The New York Times reported that a company called Onlive wants you to leave your consoles and PC’s behind and take your game experience to your mobile devices.
We all know how comparatively pathetic the processing and graphics power of even the newest mobile devices are compared to even the most mundane desktop computer. Sure, a stirring game (or 20) of Angry Birds may fill the time sink of the dreaded airport layover but it can’t compare with fragging your friends on your PC or console.
More and more we see mobile devices extending into realms previously unthinkable simply because the price of mobility was reduced capability. Even the most efficient gaming laptops have to trade processing and graphics horsepower for power consumption and heat management.
So how can your IPAD or Android tablet play Arkham City? The answer is the almost ubiquitous "Cloud" that’s permeated everything from your music collection to productivity apps.
Onlive is a cloud based gaming service available to almost any internet connected device including smart phones and tablets.
The simplest way to understand it is to look at the experience as a layer of abstraction between you and the game. Onlive services require a "player" or app to use their service. When you connect to their service and select your game you are essentially connecting to a remote host that you control. If you’ve ever experienced remote control of your pc via gotomypc or Windows remote desktop then you’ve got a good idea of how this would work.
The user connects to their game host on the Onlive service via app( mobile devices and PC’s ) or a hardware device (TV’s). Then the magic happens. Since this is a remote connection and only control sequences and screen refreshes are being sent; your device’s internet connection is the only hardware to be concerned about.