Is the Future of Gaming in the Cloud?

In the near future, you may never have to buy an expensive console or continually invest in updating your gaming PC.  Instead, gaming hardware may be housed on the server side.  OnLive recently demoed their technology, playing Crysis on their “gaming service”.  Player’s input is transmitted through the net to a server for processing.  The video, resulting from their actions, is then sent back to the user’s video decoder.  The internet is simply utilized as an extremely long extension cord from the player’s home to OnLive’s gaming hardware.

This is crazy!  If this is successful, this may drastically change the industry, creating new business models.  I once thought of a similar idea, however, I’m amazed that today’s technology can actually support this.  I’m very skeptical of how OnLive’s service will actually perform in the real world.  There must be a near instantaneous response time for this to work.  It would surprise me if the average household’s internet connection could keep up, especially with substandard performance in the U.S.

I commend OnLive for taking on such an ambitious idea.  This technology is definitely coming some day – when, is the question.  Take a look at Venture Beat’s thorough article for more detail.

Edit: Checkout Gamespot’s video demonstration.

GameFly’s Stealing My Idea!

During fall term of 2008 in Launching New Ventures (MGMT 335), my team and I proposed a video game rental kiosk.  The low cost and cheap operation of vending machine automation seems to be becoming more popular.  It is no longer a model for beverages or cheap carnival toys.  $300 iPod’s are now available from the push of a button.

Our service, GameGrab, takes Red Box’s model and does it for video games.  At $2/day, customers could rent the game as long as they liked before returning it to the machine.  We chose to target students and position our machines throughout various campus’.  Interestingly, this is also GameFly’s model, for the time being.  Texas Tech University students have access to the G-Box for convenient, quick rentals at $2.49/day.  I’ll be very curious to see how the company expands its brick and mortar offering.

Don’t Shit Your Pants (A Survival Horror Game)

Although text based adventure games are before my time, I can definitely appreciate their simplicity.  The goal is not to shit your pants.  It’s not quite as easy as you may think.  See if you can figure it out.

Killzone 2’s Going to Fail

I am just a college student.  I don’t have any career experience in video game marketing nor profound insight.  I’m simply a huge nerd when it comes to following the video game industry which has been a huge part of my life.  So how come I see Killzone 2’s obvious problem?

SONY!  WAKE UP!

After announcing a $1.1 billion loss last month, Sony needs to move some dough.  They desperately need an exclusive blockbuster and Killzone 2 just may be that game.  It has everything going for it.  It’s first person shooter (accessible and appealing to the majority of the gaming audience), sequel to a somewhat successful predecessor, and the reviews reveal it’s actually quite awesome.  So what’s its problem?

MARKETING!

Have you seen a single ad for the game?  It’s coming out in only a few more weeks and Sony has failed to get the word out.  Although hardcore audiences like myself know about the game, the majority mainstream has no clue.  Sony should be bombarding us with ads similar to Grand Theft Auto 4’s marketing campaign.   Although the quality of the game has a lot to do with its success, the sad truth is many great games go unnoticed.  Little Big Planet is a perfect example of this.  Marketing is what sells video games.

Sony has a prime opportunity to make Killzone 2 a system seller.  It’s an identifiable genre that will appeal to a large audience in which players know what to expect.  It’s easily marketable unlike other more abstract, harder to grasp titles such as Spore.
Sony’s current approach is going to produce another Resistance 2-like, lackluster seller.  Hopefully Sony will start bailing the water from their sinking ship before it’s too late.