Yeah yeah I know I just posted, but I then read an interview and feel like sharing opinion on a topic which is on everyone's tongues at the moment, fuelled by the onlive announcements at GDC.
A couple of links for you:
So basically everyone has been talking about onlive, and the interview I just read talks about a competitor called gaikai. I am on the side of people who say that internet speeds are not up to scratch at the moment. However, I have mixed feelings about the potential for it to become the dominant gaming platform. As an enthusiastic PC gamer and general computer person I revel in the updating of components etc that consolers are always complaining about, so I'd regret my own hardware not affecting my gameplay. I'd also find it harder to justify expensive purchases which would benefit my computing in other ways aswell. I'd also miss being able to buy games myself, I don't like the idea that this suggests about not owning your games. It's a bit like insta-steam in a way. I think PC and console gamers will experience the change in different ways. PCs will become more popular for gaming as you won't have to buy something to plug into your TV, and people wont need to upgrade anything which is what puts most people off. I wonder doubtfully whether it will ever take gaming over completely. We may never hear about it again. I just hope it doesn't kill the hardware industry, gaming is great for pushing processing technologies further and further at great pace, which benefits sciences such as physics and medicine as well as gaming.
Hmmm...
We'll see...