Would you use a streaming gaming service?

[Squark]

Nope, for some of the same reasons that have already been mentioned. Input lag would be horrible and my Internet speed is just not reliable enough.

 

[Bodster]

For now I would say no. I don't believe we have a good enough network infrastructure for it to work properly, certainly not in my area for me personally.

I tried onLive a few times and the input lag was too much and caused a lot of glitches/bugs in a game if my network connection was to change at all.

 

[HAz]

Until we all got 300mbps+ fibre to home connection, services like onlive won't work

 

[m4cc45]

Speed is only partially the issue the latency is the killer.

With Steam releasing in home streaming devices I don't see the point. It would, probably, be cheaper in the long term to buy a decent PC, game on Steam and then stream it internally than to subscribe.

In fact I don't get why anyone would want to rent a game. I say rent because you never will actually own it as if the service goes offline then you have no game. If the service is down for maintenance or if your internet connection is down it means you can't play a game that you've 'bought'.



M.

 

[Devrij]

Yeah, steam have nailed it with in home streaming. If you are on the go you probably won't have a connection you could stream over (3g? Nope). The only application would be having lan parties where you only had to bring a laptop, but you still have the latency issues to overcome.

 

[Finners]

More interested in the idea of a service like Netflix for games, monthly fee to play any game sounds alright.

Just allow us to download and play locally

 

[shanestatham]

Nah tried Onlive and wasnt impressed.

 

[Haggisman]

Speed is only partially the issue the latency is the killer.

Exactly. 1080p with decent compression is IIRC ~10-15mbps, so if you've got a ~20mb connection, you could easily "stream" a game at 1920x1080.

The difference between streaming video, and streaming games, is the feedback.

The problem is that every time you move the mouse, that movement needs to be sent down your internet connection to the server, and then the adjusted image sent back to you. Unfortunately that takes time, and considering even 10-15ms is considered a pretty good ping when connected to an online server, imagine that same 10-15ms latency whenever you move the mouse!

In fact I don't get why anyone would want to rent a game. I say rent because you never will actually own it as if the service goes offline then you have no game. If the service is down for maintenance or if your internet connection is down it means you can't play a game that you've 'bought'.

So a bit like Steam then? Which is technically a rental service