[TheEzEzz]

The big news here isn't the controller, it's OnLive. With Google fiber rolling out, and eventually pushing the country toward gigabit, there will no longer be any reason why a cheap, weak box with an internet connection can't topple the console giants. Eventually this will spill over into general computing. There is a giant pie to be won here, and both OnLive and Google know how valuable it is.

[dguaraglia]

Just pointing out: bandwidth isn't half as important as latency is in this context. We still don't know how good latency will be on Google Fiber.

[jiggy2011]

Maybe the answer is to have local nodes. Think of it like a traditional video arcade, somewhere in your town is a small datacentre full of servers hosting various games.

[forrestthewoods]

And if that still isn't good enough then each gamer can have their own personal mini-datacenter in a box right by their TV or monitor! :)

[TheEzEzz]

There's no fundamental reason that things should play out either way (consolidation in a data center, or personal hardware). It will come down to economics, performance and convenience. Up until now performance (latency) has favored personal hardware, but it appears that may soon change, at which point the economies of scale of data centers, and the convenience of not needing to upgrade/store/maintain/move personal hardware, could very easily sway things in favor of consolidation.

[corin_]

I presume you're joking and therefore don't need a proper reply to this, but figured I'd check..

[ralfn]

Well, to be fair, there is a lot of spare sillicon in most households. One giant powerserver per family, is much more efficient and should provide more bang for your buck.

[corin_]

If everyone has the processing power to run the games in their own home it sort of removes the point of OnLive..

[anateus]

OnLive do have many centers spread out around the US (and a few international ones I think? I'm not sure) and their software tells you if you're too far from one (I think they limit at 1000 miles). I can tell you that about 15 miles from one (I assume they have one at or near their HQ and that's how far I am from it) the experience over a reasonably beefy cable connection (20Mbps) is pretty dang smooth.