A presentation outlining the pros and cons of two major cloud gaming platforms. Visit My Youtube Channel - youtube/123hez

1. C lo u d G a m in g
Onlive
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Steam
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2. C lo u d G a m in g
The physical age of media is disappearing and having a film,
song or game on a disk is becoming a rare sight.
Y are all probably not strangers to platforms such as S team or iTunes.
ou
But with the introduction of Onlive Gaming, which is the best for you?
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3. S te a m
Since 2007 Steam has grown into the huge online distribution platform it is today.
Boasting 70% of the PC distribution market in 2008, it has many upsides to being part of
its team.
With voice chat features, trading abilities and relationships with large and small
development companies, Steam is a great platform to be part of if you are part of if you
are a PC gamer.
Big rivals being EA Origin service and now more recently with the announcement of
’s
Onlive being available in the UK, Steam has its work cut out to defend its current title.
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4. O n liv e
Onlive is similar to steam that it is a distribution platform, but it concentrates more on
the idea of Cloud gaming. The ability to instantly play any game with no prior download
or even needing to have a high end video game PC.
With this it boasts the ability to play your library of games anywhere on tablet, phone
pc or console simply by knowing your login details.
Its library is small but is steadily growing, it seems to still be dwarfed by Steam but has
received glowing reviews by Gamespot and IGN, so is Onlive the future of gaming?
“There is s omething inherently
cool with being able to fire up any
game in a digital library
ins tantaneous ly anytime, anywhere
— Scott Lowe
@hezsaysthings …”
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5. In t e r f a c e
Both UI’s provide a sleek easy to
understand store to purchase and
navigate through. Reviews, prices,
demo’s and library filters are all easy
to find and are all in their expected
places.
When picking between them I feel
they both stand strong when pitted
against each other and that the
differences between them are too
minute to make a substantial
difference.
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6. £££ P r ic e
Both platforms are free to own and register and both provide trails and demo’s of games.
Onlive provides a slightly different trial service of instead of giving a demo version of a
game , it give you 30 Minutes of the full game.
Onlive’s library is currently quite small however pricing in each platform does vary.
But which on average is cheaper? I did some research to find out!
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7. P r ic e
How it works
•Onlive offers their small library in increments of time, 3days, 5 days and full.
•For the purpouse of this test I will be referring to the ‘Full’ price for each game.
•With Onlive, a $ 9.99 a month is a membership put in place instantly.
•This membership fee must be paid to access your previously purchased games.
•Steam does not enforce a membership fee.
•Onlive offers a console to play their games on at a cheap $1 00
•Can be played on tablet, phone or pc
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8. P r ic e
Homefront
Onlive
£29.99
+Membership
Steam
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£29.99
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9. P r ic e
L.A Noire: The Complete Edition
Onlive
£39.99
+Membership
Steam
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£34.99
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10. P r ic e
Batman: Arkham City
Onlive
£29.99
+Membership
Steam
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£29.99
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11. P r ic e
Results
On average Steam was either cheaper or the same as Onlive when comparing the
three games we chose. However when including the membership fee, Steam came out
consistently cheaper. The membership fee implemented by Onlive is necessary to play
games that have been previously purchased.
ap er’
tly che
sis ten
‘c on
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12. P la y a b ilit y
Onlive
Onlive’s biggest appeal I feel is the instant playability of any content. A game does not
need to be installed or downloaded at all for it to be played. The game is streamed
over the internet similar to a video or website. No waiting. J hit enter and play.
ust
S team
A game must be downloaded before it can be played. Larger games obviously take
longer, so games such as RA (1 6GB) take considerable amounts of time. However, a
GE
internet connection and no membership fee is required to play your games offline.
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13. C o m m u n it y
Onlive
I feel the community is almost non existent with Onlive. Groups, friends systems or
chat clients are either very basic or don’t exist. There isn’t much of a “Community” in
OnLive… Y eah, you can watch other people show off their cool movies and send
people/ friends messages, but in Steam you have Clans, Friends, Live chats, Voice Chat
and other “Community”- like things.
S team
A things explained above are all
ll
available on Steam. Me personally, I
actually use the Steam chat client over
all others (Facebook, MSN, Irc) because
its so responsive! A well as game
s
trading and competitions, I feel that
@hezsaysthings Steam encapsulates the idea of a
#hezsaysthings ‘community’ quite well.
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14. G a m e L ib r a r y
Although Steam has been around for longer, Onlive’s game library still seems to be quite small
Onlive
248 G ames
S team
2,1 44 G ames
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15. S umma ry
Final Thoughts
Onlive I feel is a great idea. Having the ability to game anywhere on anything at
anytime sounds like a dream. However, with current technology and internet speeds
graphics and playability do sometimes diminish. Steam is currently monopolising the
gaming download market and I feel this is why both their library and community have
developed into such a vibrant platform.
My first impressions with Onlive were a little off, and I didn’t get this when I first
started with Steam. I feel this was due to almost ‘hidden’ costs which I didn’t know
about. Although they weren't exactly ‘hidden’, it was a shock when I encountered them.
I feel Cloud gaming is definitely the future of gaming is going however only time will
work out kinks and issues which are predominant now. I really want Onlive to work
however I feel with more funding and backing from bigger names, its success could
be unquestionable.
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16. R e fe re nc e
•[Onlive Logo] n.d. [image online] Available at: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Onlive-Logo.png > [Accessed
01/03/2012]
•[S team logo 1] n.d. [image online] Available at: <
http://www.mmorpg-info.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/steam1.gif > [Accessed 01/03/2012]
•[S team logo 2] n.d. [image online] Available at: <
http://www.grigorig.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/steam-v21.png > [Accessed 01/03/2012]
•[Batman] 2010 [image online] Available at: <
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/42/Batman_Arkham_Asylum_Videogame_Cover.jpg > [Accessed
01/03/2012]
•[S team Muscle] 2012 [image online] Available at: < http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-
YZviUgDFxtU/Tx4fiwz_ODI/AAAAAAAAAFw/jC8-OOB5tD0/s400/adobe.jpg> [Accessed 01/03/2012]
[Cartoon Cape] 2012 [image online] Available at: <
http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/antonbrand/antonbrand1105/antonbrand110500077/9630622-cartoon-flying-superher
> [Accessed 01/03/2012]
IGN, 2012. IGN LOGO REVIEW. [image online] Available at:http://www.infobarrel.com/media/image/82290.png >
[Accessed 01/03/2012]
FUTURAMA, 2010.Shut up and take my money meme. [image online] Available at:
http://www.giantbomb.com/news/ubisoft-announces-beyond-good-evil-downloadable-hd-rerelease/2594/?page=2&sort=
[Accessed 01/03/2012]

17. R e fe re nc e
Onlive , 2010.S hut up and take my money meme. [image online] Available at:
http://www.giantbomb.com/news/ubisoft-announces-beyond-good-evil-downloadable-hd-rerelease/2594/? page=2&sort=fi
[Accessed 01/03/2012]
Onlive Gaming S ystem. 2010, The console and controller [image online] Available at:
http://www.gamedynamo.com/article/showarticle/384/en/OnLive_MicroConsole_Game_S ystem_Coming_in_December
[Accessed 01/03/2012]
Royal Exhibitions . N.d, Crowning steam [image online] Available at: <
http://royalexhibitions.co.uk/scottish-jewels/scottish-crown/> [Accessed 02/03/2012]
Download. N.d, Download logo [image online] Available at: <
http://cdn1.iconfinder.com/data/icons/VistaICO_Toolbar-Icons/256/Download.png/> [Accessed 02/03/2012]
VideoGameBlogger. N.d, Stack of games [image online] Available at: <
http://www.videogamesblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/stack-of-games.jpg [Accessed 02/03/2012]
Onlive Official Website, 2010. Onlive is it the future. [online] Available at: <http://www.onlive.co.uk/ > [Accessed
02/03/2012]