Phones and tablets getting game power in the cloud

We can shop on our phones and read magazines on our tablets. However playing high-end video games on a mobile device has been out of the question.

OnLive, a Silicon Valley startup, on Thursday plans to release software that will let people play the richest, most graphically intense games on Apple’s iPhone and iPad, as then as on Amazon’s Kindle Fire and other devices based on Google’s Android software. In the past, these games have been far beyond the relatively anemic computing power of such devices, requiring the horsepower of a PC or a console. Nevertheless OnLive runs all of the games on its service on powerful server computers in its data centers and delivers them over the Internet, through so-called cloud computing.

The same thing

Other companies are trying to do the same thing, including Gaikai, a startup based in Los Angeles. If they succeed, a shift to cloud gaming could have big implications for the incumbent powers in the video-game business, mainly the console makers Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. In other words because running games in data centers means that consoles in the home can be far less powerful, relieving consumers of the need to buy a new generation of hardware henceforth.

At the same time, moving gaming into the cloud could help push the boundaries of what cloud computing can do, even on relatively low-powered mobile devices.

Everything from FarmVille on Facebook to data backup services like Apple’s iCloud to Netflix’s streaming movie service are considered cloud applications. However playing high-end games in the cloud presents a much bigger technical challenge because of the importance of eliminating any lag between the moment a player takes an action in a game on his or her device, and when the game responds on the screen. Even split-second delays can turn serious gamers off.

OnLive says it has solved this problem by figuring out a method of efficiently packaging video images of a live game that it delivers over the Internet, and that allows for instantaneous response to actions by players as they control the movement of characters within a game.

Recent demonstration in Seattle

In a recent demonstration in Seattle, Steve Perlman, the chief executive and founder of OnLive, showed a collection of so then-known high-end games, including L.A. Noire and Unreal Tournament 3, on an iPad, Android phones and a Kindle Fire.

Last year, OnLive introduced an previously iteration of its service, letting people play games first on PCs, Macs and television sets through a small $99 device it calls the MicroConsole.

The growing capabilities of the cloud

Perlman predicted that the growing capabilities of the cloud, along with the high costs of introducing a new console, would lead to big changes in the business. Hardware makers can lose billions of dollars on new game systems before in the long run recouping their investments through royalties from game sales.