New online video game distribution network OnLive said it will soon make game consoles obsolete by introducing the OnLive Game Service sometime this year. 

 

The new online gaming service was announced on Monday at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco where OnLive showcased the new service by running 16 different video games on it. The service basically enables subscribers to choose from a catalog of video games playable on Windows and Apple Macintosh computers or TV sets.

 

This means that gamers can forget about spending thousand of dollars on the latest gaming consoles in order to be able to play the latest video games and instead will be able to play them via the OnLive servers. They only need a ‘micro console’ that doesn’t cost that much in case they want to play them on an HDTV or a PC and a broadband Internet connection. 

 

The service can provide 720p HD streams over a 5-Mbps connection, while SD games only need a 1.5-Mbps line to run, according to Web site Kotaku. 

 

Palo Alto, Calif.-based OnLive already signed agreements with the industry giants such as Take-Two Interactive, Electronic Arts, Atari Interactive, Warner Bros. Interactive and others. 

 

The aim of the service, according to Steve Perlman and Mike McGarvey of OnLive, is to enable every gamer to play the video games that he wants on almost any platform, even laptops or netbooks.