Kraszu said:
1)You are overpaying for your PC
2)You are compering service that produce grapchics quality of stream in 1024x768 to a good PC. Lets take 3yearsx20$=720$=onlive proposition is a joke value wise, there will also be entry fees probably. 720$ will easily generate better grapchics then onlive.
3)You are naive if you think that you can take onlive for a month, pay 20$, and cancel it, there will be entry, and likely you will have to sing it for longer period or alweys pay some fee when you want to reconnect to the service. Every service telephones, internet etc. works that way exactly to stop people from buying only when they are using it. If you could just buy it for month for 20$ then they would most of they revenue, and they costs are high.
Like I said. It's better even if you pay for it the entire time, however, it's much better if you use the service on the fly as needed. Then the value proposition is
much better.
There has been no talk of "activation fees" as you suggest. In fact, having such a thing would be punishing to those who don't want to pay for the service long-term, and would cut into the profit margin gained from game purchases. The system generates plenty of wealth without the things you suggest.
People who complain of having to pay for internet service are just as bizarre. These same people have had access to the internet for numerous years prior, without any indication of shutting it down, and yet now they complain. Utterly stupid argument.
Finally, the quality of the service will improve over time. The quality of the video, along with the compression, Internet bandwidth, etc will increase. So the comparison that was made by the lame duck tester, from over 2000 miles away from the server, using the lowest quality of test connections, is not an accurate measurement of quality. Again, the value proposition is better than the existing model.
Will everyone use this service? Will it replace PCs as we know it? I doubt it. Hardcore gamers will still build high end systems, families will still want to own some type of PC(If you've been into a local Best Buy lately, you'll notice that they display/sell an alarmingly high amount of Laptops to Desktops.), and the industry will move forward with a new option for the people who don't want to invest an arm/leg into the industry just to play a single game they are interested.
The resistance is just stupid for the reasons I have stated above. If the service was impossible it would have died a long time ago. They will be releasing this sooner than later(definitely this year), and when they do, the service will only increase in quality as time goes on. Will the service catch on? Hard to say, but I'm betting that it will. Even if they only get 1,000,000 user after the first two years, that's a huge success if you think about the money exchange and the better value of that exchange for the customer, developers, and health of the video game industry.
/meh