Mobile Computing News

Photo: OnLive

Now that E3 2010 is in full swing, it’s emerged that cloud gaming company OnLive has no intentions of going it alone, partnering with computing giant Dell to provide highly customized servers for its service.

Dell to provide servers

OnLive announced that its actually been working with Dell for several years already at the server level. The streaming gaming company’s CEO, Steve Perlman, explained the need for partnering up with Dell as one bourne out of the startups eventual challenge of accessing the ‘resources needed to produce and quickly scale computer infrastructure’. He had pleasant words to add about Dell and the value they add, saying the company has  been ‘working closely’ with Onlive’s ‘engineers to design servers to our exact specifications and business needs’.

New publishing partners, too

In addition to announcing Dell – who are better known for their computers – would partner with OnLive from a hardware perspective, the streaming gaming company also used E3 2010 as an opportunity to announce new publishers who have signed content deals with the cloud gaming company. In addition to the previously announced relationships with Take Two, EA, Ubisoft, THQ and Warner Bros, publishing giants Capcom, Konami, Square Enix and Sega will supply content, too.
Outside of getting Activision on board, the streaming gaming company pretty much has the crem della crem of video games publishers on board for the great streaming experiment.

OnLive explained briefly

Photo: Dell

Though we’ve touched on what OnLive is at length elsewhere, it’s basically a service that lets gamers play games without the need for a console or PC in your home. Your whole game – input, output and display – data is delivered via your broadband internet connection. In effect, the service allows you to perform cloud gaming, much like web apps that replace your desktop allow one to do cloud computing.

Put up or shut up

It’s showtime for OnLive now, with the service launching over the weekend in the US. The UK’s launch is as yet unconfirmed but we do know that BT, who own a small stake in the company, will provide the platform OnLive will be released on in the UK. We’re still very skeptical about whether or not this streaming gaming experiment will work, though we do believe this is the inevitable future of gaming. We’re just not sure if that future – or our broadband infrastructure – is ready now. And we’ve grown quite fond of having a PS3, 360 or Wii (or all three for over achievers) be the centre of our home theatres.

E3 2010 continues throughout the week and we’ll cover all the major announcements and reveals.