wow

Imagine you could play video games - and immerse yourself in virtual worlds - with 3D graphics comparable to those found in blockbuster films like Transformers or WALL•E. And then imagine you could experience and control those graphics in real-time from any internet-enabled device, whether it be a desktop computer, set-top box or even iPhone.

and
OTOY

Licensing OTOY
OTOY 1.0 commercial licenses are granted on a per project basis.
Please contact sales@otoy.net for more information.
OTOY 2.0 will introduce a new 'indie' license targeted at game
developers and end users who wish to publish their own content using
the free OTOY 2.0 developer tools. It will allow developers and end
users to create and deploy commercial web and widget content for free
and with few restrictions (i.e. no phishing applications, modified runtime etc.)
through the indie 'sandboxed' OTOY 2.0 web
player framework on desktop PCs and Macs.
Commercial licenses for additional portions of the OTOY 2.0 technology
will be available for sites and clients that may need the following
custom solutions:
- deploying content through unbranded or re-branded versions of the
OTOY 2.0 web player
- deploying OTOY content for media or devices not explicitly covered
through the OTOY 2.0 indie license - including consoles,
television/DVD, kiosks and offline executables.
- deployment of persistent desktop objects, avatars and agents through
the OTOY Desktop API
- per site web browser reskinning - from within the browser
- creation of custom web browsers, desktop shells and IM clients
through the OTOY Desktop API
- complete OLE, COM, .NET or EXE application control from script
- direct access to native DLLs or binaries in script
- digital signing key API for developer content or payment processing
of DRM media and assets (with subkeys that can be granted to users for
runtime content creation or usage)
- direct API access to the following Network services: P2P, encryption
(EC and RSA), VOIP, AOL/AIM/ICQ/MSN access, FTP, low level HTTP, raw
UDP and TCP binary, epoch time stamps
- direct access to drag and drop API for files, content and media,
including assets in other running applications
- direct access to built in OTOY server modules for web hosting
applications, and operating game/chat servers
- porting OTOY to additional platforms (i.e. set top boxes, mobile
devices)
- virtual runtime tools - enables OTOY content to stream onto thin
clients using either AJAX, Flash or Java - no binary plug-in required.

I would say it would revolutionize virtual worlds..if they get it to work. But I do not know about games. Has the limit of realism in games been reached? People are sticking with their ps2 because the graphics are good enough. People are buying the Wii instead of xbox & ps3.
I could see it being a hit with social games like second life and WOW.
If it does take off what will it do to indie games? Even if we could provide the graphics, who owns the servers? Is it going to be tied to a big company... similar to xbox live?

This is pretty neat, I had an idea like this a few years back, but didn't pursue it because one would have to think of what happens when there are 3 million people playing your hit game at once! I have to wonder if they have that many servers to render this? As well, the lag could be a huge factor in many game types.

Although on the bright side, this will completely eliminate piracy on any games using this. And you wont need to ever buy new hardware! Which would of course kill Nvidia if they aren't a part of this server farm.

I think this is the better solution, if they do it right. Check out Trion World Network:

http://www.trionworld.com/

It's a bit of a hybrid solution, and I think it will work and also kill piracy for PC games. Future games will have essential parts on the server only.

Well yeah, but it has little to do with people not wanting more realism. The Wii costs a lot less, people will be more tempted to buy cheaper machines.

At least until Microsoft dropped the price of their cheapest Xbox360 wanting to compete with even the Wii, the Wii had the budget area of the market (read:casual market) covered.

In the end, different people buy different consoles. But seeing how the latest graphics cards still get their fair share of sales, I don't see how a popular cheap console is prove for a 'graphics are good enough' statement from the masses. :P

You know, for what it's worth, I don't think Wii Sports and the Mii people look 'good enough' at all. They maybe were never meant to be though, for obvious reasons,

Cheers

"The Wii costs a lot less, people will be more tempted to buy cheaper machines"

Actually that is kind of what I meant. People are buying cheaper machines with poorer graphics instead of the latest machines. The good graphics aren't worth the extra price.

Sony is in trouble with the ps3 because people are not upgrading their ps2s. I think the sales rate of the ps3 is less than the breakdown rate of the ps2, and people are still buying the ps2.

Another indication may be the reaction to the movies Polar express and Beowolf, people thought they were creepy. And the sales of high definition DVD players has not even come close to the projected targets.

"But seeing how the latest graphics cards still get their fair share of sales"
Are graphics card sales being driven by games or by people watching and editing video on their PCs? It seems that more computer venders are dropping their "gaming" units and pushing the "multimedia market. And a big selling point of the latest cards is the type of media ports they have.

Unfortunatly I think where this technology is really going to take off is in online advertizing. Imagine... one month of free warcraft if you sit through a 1/2 hour of a virtual toyota commercial!

Might be something to do with the fact they have stopped producing HD DVDS?
So the only alternative is blu-ray

I had this idea about a year go, when I first used a remote desktop software to control my home computer. You can't watch videos or play games like that yet, but I figured that it would just be the next step as connection speed increases.

I think it is just a matter of time until we will all have one fast computer at home, or like in this case at a server farm, and everything that uses graphics or any other cpu/gpu demanding process, will run on this machine. That way you will always have the same amount of quality and speed and your mobile device only needs a strong connection and a good screen.
And that's the biggest advantage of it all, you will always have a super computer in your pocket.

And I do think that gaming will go this way too, because it's then only a one-time investment or something like a fee that you pay and you will be guaranteed a certain amount of server speed. Same as it is now with internet broadband connections. And gaming would only be one aspect of the service, or one way you could use your "part" of the server.

But it's probably going to take a few years until this kind of service would work well enough, but then people, by minimizing the costs, would see the benefits.
This can really change the way computers are being used and boost the advancements in terms of speed and graphics. But even if you'd only want to write a word document, you wouldn't have to own anything else...

But it's kind of hard to imagine from our "every computer has it's own cpu" standpoint...

Sony doesn't really care, they've got both ends of the market covered this way! After all the PS2 does not truly compete with the PS3 anyways and we both know this. What better time to buy a PS2 now most PS2 games are going for cheap and there are LOADS of games out already.

Personally I think what is keeping the richer gamers from purchasing a PS3, is the lack of a healthy amount of good games like the PS2 has had from almost the start.

You know, all this talk of the Wii's success totally made people believe Sony "got in trouble" by it's decision to go for latest tech with an expensive price tag. In reality, the PS2 + PS3 is a mighty combo. They're not going broke any time soon.

In my opinion, Nintendo and their Wii really didn't even try to compete with the PS3 in the first place and I don't think the Wii's games was what made people buy the Wii. Sure, games should be of a certain quality, but it's mostly the "new" stuff you get with the Wii-mote. That move was pure genius from Nintendo, but still says little about whether or not people want more realistic games or not.

I'm sure people would want a PS3 as well, if they could afford one... or maybe buy an Xbox.

Cheers

I agree that Nintendo did not cause Sony's problems. Some of Sony's ps3 problems came from a poor rollout and some bad customer relations. But Sony is in trouble with the ps3, they have had to push back the profitability date several times which means that division had to be supported by their other divisions. Unfortunately for Sony most of their divisions are having profitability problems. Partly because of the economy but also because they have not managed to have a product that dominated any market.
My point of comparison with the Wii was simply that people have a clear choice between systems with high resolution graphics and lower resolution graphics and they are going with the lower end model. And I agree that some of it is about the wiimote.

@Hitsch this idea has been promoted by Sun Micro since before the internet started. The big problem is internet stability. If your house and all your files are controlled by a server farm what happens when you loose internet connection?

And to put on my paranoid hat... who controls the servers? With google recording everything you do on the net and microsoft analyzing every file on your computer just think of the power that the people who controlled that info would have.

And if this technology pans out and they succeed at creating these virtual worlds what is the risk of brain washing? If they are worried about that with the technology we have now imagine what they will say if we can create a truly immerse virtual world? We will either have a new and impressive way of communicating or we will have the Matrix.

No, it is not a matter of money in most cases. The most successful games are expensive games with additional hardware, sometimes almost similar expensive than the Wii itself. People are buying some big sport pads with software, guitars with a game and similar. They are spending a lot of money for the Wii.

The reason is not that they want to sacrifice graphics because of the money. They are interested in the new style of entertainment. Families and older people are buying the Wii. This console entered new markets. I know a lot of sportsmen buying the Wii only because of the sports games or for their kids to let them move and do sport in the living rooms.

There is more than only graphics and price, it is just new exciting entertainment, a new feeling, fun. It is not a hard core console for lonely youngsters sitting alone in their stinky little dark room. It is for the living room, for parties, for groups and families. And this might be cool for a bunch of people.