ZAM takes a look at OnLive, an upcoming "gaming-on-demand" service that could potentially change the way we play MMOs, along with the rest of the video games industry.

Throw out the name "OnLive" in video game conversation today and you'll probably be met with one of two reactions, both expressing an extreme opposite of one another: "Yeah, OnLive is the future of video games!" some might say, with enthusiasm. A popular response from the opposing camp is usually something along the lines of, "No way, it's a pipe dream—real-world application just won't work!" It's one of the most hotly-debated topics the video games industry today, and with good reason; if successful in its mission, OnLive could very well change the face of PC and console gaming as we know it.

Although it's actually been in-development for years, OnLive never received much attention from the industry until March of this year, at the Games Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco. It wasn't until then that OnLive publicly unveiled its product; a new gaming-on-demand service, capable of "instantly delivering the latest high-end titles over home broadband Internet to the TV and entry-level PCs and Macs." Essentially, OnLive allows users to play graphics-intensive games like Crysis with a piece-of-crap computer, as long they have a decently-fast Internet connection. But what about the MMO market? If the technology works, could OnLive revolutionize MMO gaming as well?

Dubbed by many as the gaming equivalent to cloud-based computing, OnLive promises to make even the most-demanding games playable on the weakest computers. The only requirement is a DSL-or-faster Internet connection; the game itself is loaded and rendered at OnLive's servers, and then delivered to your PC or TV via streaming video (TV version shown below; the PC version uses a simple browser plug-in). When you buy a game from OnLive, there's no need to download or install it; players could presumably be up-and-running within minutes of purchasing a title.

It's usually at this point when a gamer's rational mind steps in, thinking the video would look like crap and the latency would make the game unplayable. But OnLive says your average DSL-speed connection will yield standard TV resolutions, and faster broadband allows HD video, up to 720p. And because of the way in which the video is encoded (a proprietary format that doesn't just stream the "video out"), latency will be negligible; much less than most MMO players experience, since OnLive was built around the idea of being able to play "twitch" first-person-shooters without lag.

To accomplish this, OnLive will rely on several "server centers" built at strategic locations across the country; each server center will cover a 1,000-mile radius, blanketing every gamer in the U.S. According to OnLive, 1,000 miles is all it needs to eliminate the amount of latency it takes to interfere with gameplay. During the GDC last spring, OnLive already had server centers built on both the East and West coasts, with more on the way for the Midwest.

The company's founder, Steve Perlman, is used to skepticism. But a respectable array of companies and video game publishers have already signed on with OnLive, including Electronic Arts, UbiSoft, Warner Bros., Nvidia, Atari, THQ and more. In a GDC interview last spring, Perlman said that he strives for transparency, and offered a lot details behind the technology. Check out the full interview here.

But despite all the buzz and smorgasbord of recent interviews, there hasn't been a lot of talk regarding the potential impact OnLive's might have within the MMO industry. Even in our own forums, the issue was only raised twice. Giving Perlman the benefit of the doubt and assuming that OnLive will perform as intended, the service could offer far-reaching possibilities for the "average" MMO gamer.

Perhaps the most obvious is OnLive's main selling point; the ability for players to run cutting-edge games at high detail and resolution from any computer with decent Internet access. Don't even bother questioning World of Warcraft; if OnLive works, gamers with meager hardware could play MMOs like Warhammer Online, Aion and Champions Online in all their glory without upgrading or buying new hardware. This issue will become especially relevant in the next few years to come, as developers continue using licensed-out FPS game engines to build their future MMOs.

Stability and speed are huge benefits to MMOs, provided OnLive's latency is as low as it promises. Under certain conditions, players might be able to achieve a faster and more-stable connection to their favorite MMO server if it's routed through OnLive's servers instead of their ISP's. (Remember: even when you're playing an online game with OnLive, you're still only streaming the video and audio through the downstream, and the controls/input through the upstream.) "Compensating for latency" in your spell/combat rotations could be a thing of the past.

Finally, because the graphic rendering and CPU work is all performed by OnLive's high-end server machines, the technology could solve the "massive battle lag" problem once and for all. Whether it's WoW, WAR, Aion or any other MMO that offers large-scale PvP with hundreds of simultaneous participants, lag has been the constant thorn in a develeoper's side. Most finally admit there's no graceful way to fix it, so they take the practical approach and cap the number of players allowed in each zone or battle. If OnLive's hardware is able to communicate with an MMO's server at a substantially faster rate than ours (which it's supposed to do, by design), we might finally get the chance to experience a lag-free, zone-wide battle with 500 other players.

OnLive is currently beta testing its service; interested gamers can register on the official site to sign up for the beta. The company still hasn't revealed specific pricing details, although most gamers are predicting a recurring-subscription model, in addition to "cloud-based" game purchases. As of press time, OnLive is still displaying a launch date of "Winter 2009" on its website. ZAM will continue providing news and coverage regarding OnLive's MMO potential as it develops.