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OnLive went live with its plans for a games-on-demand service using a new compression technology to do in the cloud what Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony do in console chips. If it can deliver on its ambitious goals, it has the biggest opportunity to shake up the powers that be—but that's a big if.
Startup Zeboo Inc. debuted a $199 console to deliver over 3G nets mobile games such as those developed for Qualcomm's Brew software. It delivers a 640x480 resolution, 4:3 aspect ratio experience aimed at emerging markets. A novel idea, but one probably more interesting to investor Qualcomm than anyone with a joystick.
And one developer opined that Apple's iPod Touch and iPhone are rapidly becoming the mobile game platform of choice. Given Apple has helped establish the smart phone as a mobile computer with 25,000 applications in its App Store, that's a reasonable observation, albeit a self-serving one for the iPhone/iPod developer who said it.
What all this means is the game has changed in video games. Even the Wii with its novel focus on mainstream users, has demonstrated this is not just a muscle man's game of who has the beefiest silicon anymore.
You could call it the end of the Kutaragi era. One analyst suggested the next big consoles are slowing down like aging wrestlers and will not debut their next-gen platforms until 2012. No doubt there will still be power hungry video games and consoles to come, but they will increasingly be just a part of a much more diverse games industry.
Posted by Rick Merritt on Mar 24, 2009 07:26 PM in Computing
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