InstantAction - Full games in your browser!

[Rob]

Instant Action is prepping their HTML based, embeddable game service for launch later this year. It allows you to play full game titles in any browser by downloading a chunk of the game and then streaming data as necessary during gameplay. Your computer will still need some decent specs to play more demanding titles but IA is saying that games like Crysis will be possible using their tech. Check out this video that shows a live demo of "The Secret of Monkey Island". It takes less then a minute to stream the initial chunk of data and start playing the game from a save state. The entire game is well over 2GB.
http://www.viddler.com/explore/engadget/videos/1199/


IA is attempting to make their own distribution system where indie developers get a 50/50(not final) split without having to handle any of the hosting costs. That seems a little bit greedy to me, but maybe indie developers struggling to get their games out into the world would disagree. Either way it will be huge for games to be embedded into blogs/forums/pages. IE: I could embed D.E.F.C.O.N. into a Lobby post and anyone who wanted to play it could visit the post and login using their unique username/pw and be playing right away. No opening Steam or running any other separate program. The embed could serve as a trial or full version of the game depending the the rights you have purchased to the game. Trials will be limited by time or content depending on the developers desires.

I like this... does anyone else think it's worth a look?

[MyNameDidntFit]

1) If I play a game, then come back to it later, will I have to stream it again?
2) Does no-one else see that this is the same as Ubi's DRM? (where's the flamin'?)
3) What possible reason is there to use this over Steam? (ooh, I'm in Firefox rather than Steam; damn I'm cool)

[Konrad]

Oh cool, I can play Crysis in a forum post.

Oh wait, why the hell is that considered an even remotely appealing idea?
Sounds a lot like OnLive, except even more gimmicky and ridiculous.

I really don't have a problem launching a game from my desktop. Streaming games is an unnecessary place for us to go at the moment, when games start being so demanding most people can't play them, or so large keeping them on the hard drive is too costly we can talk again.

[MyNameDidntFit]

And HDDs are going to get bigger and bigger and bigger so the latter is never going to be a problem :D

[Konrad]

Ergo: Stop wasting huge money for technology as unnecessary as streaming video games.

[Rob]

I find the appeal in being able to quickly share demos and even full games easily and with the ability to run them full screen like any other game. If a game comes out that you like and want to share then you post the embed and off we go to check the game without even leaving the post. Being able to stream the game and jump into it sooner rather then later is fairly impressive. It's nice to have another option for how you can get games delivered. Content delivery is changing all the time.

HDD space? MNDF I thought you were bothered by the 3GB DoWII update. :lol: The games are stored locally on your PC... IA is pushing the streaming tech. Onlive is a different service where nothing is stored on your PC. Onlive servers do all the work and send you video of it while you only send them commands. That I see as useless due to ping and if your net connection drops out for a moment then you miss that crucial shot or uppercut. IA doesn't have that limitation although for people who can't afford good hardware and don't mind monthly fees then Onlive might find a few customers there.

[MyNameDidntFit]

No. You embed. We buy. Then we check. It's the same as me saying "hey, guys, check out Chaos Rising (http://store.steampowered.com/app/20570/)". The only difference is that you can play your game faster if you really, really, really desperately need to play it NOW. And, even then, it won't be very quick as I can't see the game working without the core engine and code and stuff.

I'm bothered by a 3.6GB update to a 3.9GB game that I am forced to download to play a game I already own.

Oh, stored locally... that removes the single possible piece of logic that could possibly have been behind this... :/

Onlive has a purpose. Games today are very demanding and the majority of non-gaming computer owners will not spend their hard earned money on a gaming rig... so they instead spend $15 a month (plus game prices) to be able to play Crysis on their bad computer.

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... or maybe so that Jason can play BC2 on his laptop :p

[Lance]

Maybe I'm stupid

But say I want to play something like Fallout 3 more than once, since a lot of games offer the Good Guy/Bad Guy options. Does that mean I'm streaming the game twice?

For people that have bad 'net packages (take me for instance, I have 20gb a month) and I stream a 4gb game twice in that month, there's 8gb of my allowance gone.

Or am I missing something crucial?

I'm not Entirely against it. Unlike Ubisoft forcing you to use their DRM if you want to play there games, with this at least you have the option Not to use it and stay with discs. It just seems it will only really be something great for people with high-speed connections with unlimited monthly allowance.

[Rob]

I forgot that apparently everywhere but the U.S. and Japan don't have unlimited high bandwidth internet connections for cheap.

I mentioned Crysis as an example of possibilities of the technology being used. I get the feeling that IA is going to be pushing smaller games that can be streamed and playable within a minute. Games like Braid and D.E.F.C.O.N are good examples although the Monkey Island (2+ GB) game streamed enough data to begin playing from a saved state within a minute. That's the point! So I enjoy Braid and I want you to try the demo. You simply click the forum link or go to the MG portal page and there is the demo ready to be consumed within seconds. That is completely different then reading about it on the forum and then going to another webpage or content delivery system in order to try the game out. For blogs and discussion forums like MG, IA is going to be very helpful in keeping people on the site instead of bouncing around the internet. That reminds me that there are supposed to be some kind social functions that IA can tag onto existing games. They didn't go into specifics so that is up in the air at this point.

Brett it seems to me that the streaming is just to get you into the game quicker. The data will continue to stream from whatever point you stopped it at if you chose to quit the game before finishing the DL. It will be nice for games that do not allow preloading because at midnight you can hop into a game within minutes and DL the later portions of the game as you play.

[Konrad]

Thing is, I don't think the time saved between starting to stream a game without leaving a forum post or just downloading it to play later to be anything significant. Like I said before, seems to me like more of a gimmick than anything else.

[MyNameDidntFit]

begin playing from a saved state within a minute.
Look at the red. If data is stored locally, that means that when you start playing from a saved game you do not have to download to core game engine/file/code as this will have to have been COMPLETELY downloaded to allow the game to run. Which, unless they've got something up their sleeve to allow games to run with only a bit of their engine (lololol) then this will mean that the time to buffer the initial play session will be far greater than that to buffer a saved game.


That is completely different then reading about it on the forum and then going to another webpage or content delivery system in order to try the game out.
Unless this IA plans to make the games free and allow you to simply start playing from this code without buying the game, signing up to them or any of the other things that they will require, then no, it is not.

Steam: Click link -> Hit purchase -> Fill purchase form -> Download -> Play

IA: Initiate purchase -> Fill purchase form -> Buffer -> Play -> Continue to download

Tell me now where the saving in time is that will be able to make up for the price jump that will surely come from IA wanting 50% of game profits?

[Rob]

Well I guess we will have to agree to disagree :) Now back to BC2.