Google TV to get OnLive Access

Google is set to team up with Marvell and OnLive, to deliver a cloud gaming experience from within its TV sets. To handle the remote gameplay, Google will be relying on Marvell's ARMADA 1500 chipset.

According to the trio of firms, ARMADA is “the ideal processor to power tomorrow's ‘smart' entertainment center,” since it uses integrated “Qdeo video processing technology with support for 3DTV.” This allows it to handle the high definition video that OnLive streams from its servers. That's the big advance of cloud gaming, you don't need local hardware that can handle the game itself, just the video stream.

“OnLive's focus is to make the highest quality gaming accessible to everyone, anywhere and anytime they want it. With Marvell under the hood, we are able to deliver the highest-quality, on-demand gaming experience on groundbreaking devices and systems like Google TV,” said Steve Perlman, OnLive Founder and CEO (via GamesIndustry).

No doubt OnLive will be especially pleased by this partnership, since one of its biggest rivals Gaikai, was recently purchased by Sony and is expected to see its service used somehow in the next generation of PlayStation consoles. Cornering such a market would have given the Gaikai platform a massive advantage in the cloud gaming market, but with Google money and services behind it, OnLive will be able to put up quite a fight.

However it will be interesting to see how Sony handles its own interests in Google TV now.

Kitguru Says: While smart TV usage isn't particularly well adopted yet, it is growing steadily and because the television is such a dominant household item, it's unlikely to be usurped for some time to come. The inclusion of smart features found in many set top boxes now, into the television itself – especially with firmware and software updates – makes for a much more versatile platform.

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