 |
Virtuos is one of the world's largest providers of digital production services to the game and movie industries, specializing in 3D art and game co-development. Virtuos has over 600 staff across its production centers in Shanghai and Chengdu, and offices in Paris, Vancouver and Tokyo.
Serving 15 of the top 20 games publishers worldwide, as well as renowned developers, Virtuos has developed full games on PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, NDS and PSP for leading publishers.
Visit us today at virtuosgames.com
|
|
|
| |
GDC: OnLive Gets Launch Date, Reveals Initial Publishers
by Leigh Alexander [PC, Console/PC, GDC]
|
|
| |
|
March 10, 2010
|
| |
|
In a keynote at GDC, cloud-based game streaming service OnLive has announced an official U.S. launch date of June 17, 2010 for its PC and Mac service. The service is now accepting signups for a "priority waiting list" of gamers who will be among the first to subscribe.
OnLive also revealed what it will charge: a monthly subscription fee currently set at $14.95. The first 25,000 users to join the wait list will have the fee waived for their first three months.
The subscription fee won't include the price of the games themselves, which users will be need to purchase or rent separately. Today OnLive revealed that it'll release games from publishers Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, 2K Games, THQ and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.
As the launch of OnLive will coincide with this year's E3 event, the company says it will announce "loyalty programs" and special offers like multi-month pricing at that time.
The service, which will initially be available in the 48 contiguous United States, allows gamers to play PC or Mac titles through their own computers or television sets (with a special adapter), without needing to render the game on their own hardware. Rather, it is rendered remotely and sent frame-by-frame back to the local display device.
Eventually, the company hopes to provide even faster service by streaming directly through cable to users' homes, much like paid television currently is.
"This marks a huge milestone for both OnLive and the interactive entertainment landscape as a whole, changing the way that video games are developed, marketed, accessed and played," says OnLive founder and CEO Steve Perlman. "We are opening the door to incredible experiences for gamers and enormous opportunities for developers and publishers."
[UPDATE: Lazard Capital analyst Colin Sebastian believes the arrival of the service won't pressure traditional models right away. "Near-term pressure on the traditional retail channel seems limited. Without discounts on games, we note that pricing may be a gating factor to mass market adoption of OnLive," he says.
"However, if successful, we believe OnLive could have a meaningful impact on the industry, offering publishers a lower-cost distribution channel and consumers convenient access to high-quality games," the analyst continues. "While there are still legitimate questions regarding the cost/scale for OnLive, over the long haul the service has a multi-billion [dollar] market opportunity."]
|
| |
|
|
+ I need to purchase the hardware
+ I need to pay a monthly fee to be able to purchase games
+ I need a fairly beefy internet connection to run at HD levels
+ I also need to pony up a substantial fee per title
+ I assume that all titles purchased via this fee service are only usable through this service, so I'm actually renting the games with a substantial, one-time fee.
And they expect to be successful?
PT Barnum would be proud.
I mean, I don't have an issue paying for the games themselves, but a monthly fee it too much.
My enthusiasm is far less now.
"Couldn't I plug in my laptop to my HD TV, use Steam, and play a game like TF2 without the monthly fee, without the input lag, and without the data pipe required for optimal performance for a whole lot less?"
Further, add up those monthly fees, and you practically have enough for a Xbox 360. Let's say that their hardware is fifty bucks - that is cheap, but required for playback - that means that between monthly fees and hardware fees, you definitely have enough to buy a 360 and a XBL Gold account for a year, which has digital distribution of HD content and does not require a massive data pipe for playback, and still, in the long run, would be cheaper and require a less aggressive bandwidth platform to operate effectively.
What is the benefit, at that point, to the User of OnLive? The cost-benefit analysis, as I see it, is ridiculously in favor of OnLive. The costs are all on the consumer and with, compared to the power and portability of either a semi-powerful laptop or a pure home console, only a small cost savings in terms of setup. As you pointed out, Eric, get a decent laptop, loadup Steam and get a decent wireless keyboard and mouse, and you can already do what OnLive is promising cheaper and without a monthly fee.
It all depends on cost of content, at this point. If OnLive and the Publishers believe that folks will pay $39.99 or more for a AAA, first run title, plus monthly fees - they're going to be in for a world of hurt.
I believe that's how they'll market it.
I'm going to apply for a marketing job with Onlive. :-p
The comparison with Cable TV is different in that the service the cable company is providing, providing the content, is part of the monthly fee. In order to match up, Cable TV would have to not only charge for connectivity into their content, but then charge you for every television show you watch.
The PPV is closer, and does represent a small but lucrative niche, but it is still a niche which specific content developers target and create content for.
Also, the horse armor DLC was a fiasco, and as a result, pricing models changed across the board with future offerings not just from Bethesda, but across all developers and publishers. As a result, consumers have gotten far more savvy when it comes to assessing value with their DLC purchases.
OnLive has one benefit - to digitally delivery content without the expense of hardware and software ownership. If their pricing structure obviates that benefit, then they are not providing anything unique and, in fact, are more expensive, in the long term. They are counting on the fact that consumers will not "do the math" when comparing the costs and benefits of their service compared to the initial expenses for hardware purchases.
Like I said:
Subscription Fee Yearly Total + Onlive Hardware Fee > Initial Console Expense = OnLive Failure.
The technology for doing this is handily available to anyone for free, it's called NX. They do not bring anything new at all, beside bad marketing scheme, ho yeah nothing new either, move along folks nothing to see here but failure.
@Roberto Alfonso
The guy right above you pointed to a service doing the exact same thing, maybe you should learn to read..
watch this: http://g4tv.com/videos/44282/DICE-2010-Instant-Gratification-Presentation/
Does your PC or Console has features as:
+watch your frinds play (without the need to own the game or even having expensive powerful hardware)
+play crysis on an IPhone
+playing any game instantaneuos without installing it(or even downloading a modern 10GB+ clients)
+never downloading or installing any patch
???? certainly not!
OnLive will not be the perfect platform for every game but for a lot.
From my perspective as a producer of MMOs the platform becomes interesting because it offers the chance to close the gap between the serversystem and the client some day or at least removes some of the problems casued by the current server-client systems.
So please do all of us a favor and stop the stupid rant about something you havenīt tested. And if the pricing should be wrong they will change it for sure before they go bankrupt. Pricing is a lot easier to change than technologie!