Pachter: Crysis via OnLive like 'playing on a fully-optimized gaming PC'

by Richard Mitchell { Jun 30th 2009 at 8:00PM }

No, it's okay. You can read that again. According to a report released by Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter, the company was given a demo of streaming game service OnLive this past March. Pachter states that latency between the user and OnLive's servers is supposed to be no more than 80 milliseconds, while the games he demoed were running at 25 milliseconds. While Pachter isn't certain if OnLive will "dominate any time soon" he believes that the micro console's video conferencing feature "will likely attract widespread demand." (Wait, it plays Crysis like a gaming PC and it's video conferencing that will sell this thing?)

Pachter states that OnLive should appeal to families that have yet to buy into the current generation of consoles, especially if the service is priced right. The sweet spot, apparently, is right around $5 a month. A higher price could be met with "consumer resistance," says Pachter. Furthermore, Pachter is already predicting that OnLive may not last long as a standalone service, suggesting that it might be purchased by another company and offered as "part of an expanded service offering."

For example, Microsoft could purchase the company to further expand the Xbox as an entertainment hub -- Pachter notes Microsoft's previous acquisition of WebTV, which was co-founded by OnLive CEO Steve Perlman. That's assuming neither Apple nor Verizon beat Microsoft to the punch, of course.

It's too early for us to say if any of this will come to pass -- we're not analysts, after all -- but we were certainly impressed with our own OnLive experience. Still, until we can plug OnLive into our internet and play Crysis for ourselves, we're a bit skeptical. That's okay though, because we're supposed to be.

Tags: analysis, crysis, michael-pachter, onlive, wedbush-morgan

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

SunKing @ Jun 30th 2009 8:05PM

I'm sure that Apple would love to get their hands on the technology. It would be their perfect entry into the games market (in some form, more or less).

samfish (uses the Joystiq Comment-Kill filter!) @ Jun 30th 2009 11:30PM

I don't think Apple would get into it. Running such a big server farm like that would be expensive and kind of goes against Apple's over all philosophy. Kinda like the same reason they won't launch their own 3G network.

I do expect Apple to get into games for the next generation, though.

Dr. Stabbingworth @ Jul 1st 2009 1:28PM

Maybe Google? They have their hands in everything and they seem to have that networking thing down.

Aguiluz @ Jun 30th 2009 8:07PM

The cost of "fully-optimized rigs" playing Crysis at MAX everything will eclipse their subscription profits.

Good luck, Onlive.

(Not putting them down, but being realistic here.)

OremLK @ Jun 30th 2009 8:27PM

Play Crysis now at 72p on OnLive! That's right, a full seventy-two lines of pixels!

JoeTheBlow @ Jul 1st 2009 5:09AM

Is bandwidth completely free in the US too? First i've heard if so.
I can tell you it certainly isn't elsewhere, making this a very very limited application.

fwacce @ Jun 30th 2009 8:08PM

Assuming this actually does work as advertised, I hope no one buys them. Venture Capital would be great, but not new owners. All great ideas are crushed when tey are bought by a large corporation. Just look at Blizzard recently.

The Dark Wayne @ Jun 30th 2009 8:26PM

I was gonna say WoW hasnt really changed at all, but then I remembered 3 different starcrats

WiiFTW @ Jun 30th 2009 11:41PM

And the whole lack of LAN in Starcraft 2. And then trying to justify its omission by saying, "Oh we just want to force features that we think are good, not what you actually want. Eh, so what you might get more lag, that's no prob with all the super-cool features you're gonna get, right? ZOMG PIRACY, ANYONE PLAYING ON LAN DOESN'T HAVE THE GAME."

Big corporations can suck my balls.

Wiizer @ Jun 30th 2009 8:12PM

I will someday throw Pachter through a wall as I would like to do in Crysis...

Injulen @ Jun 30th 2009 8:13PM

I really can't wait, I think this is gunna be great

nukee @ Jun 30th 2009 8:14PM

And Pachter is the one to know these things. Am I right or what?

The Baron @ Jun 30th 2009 9:32PM

Pachter couldn't tell a fully-optimized gaming PC if you shoved one up his ass.

samfish (uses the Joystiq Comment-Kill filter!) @ Jun 30th 2009 11:31PM

"Pachter couldn't tell a fully-optimized gaming PC if you shoved one up his ass."

I don't think most people could, unless their ass has, like, electrical inputs and stuff.

AvA (ice~) @ Jun 30th 2009 8:14PM

OMG Can you guys just make a separate tab for Patcher? Seriously, I'm getting sick of this guy, I know I don't have to read it, but his opinion shouldn't really matter, I'd take the editor's opinions on this site over patcher.

Double J @ Jun 30th 2009 8:20PM

Unbeknownst to Pachter, but knownst to us, he actually was just playing it on an optimized PC. It's sort of like the Pepsi challenge.

LaughingTarget @ Jun 30th 2009 8:22PM

"So, sir, did you like A, the ice, cold, fresh Pepsi, or B, the Coke we left out in the sun and peed in?"

L3thal Interjection (XBL: BR41N4TT4Q) @ Jun 30th 2009 8:37PM

I still prefer the latter... Pepsi sux!

Lieutenant Gunther (PSN: helghast102) @ Jun 30th 2009 8:46PM

Pepsi > Coke

bitch.

PN04 @ Jun 30th 2009 10:18PM

You might get a PC that beats a PS3 for less than it's price but how long will it last you before you have to upgrade it due to increasing over heads for new PC games. Console owners dont buy Consoles for PC games. We dont need PC ports to enjoy gaming and we dont need to buy a new graphics card every 3 years for good graphics. Maybe you can buy a PC for 300 bucks that will play Alan Wake but will it still play all the new games in three years on full settings when developers up the requirements again arbitrarily just so you can see shadows on a character's Noes hairs?

DBuck_Eye @ Jun 30th 2009 10:31PM

@PN04
We had a potentially great Cola argument coming our way, and you had to drag PS360 v PC into it. For shame.
Why don't you go inflict pain on yourself by drinking some Dr. Pepper?

Double J @ Jun 30th 2009 10:57PM

I'm gonna have to agree with the Lt. on this one.

Hedgeson @ Jun 30th 2009 11:44PM

Ici c'est Pepsi.

About the article:
80 milliseconds is SOMETIMES too much for me when I play Team Fortress 2.

OnLive users should only play against OnLive users, if the game is multiplayer. It should then remove the lag between users, and you'd only get the input/video lag, which at 80ms is commensurate with fast MP servers.

BananaBoat @ Jun 30th 2009 8:21PM

5 bucks per subscription would bankrupt them. That no firms are paying me to make this type of prediction blows my mind.

LaughingTarget @ Jun 30th 2009 8:21PM

*sigh* The Crysis thing again. You can run Crysis with little trouble on a self-built machine for $800. That's the $500 you'd spend for a PC anyway plus the cost of a home console.

Henry E. @ Jun 30th 2009 8:28PM

I have my doubts about OnLive, after all even on DSL streaming an HD video forces me to buffer quite a bit and it's 3Mbps. So in other words, OnLive is looking for an audience with probably around 20Mbps. And above all else, I like to play my single players offline thank you very much.

With $350, you can get yourself a PS3 and play games in HD with most of them already optimize for the console. Just look on slickdeals if you can't find a PS3 below $400. I got mine for $250, so I fail to see why people complain about the price. They just don't look hard enough.

sony boy @ Jun 30th 2009 8:28PM

i would rahter pay 100 bucks for onlive and 20 bucks a month subcription than pay all that money.

Robot Overlord @ Jun 30th 2009 8:36PM

you could play it on high settings with a computer you built for 500, not 800

LaughingTarget @ Jun 30th 2009 8:45PM

Right, sorry, my numbers are 3 months old.

Point being, you need that PC one way or the other and getting it to embarrass a PS3's graphical abilities takes about half of what PS3 actually costs.

Cosmo (formerly Chin-Poh) @ Jun 30th 2009 8:49PM

LaughingTarget, the hardware of a PC certainly is nice, I feel that we need a bit more software loving here though and more optimized console ports to the PC please, Street Fighter 4 is very optimized for the PC whereas some games are not.

Massmass @ Jun 30th 2009 9:49PM

I'd rather have games built for the PC first and then ported to consoles. People wonder why PC gaming is faltering should look there first. PC gamers have been getting shafted with ports when it used to be the shafter.

Those were happier times for all.

The Baron @ Jun 30th 2009 10:45PM

Exactly. Some games are ported fantastically like FC2, while others such as GTA4 and Assassin's Creed are insane. I wouldn't be suprised if AC2 had lower requirements than the original.

Leroy_Octopus @ Jun 30th 2009 8:24PM

I never knew whatthe big deal was with Crysis, but that pic looks FUCKING INSANE!
Anyway, do we really need 2 Pachter stories in one day?

sam @ Jun 30th 2009 8:25PM

Any idea on the bandwith requirements for this? I"m guessing my 1.5 meg DSL ain't gonna cut it.

Henry E. @ Jun 30th 2009 8:29PM

It won't, my 3Mbps Dsl can't even cut streaming HD video on 480p properly sometimes.

Jonathan @ Jun 30th 2009 10:19PM

Yes it will. That's one of the first things they addressed.

Cheesus(Crust) @ Jun 30th 2009 10:25PM

I have the same one(3Mbps) and ALOT of the time HD stuff loads slow as hell. But we just ordered FIOS(25Mbps) and it is going to be installed on the 15th. Cant wait!
But screw this shit, my PC can play all games at max or near to max(Crysis...). I built it for $800 on black friday.
Specs: Q6600@3.2GHz
ATi 4850 1GB
Asus P5Q Pro
Corsair 450VX PSU
Antec 900
4GB OCZ Reaper ram
640GB HDD(Western Digital)

sony boy @ Jun 30th 2009 8:27PM

so instead of wasting thousands of dollars on a big pc, you can just pay like 20 bucks a month to play cryisis. fair enough.

Breakerchase @ Jun 30th 2009 8:51PM

I paid just $700 for a new PC back then and it runs Crysis at high all good.

Cosmo (formerly Chin-Poh) @ Jun 30th 2009 8:46PM

Except its not thousands of dollars, but is it worth debating with a console fanboy?
: )

sony boy @ Jun 30th 2009 9:14PM

do i have to be so speciefic???

Cosmo (formerly Chin-Poh) @ Jun 30th 2009 9:15PM

You don't have to spend anywhere near several thousand dollars, its just jarring that your so far off but its not surprising since you don't have a gaming PC and thus are ignorant.

Jonathan @ Jun 30th 2009 10:20PM

Breakerchase, this is so much bigger than "Just spend 600ish on a gaming pc it's not that much!"

With OnLive, if it works, you can play Crysis during your lunch break at the office or in the cafeteria on your $300 laptop on campus.

It opens so many doors.

tmacairjordan87 @ Jun 30th 2009 8:29PM

I'm hoping this can somehow work as advertised, cause I really don't want to spend many hundreds of dollars to get a new PC that can play anything that came out in the last 4 years (unlike my once great laptop) :(

Cosmo (formerly Chin-Poh) @ Jun 30th 2009 8:47PM

What I am wondering is if I could stream and play 360/PS3 games with my PC and vice versa. That is one thing to get excited about.

The Baron @ Jun 30th 2009 10:48PM

You mean play the game on one but view it through the other?

I don't think they're offering that. So far they only seem to play the game on PC hardware on their end, and stream the video to either a program on your PC, or the microconsole that you can plug into your TV.

Cosmo (formerly Chin-Poh) @ Jul 1st 2009 12:18AM

No no, I mean that through my PC, I can stream 360/PS3 games to play games that will never come to PC like LittleBigPlanet.

Vice Versa where PS3 and 360 owners can stream PC-exclusives like The Witcher, Crysis, ARMA II, Sims 3, etc.

The Baron @ Jul 1st 2009 8:44AM

Well, console manufacturers wouldn't allow a competing service like OnLive anywhere near their consoles. It'd be like Sony patching Xbox Live into the PS3.

Similarly you wouldn't see their first party console exclusives up on the OnLive store either, since the point of those is to sell copies and push hardware of that specific platform.