OnLive's cloud gaming service headed to mobile phones?
OnLive’s cloud gaming service looks set to work on mobile phones as well as PCs and laptops, according to CEO Steve Perlman.
At a financial conference in New York, Perlman showed the service running not only on a TV and PC, but also simultaneously on two iPhones.
OnLive works in a similar way to cloud computing. Users choose and sync with a game from an online database, which is then rendered remotely by a ridiculously powerful machine. Gamers then remotely control the game, with the server sending back only the video of what is being played. Therefore a user’s hardware can be relatively weak and still be used for high quality gaming, provided they have a fast and stable internet connection.
Perlman did admit that playing high-end PC games on a mobile handset may be too ambitious for the foreseeable future however, but was keen to promote the social elements of OnLive that would be available to mobile phone users.
“We have further development to do, and we need approvals from some cell phone makers before we can release OnLive to the public. So, for now, OnLive on a cell phone is only a technology demo.”
A demo it may be for the time being, but it’s certainly interesting to see OnLive stretching its legs out in the handheld and mobile market. Here’s hoping, hey?
