"We filled the vacancy the next day"
Video gaming turns to the cloud
Digital media and infrastructure recruitment could be set for a shot in the arm thanks to ambitious new plans to develop a gaming system harnessing the 'cloud'.
Described as a broadband-based cloud gaming platform, OnLive is scheduled to launch in the US in June and will mark a major change to the traditional format of the games industry.
Providing on-demand, instant-play video games, the system will enable users to play the latest and most advanced games through any PC or Mac simply using their broadband connection and a small browser plug-in.
With ongoing infrastructure development, OnLive says users may even be able to play through an HDTV.
Guy Cocker, editor of GameSpot UK, said the key would be whether the developers could overcome the delay in sending and receiving the data between server and client.
"For an interactive experience such as gaming, the latency needs to be as low as possible, so that when you press a button on the game controller, there's minimal delay seeing the results on screen," he explained.
"OnLive claims that it has a solution to this problem, but it will only be when the service is rolled out that we'll see how it performs in a real-world environment."
Mr Cocker said the move could provide a new model for digital distribution of games in a growing industry which caters for a wide range of ages and market sectors.
A recent report by Nielsen Research for the Interactive Software Federation of Europe showed that one-third of the UK population between the ages of 30 and 49 described themselves as 'active gamers', with almost eight in ten saying they played with their children.
By Will Turner
Described as a broadband-based cloud gaming platform, OnLive is scheduled to launch in the US in June and will mark a major change to the traditional format of the games industry.
Providing on-demand, instant-play video games, the system will enable users to play the latest and most advanced games through any PC or Mac simply using their broadband connection and a small browser plug-in.
With ongoing infrastructure development, OnLive says users may even be able to play through an HDTV.
Guy Cocker, editor of GameSpot UK, said the key would be whether the developers could overcome the delay in sending and receiving the data between server and client.
"For an interactive experience such as gaming, the latency needs to be as low as possible, so that when you press a button on the game controller, there's minimal delay seeing the results on screen," he explained.
"OnLive claims that it has a solution to this problem, but it will only be when the service is rolled out that we'll see how it performs in a real-world environment."
Mr Cocker said the move could provide a new model for digital distribution of games in a growing industry which caters for a wide range of ages and market sectors.
A recent report by Nielsen Research for the Interactive Software Federation of Europe showed that one-third of the UK population between the ages of 30 and 49 described themselves as 'active gamers', with almost eight in ten saying they played with their children.
By Will Turner