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Tech Check
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Get ready for the world's first subscription, download gamer network, courtesy of OnLive, a new company debuting this week from the entrepreneur who brought us WebTV all those many years ago.
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Paul Sakuma / AP |
OnLive, the brainchild of Steve Perlman, and in stealth mode these last seven years, was supposed to be unveiled at a splashy San Francisco event Tuesday night, on the eve of the big Computer Games Developer Conference Wednesday. Instead, details began to leak Monday night.
In my interview with Perlman, he told me he has lofty goals for his new venture, most notably providing a measure of competition for the three top console makers, Microsoft [MSFT
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], Sony [SNE
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] and Nintendo [NTDOY
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] that they have never seen before. And before you think "hyperbole," that there's no way a tiny start-up could unseat the big boys, might I remind you of Apple [AAPL
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], Google [GOOG
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] and any other garage venture from Silicon Valley.
OnLive includes a tiny set-top box Perlman calls the "MicroConsole" that links the internet and the company's service to your TV, as long as your part of the country (that's the 70 percent part) has a broadband connection. Any laptop with a wi-fi, other wireless or network connection won't need the box.
Once you're linked to the subscription based service, you'll have access to game titles from Warner Bros., Ubisoft, Take-Two Interactive, Electronic Arts, Eidos, Atari and a host of other top publishers who will all be announcing partnerships with the new service. Games can be accessed through the web, either bought or rented, and played by just a few participants, or players can play against thousands. There are no downloads, the games will live on OnLive's servers. It's an application of so-called "cloud computing" that the industry really hasn't seen before.
But here's the rub, and why Perlman tells me the days of the traditional console might be dwindling: Because the games live on servers and aren't downloaded, it won't matter what console you need, or what platform the games were developed for. They'll simply work on any TV, PC or Mac.
"When you watch a movie on TV, you don't think about what it was developed for, it just works," Perlman tells me. The same will be said of video games. And players will be able to access the games at a fraction of the cost of today's experience. Says Perlman, "Some consoles cost $300 or $400 or $500. Even more in some cases. So now, instead of spending all that money on a console, they can spend it on the games instead. Doesn't that sound more fun?"
He might have something here. While only a couple of dozen titles will be available when the service officially launches later this year, Perlman easily envisions entire libraries of titles available instantly with a simple click.
The games, their graphics -- no matter how complex -- will go directly to TV or computer through compression technology Perlman and his team have been slaving over for the past seven years. Publishers love the idea because there's virtually no chance of pirating the games on the service they're stored on the company's secure servers.
Perlman's incubator, Rearden Labs, grew OnLive with investment help from AutoDesk, Warner Bros., and Maverick Capital. And while other companies have tried this approach, none has come to market with the list of publishing partners/investors that OnLive boasts.
Perlman is joined on his management team by former Eidos Interactive CEO Michael McGarvey and Charles Jablonski, former VP of broadcast and engineering at NBC.
More details are expected at an official announcement Tuesday night.
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