Crysis developer Crytek reveals that they have done research into providing streaming game services like the ones Onlive is promising, only to conclude that the internet wouldn't be ready for them until at least 2013.
According to Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli, the company began research the potential of a service that allowed games played on high-end servers to be controlled remotely via an internet connection back in 2005, only to stop in 2007, having determined that such a service wasn't feasible yet.
"We saw that by 2013 - 2015 with the development of bandwidths and household connections worldwide that it might become more viable then...It doesn't take a lot to make a video-based renderer, but what you need is the right infrastructure that is beyond the technology we have, it's more like cable net providers and communication networks. They have to provide fast bandwidths and connectivity in order to allow such technology to excel. So as it was dependent on somebody else, we decided to wait."
This was actually my primary concern when I first heard about the Onlive service. Having watched my supposedly stable internet connection have to reset itself at least three times while streaming a Netflix movie to my Xbox 360, my faith in streaming even something as simple as keyboard and mouse commands is a bit shaken, even with Steve Perlman of Onlive's assurances.
Despite his own company's conclusions, Yerli wants to see Onlive succeed.
"I want to see it myself. I don't want to say it's either 'top or flop'. I hope it works for them because it could improve gamers lives. The technology of video-based rendering is not actually a very new concept but they do some things that others didn't do before so it will be interesting to see."
Crytek: Streaming games service viable in 2013 [GamesIndustry.biz]