On-Live | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Thu, 30 Mar 2023 16:46:02 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png On-Live | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 On-Live to shut down, Sony acquires patents https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/matthew-wilson/on-live-to-shut-down-sony-acquires-patents/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/matthew-wilson/on-live-to-shut-down-sony-acquires-patents/#respond Fri, 03 Apr 2015 08:14:04 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=243504 On-Live has been struggling ever since launch, the cloud gaming service never really performed up to par and as a result, most people gave up on the service and the idea of cloud-gaming entirely. Now, the company is finally closing its doors this month and Sony will be picking up its patents. Sony's interest in …

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On-Live has been struggling ever since launch, the cloud gaming service never really performed up to par and as a result, most people gave up on the service and the idea of cloud-gaming entirely. Now, the company is finally closing its doors this month and Sony will be picking up its patents.

Sony's interest in purchasing parts of the On-Live company isn't surprising, Sony has made a big push for cloud gaming recently with its purchase of Gaikai and the launch of PlayStation Now, which recently hit Europe in closed beta form.

onlive2

Exact terms of the transactions were not mentioned in the press release but it did confirm that On-Live is no more:

Users will continue to have access to OnLive’s services until April 30, 2015, including the OnLive Game Service, OnLive Desktop, and SL Go (Second Life). After today’s date, no further subscription renewals will be charged for any of these services. Users whose subscriptions renewed on or after March 28 will be refunded. Following the termination of the company’s services and related products, OnLive will engage in an orderly wind-down of the company and cease operations.”

Obviously, this does mean that those who bought access to titles through On-Live will no longer be able to play them, which was always one of the big dangers of the service. We don't know what Sony will do with the technology and ideas it has purchased from On-Live, or how it will improve PS Now but Sony probably has something up its sleeve.

If you would like to read more on what we think about cloud gaming, then you can check out our analysis of Nvidia's GRID service, HERE.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: On-Live never really did take off so seeing the company shut down isn't too surprising. I tried out the service a couple of times some time ago and it didn't really work well enough to justify spending any money on access to the games library. Maybe On-Live's patents will somehow help Sony improve its own cloud gaming service. Did any of you guys use On-Live? What did you think of it? 

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Can the Nvidia GRID service make cloud gaming viable today? https://www.kitguru.net/professional/networking/matthew-wilson/can-the-nvidia-grid-service-make-cloud-gaming-viable-today/ https://www.kitguru.net/professional/networking/matthew-wilson/can-the-nvidia-grid-service-make-cloud-gaming-viable-today/#respond Wed, 07 Jan 2015 16:11:34 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=227587 Several major gaming hardware makers are in the midst of making a big push for cloud gaming, with new services like the Nvidia GRID and PlayStation Now beginning to pop up with technological gains over tried and failed services, such as On Live. However, despite cloud technology coming as far as it has over the …

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Several major gaming hardware makers are in the midst of making a big push for cloud gaming, with new services like the Nvidia GRID and PlayStation Now beginning to pop up with technological gains over tried and failed services, such as On Live. However, despite cloud technology coming as far as it has over the last couple of years, many are still skeptical and run for the hills when ‘the cloud' is mentioned, which brings me to the question we are going to try and answer right now- Is cloud gaming viable today in its current form?

nvidia shield tablet650px

To answer this we are going to be taking a look at Nvidia's new GRID cloud gaming service, which you can access via the Nvidia Hub on Shield tablets. Nvidia was keen to supply us hardware for testing, so thanks to them for their support throughout this article.

GRID was announced as a timed freebie for Shield owners and has been in the making for ten years. According to Nvidia's own tests, the hardware found inside of its servers can perform up to 12 times faster than PlayStation Now. 

Our tests are ran on a Virgin Media 152Mb home broadband connection, paired with a Linksys WRT1900ac router, which we reviewed over HERE.

Speed Test

As you can see, our speeds are fairly high so the connection speed shouldn't be a bottlenecking factor in any of our tests. Nvidia currently recommends a 15Mb connection at least for cloud gaming. There are two servers available to connect to in Europe, our closest one being located in Ireland- obviously your distance from the server will factor in to performance, no matter how good your connection might be.

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Sony officially announces it’s streaming service- Playstation Now https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/console-desktop-pc/matthew-wilson/sony-officially-announces-its-streaming-service-sony-now/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/console-desktop-pc/matthew-wilson/sony-officially-announces-its-streaming-service-sony-now/#respond Wed, 08 Jan 2014 11:56:25 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=170777 It's no secret that Sony bought the Gaikai streaming service a while back and that we would see the streaming service return some time after the Playstation 4's release but I don't think many people expected an announcement so soon. Sony has just announced its new Playstation Now service which will bring older generation games …

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It's no secret that Sony bought the Gaikai streaming service a while back and that we would see the streaming service return some time after the Playstation 4's release but I don't think many people expected an announcement so soon. Sony has just announced its new Playstation Now service which will bring older generation games to the Playstation 3, Playstation 4, PS Vita and Sony's new line of Bravia TV's, the service will also eventually hit smartphones and tablets.

PSNOW

Much like the struggling On-Live service, all of the computing is done in the cloud meaning that your controller input has to travel through the cloud, get processed and then the action will be streamed back to you. Unfortunately, this method didn't work very well for On-Live and the service was riddled with input lag and low quality video but Sony has implemented some restrictions to try and help maintain a decent level of quality for all Playstation Now subscribers.

Games will be streamed in 720p only and you will need a 5Mbps Internet connection, all game progress will be saved in the cloud so you can always pick up where you left off and multiplayer will be possible even with gamers playing from a disc rather than the cloud.

Pricing for the subscription based service has yet to be announced and we don't know anything about the games due to be on offer but we do know that titles from the PS1, PS2 and PS3 will be available.

KitGuru Says: If it works then this could be really cool but I think many will remain sceptical until trying it out for themselves. 

Source: Sony Blog

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