No more Xbox?

This is an interesting article that I came across on Yahoo. The article is previewing a new gaming system called OnLive. It is from a company out in California and is designed to eliminate the need for older conventional gaming systems such as Xbox, Playstation, and even gaming PCs. The basic premise for the system is an online game system that streams games right to the users television without the need for a separate counsel or game disc. In theory this sounds like a great idea... The company advertises that it saves space, money (no need ot buy countless disks or replacing damaged ones), and no need to buy multiple gaming system. However, I do have some concerns and questions.



I will preface all of this with saying that I am not a gamer and am very bad at most video games. My first concern is bandwidth. This product works by being plugged into the users internet connection (i.e. cable modem). There are obvious problems with this. 1)You are limited by bandwidth, so if the connection is bad the games are going to be shoty. 2) It will most likely use so much bandwidth that no one else in the house will be able to use the internet. 3) ISPs most likely will not like the constant bandwidth being pumped to the house. 4) If the internet drops in the middle of a game there is not recovering. A second issue, is there a way to save game? Since it is all played online there is not memory to save it to. Finally there is concern with price. The company has yet to release any pricing for the product, but says that it will be competitive with Xbox Live. I can foresee this getting very expensive quickly if users are not careful.

In theory this product sounds like it could be a great thing, but there are still many kinks that need to be worked out.