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.