OnLive Claims Patent for Cloud-Based Gaming
"It is a landmark patent," said Envisioneering Group analyst Richard Doherty. "Perlman's patent is based on real-world, not speculation as so many are. And because 'gaming' is both broad and popular - it will likely see many rich media social gaming companies and services wanting to license it to find any differentiation."
OnLive recently introduced a $10 per month unlimited gaming plan--though some newer games are not included in the unlimited play--and has begun shipping its $99 MicroConsole, which connects to HDMI displays and comes with a controller for playing OnLive games away from your computer.
This could have serious implications for other cloud-based gaming services, including David Perry's Gaikai, but we will have to wait and see how it all shakes out and if anyone will be going to court over this patent.
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the archvile
reply-1, improper use of the word "Cloud"
-1, use of the word "Cloud"
The patent text doesn't even contain the word "cloud" (probably because it was filed in 2002, back before this whole "cloud" marketing thing really took off).-
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[Simplified]
"Cloud" usually refer to a system where many servers cooperate to bring content to a single user.
OnLive uses one server, running multiple games, to serve multiple (Or for demanding games just one) users. A standard client<>server model really.
OnLive obviously have multiple servers, but the servers themselves have no need to communicate with each other to serve their content (In this case, streaming a game), I.E. the server running Crysis does not need to communicate with or even know about the existence of the server running GTA IV
[/Simplified]-
Hmm...
But what if one day they implement a very demanding game using computer-SLI so to speak, i.e. multiple computers rendering frames for one instance of a game. Does it automatically become cloud-based then?
I thought the simple definition of cloud-based was that you can access something online, from wherever you are with internet access, and your data stays the same.
Also, if you browse through the main menu, you'll see hundreds of simultaneous videos playing. If you enter the arena, clicking on each one will immediately maximize it full screen and start playing the audio. All of this is done seamlessly, and it's obviously done with multiple servers working together.
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