Will This Lead to the End of Powerful Client-Side Computers?

MomoCC

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[flash=640,360]http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5404358&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1[/flash]

So basically, you sign up for the service (details here), choose which games to play, and play through your browser. Everything's computed and rendered server-side, and served to the client through streaming video. But what if 100,000 people all over the world want to play Crysis? Won't the servers melt?
 

pat mcgroin

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I have read about this type of thing in other places and one thing keeps coming to mind.
Network Latency.
People are having latency issues now when the game is being run locally.
I cant see this as being an improvement in that regard.

There may be some games that can run in the cloud but as stated above Crysis and several others would puke and I would think be completely unplayable.
 

dtq

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The concept is sound enough, I have a lot of "wasted" hardware sat doing nothing 99% of its life, why not centralise this power and have it actually being made use of full time spreading the cost between lots of players.

I really dont think that most people have the bandwidth to take in high res images at 60+fps. I may be wrong but I personally suspect it would be a choice of compromised game play or compromised image quality. I would be delighted to be proven wrong, and see top end performance on a subscription basis. I suspect ISPs would be "less thrilled" about the traffic heavy nature of this sort of streaming :D
 

pat mcgroin

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Another interesting thought ,
Are we going to have to pay monthly for a game that doesnt work the way we want?
It makes me think of some AV programs that I dont want to mention>
I pay a lot know only to find out that a game isnt worth the cost.
I hope it doesnt go the way of a cell phone contract, having to pay for a long time no matter how bad it is.
 

TheMan1214

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Remember that to be able achieve such a bandwidth, you still need a decent client side computer that can utilize your network connection to the max.

They are already trying these types of things and none of them have worked because of such bad latency problems