I Call Shenanigans on Phones Using OnLive

If you look at the way ISPs market mobile data plans its clearly skewed towards business users. Who need to access their email, analytics, and administrative panels at any given time. Lets take a look at AT&T’s price scheme for a second. Business users can pay $35 a month for 200MB or $60 a month for 5GB. Smartphone plans start at $35 a month for unlimited usage, and $65 a month for tethering with a 5GB a month data plan. No business is going to pay for their $35 a month for a 200MB plan if you can get an unlimited plan for the same price. Lets be serious they’re only giving cell phone users 200MB of bandwidth for the $35 a month before they start traffic shaping. The use of the word ‘unlimited’ is marketing. Like Coach, Inc. calling their products designer, yet they have over 10,000 employees.

Then just yesterday PC World published this article. AT&T provides Internet ala carte access like AOL did in the 90’s.  I’d hate to compare them to Acai Berry diet programs, but in many ways thats exactly what they are. In my opinion what they’re doing is just a form of a negative bill option payment system. Which is where a company bills you after you trial period is up on their product. Instead of AT&T giving their product away they charge their customers for amounts they know they’re going to exceed, and jack up the prices on overages higher than a credit card company.

When you watch an HD video on Youtube that lasts 10 minutes you’re using about 75MB of bandwidth. Lets just say you have a regular ole $35 a month plan. You can play less than 30 minutes of OnLive on your phone a month, Huzzah! User you minutes wisely. If you play your cards right you can play for 45 seconds every day. If you have the $60 a month data plan you’re talking 11hrs of play time. Which is much better, but you got to remember the phone plans start at $29.99. Plus the cost of your OnLive subscription. So lets see… thats atleast $1,200 a year + the cost of your phone.

AT&T’s network is spotty — thank god the iPhone is WiFi enabled.

Truth About Cloud Gaming

The MicroConsole proves OnLive was forced by the economic crisis to play its hand to early. What kind of Internet based gadget slated for release in 2009 doesn’t support WiFi? Sure, the Palm Prixi doesn’t support WiFi, but it’s a gone phone. A phone doesn’t have to be connected to the Internet to function. The MicroConsole so half-assed there is no way it’s a commercial product.

I honestly believe they wrapped up a testing prototype in a commercial shell and called it a product. If they couldn’t secure venture capital, and prove their worth by April there’d be no OnLive. Investors were going to can the project. We really don’t know how long they’ve actually been developing the product for. A lot of that stuff is PR fluff. Like the story behind Digg or Myspace.

The way they cut Gaikai off at the pass wasn’t so much brilliant as it was absolutely desperate. I mean, right now to stay relevant they’re forced to show off quirky gimmicky things. Like playing OnLive on an iPhone or any phone in general. They have to play their hand that way because their product lost the ‘wow factor’ a while ago, but I’m fine fine with that. If you want to scale out a business like this you need investors. There is no other option. Their business model is about shaking up  the video game industry. The way things are right now it’s like they’re putting a V12 into a Geo Metro.

As time goes by I find consumer cost to be a larger and larger elephant in the room. Hypothetically the cheapest OnLive could go would be $9.95 a month, free MicroConsole, $50 a controller and $35 for a headset. The majority of gamers own at least two controllers. So the cost per console generation is $732. For most people thats about the cost of having an elite RROD, and going out and buying a new one.

Is this a revolution in gaming? No, thats an overstatement to say the least. It’s going to cost more money than traditional console in the long run for a couple of reasons.  The first is pretty obvious. You’re paying for the luxury of not having a mountain of games in your room. Secondly, buying stuff online isn’t like purchasing something at a store. Since you’re not exchanging something physical you piss money away like its nothing.

OnLive Over Confident

Have you ever looked at a TimeWarner ad? They talk an awesome game, but for whatever reason they never advertise the price of their services. Companies do things like that when they’re not confident they’ll be able to sell you their product. Remember how we were supposed to get an early summer stress test? Welp. That never really panned out now did it? It ended up being a small private beta test with NDA agreement to boot. Which doesn’t exactly ooze confidence like their previous PR campaigns.

If your product is so insanely killer why bother with the NDA agreements? It’s because they’re far from ready to release their product. Instead they’re forced to bait us with silly things like playing OnLive on an iPhone to stay relevant. Nothing in business is greater than having your brand labeled as the first of its kind. Who the hell even cares GaiKai exists? No one. It’s doomed to live in the shadow of OnLive. I honestly believe they announced their product to cut GaiKai off at the pass. Dave Perry and OTOY totally got incinerated, well played.

If OnLive launched this year it would be very DreamCast of them. From a business standpoint I don’t understand the risk. The video game industry is down about 25% year over year, and they were expecting to be flat this year.  It’s a great example of marketers and consumers not seeing eye to eye. $60 a game is $60 a game no matter how to try spinning it. Let us not forget rhythm games having all but collapsed under their own weight. All the Modern Warfare’s in the world wouldn’t make this year stellar.

With the likelihood of this recession double dipping rising, and populism screaming like the roaring 1920’s we might be in for some chop. The no more bailouts and stimulus hoo-rah-rah could be real kick the balls. In terms of venture capital investment in OnLive. Assuming none of that happens November 2010 is much more likely.

Glen Beck Craziness Over Consoles

Yes, I know important is spelled wrong, thats the point.

I don’t understand why people have religious like loyalties to a corporate brand. If someone so much a mentions why Leopard is superior to Windows Vista its an instant flame fest. For what ever reason I have the feeling that people treat operating systems like belief systems. There is something so tribal about how people angrily debate one another. Like a pack of dogs attacking a wounded alpha male. They are just products, so whats the big deal? Each company wants your money and they have two different ways of going after it.

The same thing has like sprung to life with OnLive. Just crazy nonsense people are spewing, its just insane. Consumers contrive the most bullshit, stupid arguments you will ever hear. Now, I’m not talking about skeptics, frankly I’m a little skeptical too. No, I’m talking the crazy elitism coming from respected sources or people like GameDaily or Dave Perry. Geez, its just a product, the goal of any product is to make money. I don’t get what is so hard to understand about that.

Its like we’ve gotten the point where operating systems and game consoles are more than just products. They are like relics, which is crazy like Glen Beck. The goal of any company regardless of if its non-profit or not is to make money. People get offended like when I tell their grandmother in a coma is cyborg, or a fetus is a humanoid parasite. While both of those are true, morality tells them otherwise even if its wrong. But, come on, a product is a product.

For you nay sayers about what a parasite actually is, dictionary: Something that resembles a biological parasite in dependence on something else for existence or support without making a useful or adequate return. Any organism that relies on a machine is a cyborg. Morally offensive or not, its the truth.

Now thats something you can truly be offended by. Not some possibility of a product being better than its competition. How great of marketing is that? You make a product that becomes part of someones moral fabric. Crazy, crazy like Glen Beck.

Gamedaily Takes Cheap Shot at OnLive

Congratulations Gamedaily, you now have +1 to backhanded compliments.

Ladies and gentlemen, it appears GameDaily has accept Dave Perry’s challenge to a douche off! In their recent gallery article featured on the AIM dashboard page. GameDaily took the opprotunity to group the OnLive with the likes of the Philips CD-i and the Intellevision. But wait? The OnLive service isn’t even out yet. Is it really fair to put the OnLive service in an article named “Short Shelf Life: Video Game Consoles That Failed Miserably”? Oh but of course, they too this great opprotunity to “wish it the best of luck”, but also group it with the worst consoles of all time.

So where’s that leave OnLive?
OnLive certainly has more working in its favor than any of these systems. It has the third-party support, a strong outreach to the gaming community and a savvy marketing campaign. However, only time will determine its success. We certainly wish it the best of luck – and hope it comes with a controller that’s easy to use. – Robert Workman 

Source: GameDaily