Clarence Brown

Like it or not, cloud gaming is here, and here to stay. OnLive and Gaikai have both made the pipe dream a reality, and are currently in a head-to-head battle for the title of best cloud gaming service. While it’s debatable which of the two is better, seeing either one make steps to further the platform is exciting and quite possibly the unfolding of the future of the gaming industry.

At E3 2012, both announced partnerships that would implement their technology into the latest generation of smart televisions.

OnLive

We are previewing the OnLive® Game Service on LG’s Smart TV with Google TV at E3, ringing in a new era when OnLive on-demand gaming is simply part of what you expect from your (incredibly cool) LG TV. Even better, these are 3D TVs, so once we get a few 3D games and enough TVs in the field, we’ll enable the 3D capability.

Gaikai

Samsung Cloud Gaming will open millions of consumers to an exciting new service that makes video games playable through Samsung Smart TVs. Connected via the Internet, Samsung Cloud Gaming utilizes Gaikai’s cloud-based streaming technology to deliver video games instantaneously to game players without the hassle of long download times, unsightly hardware or untidy wiring.

Who know’s which service will ultimately win the hearts and minds of gamer’s. And with the smell of the next generation of consoles just ahead of us, it wouldn’t be a stretch at all to say that OnLive or Gaikai may be bought by, or partner with, Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft. Stay tuned.

The argument about which paid service is the best, PlayStation Plus or Xbox Live Gold, is an ongoing debate. Until now, the differences have been tit-for-tat, with both services sharing most of the same features, with the added caveat that some of the services that come with an Xbox Live Gold subscription are free on PlayStation Network, even without PlayStation Plus. Xbox Live Gold subscribers may tell you the quality of the service is well worth the price, and while the Xbox branded network may have been better in the times past, both networks have quickly reached parity.

With the E3 2012 announcement that PlayStation Plus has added an instant games collection, PlayStation’s paid network may finally have a leg-up on its Xbox counterpart. With this announcement, Sony has created a console subscription-based games model that probably should be adopted by both Nintendo and Microsoft. In other words, as long as you pay, you play. Each month PlayStation plans to release more titles to the ‘online games collection’, becoming what many of us have wanted for a long time, a Netflix instant-like service for games.

Of course you still have to download and install the games on your console, but the fact that this is on demand via a subscription plan if pretty exciting. The first volley of games for the month of June from Sony include: Virtua Fighter 5, inFAMOUS 2, Little Big Planet 2, Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, Just Cause 2, Saints Row 2, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, Hard Corp: Uprising, Choplifter HD, Zombie Apocalypse Never Die Alone, and Sideway NY –not too shabby at all.

Now the real question is, how long will it take Microsoft to follow suite? With subscription based games as an added bonus, Xbox Live Gold could bolster its ongoing sales by offering free downloads for games that are either classics or greatly waning in sales. I wouldn’t expect to get top tier games out a service like this, or even anything from the last year or so, but by releasing good but forgotten games, it would bring added value to the service, which could also include offering the same games for purchase to non-Gold members, or even allow a user to add the game to their permanent collection for a discounted price.

There a many possibilities for a gaming service like this. It will be very interesting to see how PlayStation does with this offering on their Plus service going forward. It will also be interesting to see if the other two big boy consoles will follow suite.

Windows 8 and its Metro UI has been the topic of mass discussion every since Microsoft announced their vast departure from what Windows has been for as long as most of us can remember. This doesn’t necessarily spell disaster for said operating system and its users, but definitely raises concern. Concern that what many of us love may turn into something we can neither confidently use or recommend. That being said, it would be a disaster if people simply choose not to adopt the new operating system, but then again, Microsoft hasn’t really given us any other options. That is part of the beauty, and could also be the failing, of shoving the Metro UI into Windows 8.

Yes I say, shoved into Windows 8. Let me explain. I was an early adopter of Windows Phone. I love it. Heck, I’ve even developed on the platform —insert plug here. The platform is a fresh breath of air. Like other Windows Phone lovers, I wanted to see an enhanced version of the operating system on a tablet device, but Microsoft had other plans. Plans not only to create a fully re-engineered version of a Windows Phone-like operating system for tablets, but also building the next proper version of Windows completely around this reworked code and design scheme.

What really drove Microsoft to incorporate a Metro UI into Windows 8 can more easily be understood from a business perspective. If Microsoft would have released a stand alone tablet device, they would have had to face the same overwhelming task they faced in the smartphone market, trying to overcome the saturation of iOS and Android devices. While Android may have the leg up on smartphone penetration –not perception–, you could easily say that iPad is the tablet market. Simply put, no matter how good Windows Phone is, it is almost impossible to overcome the market share the other platforms have. So, the only real, reasonable course of action for Microsoft was to force mass-penetration of their new user interface by using the leverage of their tried and true flagship software, Windows.

The slogans for Windows 8 include “No Compromises” and “Fast and fluid”. While it is yet to be seen if the aforementioned slogans will pan out for the average consumer, the pursuit of these goals from the Windows 8 development team is paramount.

No compromises implies just that. No matter how you have used Windows in the past, Windows 8 will work much the same way you have known and loved. Well, while we instantly know that’s not a hundred percent true, it is mostly true. I’ve used both the Consumer Preview and the Release Preview as my full-time operating system and I must say, it can definitely be used like its predecessors, with the caveat of a Metro UI replacing the old start menu.

I’ve said this many times, and this article won’t be an exception. Just think of the Metro UI as an over-glorified start menu. Case closed. Metro is just a new way to launch the old applications we know and love, as well as a way to launch all the new tablet-centric applications, presented in a nice touch-friendly environment. That’s all you really have to think about. Customize it to your heart’s content. Remove most of the Metro apps if you’d like. You have choice.

The fast and fluid slogan attached to the new operating system is just as important. If you plan to use the system like the Windows of old, this really won’t concern you. Applications will launch and operate just as they have in the past. But for people with touch-centric convertible laptops, or full-on slate devices, this becomes pivotable to the success of the platform.

How so? Look at Apple iOS. What makes that operating system so great? It’s not necessarily the look and design. Sure it looks okay, but even the utmost Apple purist are starting to complain that the whole operating system is starting to look dated. What makes iOS so great is its speed and the seamlessness at which tasks can be accomplished. You tap on an app, you expect it to launch pretty quickly. And this holds true for most of the functions of iOS, it’s fast and simply just works.

On any system that meets the recommended requirements for Windows 8, and especially so on Windows 8 certified devices, one should expect –demand– a certain amount of performance with launching, switching, and navigating apps. There can be no exceptions. Things simply must work and work well, no matter if I’m using a keyboard and mouse, or simply using a touch interface.

Regardless of the slogans associated with the product, one thing stands true, incorporating the Metro UI into Windows 8 was an unreasonably reasonable move. By leveraging their new user interface on the a product with mass penetration, Microsoft has in fact shoved Metro upon us, forcing us to become familiar with it.

The brilliance of this move is that the same user interface will be deployed in some form on all their products, creating a familiar ecosystem for their customers across the PC, tablets, smartphones, and the Xbox.

While the whole Metro-lution will be a bit of a growing pain for Microsoft, developers, and well as consumers, this will undoubtedly be a new and exciting experience that should reinvigorate the Windows universe by providing a new generation of applications and interfaces for a fast changing industry.

This fall will be interesting.