MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
OnLive has announced the OnLive Player App to bring cloud gaming to tablets and smartphones.
The app, which is due to arrive this autumn, will enable streamed play of “virtually all” OnLive games on iPad and Android tablets.
It will support both touch control and OnLive’s own Universal Motion Controller. The app overlays virtual buttons on-screen if the controller isn’t used. Multiplayer voice chat is also supported.
The app will enable tablets or phones to act as touch and motion controllers if combined with a TV, Mac or PC, displaying both synchronised and independent video on the device and TV screen.
This means TVs and portables can simultaneously display video from one game or from two different games.
“The power of the cloud is definitely the theme this week, displacing what had been assumed to be platforms that could never be displaced,” says OnLive founder and CEO Steve Perlman.
“The OnLive Player App for iPad and Android shows how with the power of the cloud, the question is not whether cloud gaming will be able to catch up to consoles, it will be whether consoles will be able to catch up to cloud gaming.”
Aimed at Nintendo’s unveiling of Wii U, OnLive states that it will integrate portable devices and TV to produce “far higher performance, richer gameplay and deeper social integration than any console announced for 2012.”
Meantime, Sony sees its new handheld as the missing link in connecting portable and home console gaming.
An OnLive iPad app launched in December 2010. However, it only supports social network features, like friends lists and video libraries.
OnLive said it would bring cloud gaming to iPhone in 2009.
