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Perlman Targets Video Game Industry With Latest Online Venture

  • Forbes, Thursday, March 26, 2009 11:45 AM
Serial entrepreneur Steve Perlman's latest tech company idea, unveiled this week at the Game Developers Conference, "is a doozy" that just might change the video game business forever, says Forbes writer Brian Caulfield. The idea is simple enough: Move video games online and give players access to the latest games on cheap computers and even cheaper "microconsoles", which Caulfield says would be no bigger than a pack of cigarettes.

Perlman claims that OnLive, his new company, would be able to deliver high quality games on any TV with one of these "microconsoles" or on any laptop via a broadband connection. "No need for the latest machine equipped with a powerful multi-core processor or a pricey graphics card," says Caulfield. But here's the catch: the online gaming service has to move the data from the server hosting the game to the user and back, seamlessly enough so that gamers won't notice any lag time between they buttons they press and what they see on the screen. "Tricky business," says Caulfield, but "crack that problem...and a number of others go away."

Something like this could spell the end of the hegemony enjoyed by the likes of Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft-not just because there will be no need for consumers to an invest in a pricey system, but also because OnLive will be able to offer developers a bigger slice of the revenues than they get by working in "retail channels stuffed with middlemen." According to Perlman, the service is already supported by a wide range of game developers, including Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Take-Two Interactive Software, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, THQ, Epic Games, Eidos, Atari Interactive and Codemasters.

Read the whole story at Forbes »

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