloaded 3 full xbox games over xbox live. I love it. I takes a while for games to dwnload but they are the full game and no need for any disk. It is nice to be able to just get a invite from a friend and just start the game.

[Thaxos]

I game on PC a lot, and I enjoy Steam for the digital download. Also, you can create a physical copy as a backup so there's no worries there. Unless you are cheating on one of Valve's games, you won't lose the ability to play on any servers. Only time you get VAC banned is if you are truly cheating and then you do indeed deserve it.

[TimeRender]

Taking away your rights? That's ridiculous SR. You have the right to buy games for other systems. The only GOOD reason to want to own a physical copy of the games you play is so you can trade them back for pennies on the dollar. I'd rather just buy them for less to begin with. The idea that they will ban you for life for no reason is stupid. Look at other subscription based games, like WoW. Do they ban people for no reason? No way, because a banned player isn't producing any money. They ban people for cheating, which you wouldn't be able to do with this system anyway. As for the complaints about anti-piracy, if you don't plan on stealing the game and breaking the law it doesn't matter.

[Sunrider]

If you can't load something locally, Modify it, move it, or play without an internet connection = LAME.;)

[Hasid Lafre]

No I do not love this, give me my hard copy disk anyday.

[Scars Unseen]

That's actually a very good point. When I was deployed in the Middle East one of the things that really helped me get through the days was playing some of my favorite games on my laptop. With this system I'd be stuck playing the classics(no that I mind that too much. I like the classics).

[jedi tom]

ok you managed to sway me a bit, i still think this is a cool idea but now i think about it having a hard copy has its advantages i like it the way it is like with the xbox 360 and ps3 which is a combination of both.

[sithlordfaust]

Taking away your rights? That's ridiculous SR. You have the right to buy games for other systems. The only GOOD reason to want to own a physical copy of the games you play is so you can trade them back for pennies on the dollar. I'd rather just buy them for less to begin with. The idea that they will ban you for life for no reason is stupid. Look at other subscription based games, like WoW. Do they ban people for no reason? No way, because a banned player isn't producing any money. They ban people for cheating, which you wouldn't be able to do with this system anyway. As for the complaints about anti-piracy, if you don't plan on stealing the game and breaking the law it doesn't matter.

Yes take away your licensing rights. MS does it and Sony does it, and not even for cheating. one individual who was a part of Sony's playstation home beta, talked smack about the app on the beta forum. his PSN username was banned, his PS3 was MAC banned and he could no longer play the DD games he had payed for. So yes there was a reason. was it a good one? no. but according to the companies or any given games EULA (end user licensing agreement) they dont need any reason to do whatever they want. WoW has banned players who have created stinks on their user forums as well. they are willing to lose a few bux to be rid of people whos opinions dont mesh with the company.

Do you really think publishers are gonna charge less just because they cut out a couple of middlemen? why would they when they would be making that much more profit. example. several of he PSPGo DD games are more expensive on the playstation store than they are for their UMD disc based equivilents. and they may be cutting out middlemen, but they are adding server space and the manpower to maintain it.

and yes my complaints about anti-piracy are valid and have nothing to do with piracy. DD is the industires new way of battling piracy. unfortunately it comes with a cost to paying customers and like many anti-piracy schemes will have little effect on persitant, and skilled pirates.
I can give you a lot of reasons why people want their physical media, and theyre all GOOD reasons. not just being able to trade it in. frankly,when I spend my hard earned dollars on something, I want to be able to do whatever I want with that item. Including; trading, lending, bringing a game to a friends house who doesnt have the game, handing it down to my son, displaying them in my games library, or even using the disc as a coaster. theyre called consumer rights, and I dont like them being taken away.

as far as convenience... I can go to the store and buy the game and be home and playing it before youve got 25% downloaded. and I picked up munchies while I was at it.

[Thaxos]

as far as convenience... I can go to the store and buy the game and be home and playing it before youve got 25% downloaded. and I picked up munchies while I was at it.

Going to have to disagree with you there Faust, (of course this all depends on internet download rate) but with Steam, once you have it downloaded, it is pretty much ready to go installed. You might tweak a few settings, but that's it. I can easily download it faster than going out to buy the game and then installing the game.
A rough estimate on my part, would put the download at the same speed, if not slightly faster than the install. As for munchies, I can go out and buy them while it downloads at home. :D

This is all solely with respect to Steam. I have physical copies of all the games I own on Steam (except for a few recent ones I bought and have yet to backup to the disc)

Just my two cents

[TimeRender]

Ok, so I'm not aware of any instances where people have been banned for illegitimate reasons, and you didn't exactly cite any sources, but I'll take your word for it.

I stand by what I said about your rights, however. You don't have any. Period. You have the right to buy the product that a company sells. When you go to the movie theater and buy a ticket for a show, the ticket doesn't come with a DVD of the film. You say you don't like your right to use the disk as a coaster taken away. That's not an accurate portrayal of the situation. You had the privilege of doing what you want with property that you OWN, but your rights are not infringed upon if a company chooses not to sell you something. If game companies ditch disks in favor of downloads, they haven't taken away any of your rights.

Now as for cutting down on the cost of the game, yes, I believe they will, and there are already business models in existence that illustrate this. Gametap and other game rental stores don't charge you full price to play their games. You pay a monthly fee and you have unlimited access. Now at the end of your membership period you may have nothing left to show for your money, but for a lot of people it is still much more economical than paying full price.

You mention that anti-piracy techniques only hurt the consumers. I can tell you that I have never been adversely affected by any anti-piracy technology except when I was trying to use something illegally, which in all honesty I have. And this system may put the nail in the coffin anyway because it is impossible to hack this. This device doesn't download games at all. It downloads the video feed of a game that is being played on another machine. Since no actual game data is being sent to the system, there is nothing for pirates to steal. It's just a television signal. That's how it can play top-end games without lagging even on old computers. If your cable TV doesn't lag, neither will the games played on this thing. It also means that there are no long waits to download anything, so I'll be sitting at home playing my game while you're still fastening your seatbelt on the way to the store to buy it.

Now I admit, you won't be able to pass this along to your son, you can't use it as a coaster, and if you want to take it to a friend's house you'll have to take the whole system. Oh well, the system is pretty small. I just think that all the fuss some of you are making is a bit exaggerated, ESPECIALLY claiming that this is an infringement of your rights.

In the end the market will decide. If people don't buy it, whether or not their reasons are rational, it will disappear.

[Sunrider]

This is all solely with respect to Steam.

I myself have no respect for steam. What a pain to deal with. I had to remove it from my computer because that thing took over my computer at every start up & never turns off.

Definition; Own

to take into one's possession

Definition; possess

to have and hold as property

If you download something & you can't copy it where is your property?;)

[sithlordfaust]

Im not saying this specific device is taking away my rights. I say the accumultion of products such as this one in the market place will remove the ability to purchace a specific type of product in regards to the choice of media and the rights to do as I wish with whatever media I choose to purchase.

as for performance of this machine. rent one buy one or borrow one and let us know what kind of lag this devise has.
while video does not lag, you re not just viewing video, you are interacting with it and it is not on a prerecorded reel.. go start an ondemand movie on your cable service and see how long it takes from the time you click "buy" to the time the movie starts. whiole it might not seem long, imagine that kind of RELAY time while mashing buttons on a controller.

Not everybody may see the situation the way I do. Im just saying for the sake of Consumer Rights, I will not support this kind of product and business model.

How would you feel about spending $175 on a CF board if Erv made it so it could be remotely deactivated, and it was permanently installed in one hilt without which it couldnt work?

[Crystal Chambers]

There is no ownership here, just paying for a service provided.

DD puts US ALL at risk to to our accounts being highjacked...if someone can put charges on your credit cards, or phone/internet and your service is disconnected and you can't afford to pay for it, it's your loss. I don't trust leaving myself vulnerable to this system at all where you own nothing and all becomes virtual.

Besides... how many monthly payments to online gaming would equal buying a disc/download...in the long run it's a loose loose situation and we're the only ones taking the loss.

Offering the option could be convenient, however we seem to be willing to fight for freedom and then give it away again for convenience. We're so afraid of be victimized (robbery/pirating or even terrorism etc) that we give up our control over physical media and our privacy to corporations invested in and owned by governments who influence us by their corporate control over media. This is how the corporate world is gaining more and more control over us. We're creating digital trails where all of our movements can be traced, and and even controlled. When the economy, corporations, and governments have so much control on the world, this evolution of our media and it's power over us is a very slippery slope.

It's a known fact that is even acknowledged by mainstream media that the same systems used to trace all communications for terrorist activity is probably scanning this now! Not probable but possible.

You may think I've drifted off topic yet all of our consumer activity as a collective whole harnesses power to make great change in the world and something so small as buying GPS or DD has HUGE potential to steer the world in a bad direction. The newest cell phones have tracking devices so you can see where your friends are and I can twitter when I go number 2. I don't understand how anyone can sit idle and let these things occur.

I'm all for going green but I don't think forking over our "green" or physical merchandise is any reasonable solution.

[Shadar Al'Niende]

*silently weeps in a corner, rocking himself and his video games back and forth...back and forth...*

[Crystal Chambers]

Sadly some people actually have this reaction to the potential of this reality and this line of thought can really be scary.

I know my last post was kinda heavy, but I think it's a prime example of our responsibility as consumers.

[Shadar Al'Niende]

Just to be clear, this was more a post to lighten the mood with humor than a true reaction ;)

Not that im all that excited about all this DD stuff, just posted more to make people smile :D

[Thaxos]

This is all solely with respect to Steam.

I myself have no respect for steam. What a pain to deal with. I had to remove it from my computer because that thing took over my computer at every start up & never turns off.

Definition; Own

to take into one's possession

Definition; possess

to have and hold as property

If you download something & you can't copy it where is your property?;)
I must respectfully disprove you.
I am 95% certain you had more than just Steam running on bootup, it was probably just the final straw to overload your computer and slow it down to where you can no longer stand it. And there IS an option to not have it load on startup ;) As for it never turning off, all you need to do is click on the icon, and click exit.
With Steam you CAN copy it (I have all but my latest 2 purchased games copied to discs), there's your property.
I would be more than happy to assist you in correcting these issues so you can enjoy using Steam.

[Sunrider]

No need. I already banished it.;) I don't think I was the only one. I heard of others complaining too. Maybe it was just the version I had that came with half life.

Thank for the offer of help but these programs that constantly try to connect to the web annoy me.

It could also be that I don't keep my windows gaming computer connected to the internet. Bad MoJo.

That's great if you can make copies. Most of the DD stuff seems to be aimed at the alternative.