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History of video games/Platforms/OnLive

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History[edit | edit source]

Development[edit | edit source]

OnLive was in development for seven years before it was announced at GDC 2009.[1][2]

At GDC 2009 the microconsole was publicly shown.[3]

The company tried a number of strategies to entice users, including offering a $99 streaming microconsole, and having a $9.99 a month PlayPack subscription service for getting access to a library of games.[4]

OnLive and semi-competing service Gaikai did not have a good relationship, despite reported attempts by Gaikai employees to be cordial.[4]

Launch[edit | edit source]

On September 22nd, 2011 OnLive launched in the United Kingdom in preparation for a full European launch.[5][6]

The Onlive Microconsole had a December 2nd, 2010 release date announced.[7] The microconsole sold for $99 US dollars[7] or 70 British pounds.[8]

In February 2011 some microconsoles were given at now additional cost to users who preordered the game Homefront.[9]

Legacy[edit | edit source]

By 2012, OnLive had nearly gone bankrupt, despite massive investments.[10] Most OnLive staff were laid off, with the service only having at most 1,600 simultaneous users.[4]

After being purchased by Sony, OnLive was shut down on April 30th, 2015.[11]

Some in the industry saw the story of Onlive as one which jaded them to cloud gaming technologies, or as a cautionary tale of sorts.[12][13]

Technology[edit | edit source]

Cloud system[edit | edit source]

Little is known of the technical specifications used by OnLive on the backend.

Microconsole[edit | edit source]

Compute[edit | edit source]

The OnLive microconsole uses a Marvell 88DE3010 SoC, which uses dual modified ARMv5 Architecture PJ1 Sheeva processor cores clocked at one gigahertz.[14][15] The microconsole has one gigabyte of DDR2-800 SDRAM for system memory.[14] Persistent storage on the microconsole is handled by NAND SLC flash storage with a capacity of two gigabytes.[14]

The 88DE3010 SoC also included hardware video decoding capabilities.[16] Compression used by the service on the microconsole was noticeable.[17]

Hardware[edit | edit source]

The microconsole has an gigabit ethernet port for network connectivity as well as an HDMI port for AV output.[18][8] Twin Component video output was supported with an optional adapter.[19] Audio could alternatively be output over a 3.5" audio jack or optical S/PDIF port.[8]

USB ports on the front of the microconsole allowed for alternate input devices.[20]

The OnLive microconsole takes 12 volts DC at 1.5 Amps, drawing as much as 18 watts of electricity.[14] However Engadget said in their review of the microconsole that the system only used 6 watts of power.[21]

Controller[edit | edit source]

The controller was known as the "Owl".[22]

The wireless controller reduced wireless latency by using a proprietary wireless protocol said to be similar to IEEE 802.15.4.[3] OnLive boasted that their wireless protocol had a lower latency then a wired USB connection.[23]

The controller had built in rumble support.[24] The controller also featured a "BragClip" sharing button.[21]

Notable games[edit | edit source]

Most games offered through OnLive were AAA titles.[25]

Datacenter Locations[edit | edit source]

Proximity to Datacenters was important for OnLive users, as latency issues made the service suboptimal beyond 1000 miles (1609.34 kilometers) from a datacenter.[26] Known datacenter locations for OnLive Include:

OnLive Game System[edit | edit source]

  • OnLive Controller
    OnLive Controller

External Resources[edit | edit source]

Wikipedia has related information at OnLive

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: OnLive

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Remo, Chris. "GDC: OnLive Announces Cloud-Based Gaming Service". www.gamasutra.com. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  2. ↑ Mangalindan, J. P. (15 October 2020). "Cloud gaming's history of false starts and promising reboots". Polygon. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  3. ↑ a b Lowe, Scott (18 November 2010). "OnLive MicroConsole Review" (in en). IGN. https://www.ign.com/articles/2010/11/18/onlive-microconsole-review. 
  4. ↑ a b c Hollister, Sean (28 August 2012). "OnLive lost: how the paradise of streaming games was undone by one man's ego". The Verge. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  5. ↑ Savov, Vlad (21 September 2011). "OnLive launches in the UK today, September 22nd; rolling out to rest of Europe soon". The Verge. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  6. ↑ Parrish, Kevin (September 23, 2011). "OnLive CEO: We Are The Next-Generation Console" (in en). Tom's Hardware. https://www.tomshardware.com/news/OnLive-Xbox-PlayStation-Wii-U-Steve-Perlman,13502.html. 
  7. ↑ a b Perlee, Ben (18 November 2010). "Review: The OnLive MicroConsole and Controller" (in en-CA). Destructoid. https://www.destructoid.com/review-the-onlive-microconsole-and-controller/. 
  8. ↑ a b c Orphanides, Kat (November 13, 2011). "OnLive MicroConsole & Service review" (in en). Expert Reviews. https://www.expertreviews.co.uk/games/51262/onlive-microconsole-service-review. 
  9. ↑ Orl, Kyle (25 February 2011). "OnLive Offering Free Microconsole With Homefront Pre-Order" (in en). Game Developer. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/console/onlive-offering-free-microconsole-with-i-homefront-i-pre-order. 
  10. ↑ "HTC to book loss of $40 million US with OnLive". Windows Central. 20 August 2012. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  11. ↑ Lowensohn, Josh (2 April 2015). "Sony buys streaming games service OnLive only to shut it down". The Verge. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  12. ↑ Bashir, Dale (5 April 2022). "Dissecting The Rise of Game Streaming Services With Antstream Arcade CEO Steve Cottam" (in en-sg). IGN Southeast Asia. https://sea.ign.com/atari-1/183838/news/dissecting-the-rise-of-game-streaming-services-with-antstream-arcade-ceo-steve-cottam. 
  13. ↑ "The failure of OnLive is a lesson for Stadia and xCloud" (in en). Android Authority. 21 November 2019. https://www.androidauthority.com/throwbackthursday-onlive-service-1056966/. 
  14. ↑ a b c d "OnLive Game System Teardown". electronics360.globalspec.com. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  15. ↑ S, Ganesh T. (March 11, 2011). "Nixeus Fusion XS Brings Marvell into the DMA Market". www.anandtech.com. https://www.anandtech.com/show/4214/nixeus-fusion-xs-brings-marvell-into-the-dma-market/2. 
  16. ↑ "Company - Newsroom - New Marvell HD Media Processor System-on-a-Chip Brings Award-Winning Qdeo Processing to Next-Generation Consumer Electronics Devices - Marvell". www.marvell.com. https://www.marvell.com/company/newsroom/new-marvell-hd-media-processor-system-on-chip-brings-award-winning-qdeo-processing-to-next-generation-consumer-electronics-devices.html. 
  17. ↑ "OnLive MicroConsole" (in en-gb). PCMag UK. 20 July 2011. https://uk.pcmag.com/first-looks/20571/onlive-microconsole. 
  18. ↑ "The Escapist : Forums : The News Room : OnLive's MicroConsole Aims to Make Console Gaming Easier". v1.escapistmagazine.com. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  19. ↑ Leung, Justin (September 15, 2011). "OnLive MicroConsole (Review) | Skatter". skatter.com. https://skatter.com/2011/09/onlive-microconsole-review/. 
  20. ↑ Ackerman, Dan. "OnLive MicroConsole review: OnLive MicroConsole" (in en). CNET. https://www.cnet.com/reviews/onlive-microconsole-series-review/. 
  21. ↑ a b Nelson, R. (November 18, 2010). "OnLive MicroConsole review: The hardware and experience". Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/2010-11-18-onlive-microconsole-review.html. 
  22. ↑ Pikover, James (22 November 2010). "Ars reviews the OnLive microconsole, service" (in en-us). Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2010/11/onlive-1/. 
  23. ↑ Chen, Jason (18 November 2010). "OnLive MicroConsole Streams Cloud-Rendered Games to Your TV" (in en-us). Gizmodo. https://gizmodo.com/onlive-microconsole-streams-cloud-rendered-games-to-you-5692903. 
  24. ↑ Purchese, Robert (20 September 2010). "OnLive MicroConsole dated, priced" (in en-gb). Eurogamer.net. https://www.eurogamer.net/onlive-microconsole-dated-and-priced. 
  25. ↑ "ONLIVE PARTNERS WITH SAMSUNG TO BRING AAA GAMES TO NEW SAMSUNG GALAXY DEVICES". www.gamasutra.com. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  26. ↑ a b c d e f "The infrastructure behind Stadia and the next evolution of cloud gaming". Techerati. https://www.techerati.com/features-hub/opinions/edge-data-centre-cloud-gaming-stadia-google-5g/. 
  27. ↑ a b c d e "OnLive CEO does live demo, launch details 'soon'". GameSpot. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/onlive-ceo-does-live-demo-launch-details-soon/1100-6251495/. 
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