Mike Andrew Consulting

Revolutionary game system launched

By mike, Sep 26 in blog with 0 comments

An online gaming system has been launched in the UK that could revolutionise the industry.

The ‘cloud’-based OnLive service gives users access to on-demand games via the internet with no need for a console.

Gamers can play around 150 games on various devices including PCs, Mac tablets and net-connected televisions.

It was launched at the Eurogamer Expo at Earls Court, west London, where around 40,000 enthusiasts will gather over the next few days to try out the latest games.

Hundreds queued to test the new system.

‘This is gaming over the internet,’ explained Bruce Grove, OnLive’s senior director of business development.

‘We’ve had on-demand radio, on-demand videos, now we have on-demand video games.

‘We have all the latest titles streamed direct to your TV, PC, Mac tablet, any device. All you need is a broadband connection.’

The gaming industry is now bigger than the film and music industries, with the UK market – the biggest in Europe – worth almost worth almost 2.4bn.

It is predicted that by 2015, the gaming industry in the UK will be worth well over 3bn.

Playstation and Xbox have recently experienced problems with hackers accessing customers’ personal information.

But chief executive and founder of OnLive Steve Perlman said this does not pose a problem for them, as personal information is stored with a third party billing agency which is not on one of their servers.

He said: ‘The worst they could do if they hacked into our data centre is perhaps get your high score.’

OnLive, which launched in the US last year, has been developed to eliminate piracy.

Matt Hill, deputy editor of T3 Magazine, said it would be almost impossible to pirate the games – but warned there were some future pitfalls.

‘Because you don’t have the physical game, you are accessing it remotely from a server, you can’t pirate it, you’re literally streaming it from someone else’s server,’ he said.

‘There will be an argument made that eventually someone might be able to figure out how to get in and play the games for free, I imagine that is a long way off, but there’s always someone working on it.’

About the author

Mike Andrew has been working with the Internet and small business for over 12 years. Mike has been a keynote speaker at conventions and seminars and conducted social media training sessions all over the world. Mike has an extensive media background having worked in electronic media for over 30 years. Mike specialises in social media and Internet marketing strategy, SEO techniques and search engine marketing campaigns. His articles appear on numerous blogs around the web as well as national magazines.