Have you heard? Tuesday night at the GDC an announcement was made that could change the way you play games. This announcement is called "onlive" and it promises some amazing features. This is mostly to make you aware, if you aren't already, and to get your thoughts. By the way, the DOA doesn't refer to the game but instead is supposed to be a clever play on the "live" part with "dead on arrival".
First you will be able to play any game on your TV, with an adapter, or any PC or Mac computer, with a browser add-in. Forget about the system requirements, it won't matter! The game of your choice will be streamed to your TV or computer through your broadband connection. Oh, I guess I should have mentioned that. You will need to have a broadband connection, so now you know. 
The faster you internet connection is the better your gaming experience can be! Slower connections will default to SD resolutions and the faster connections will get 720p video with surround sound capability.
Second is the ability to play multiplayer games with your friends, provided they also have onlive and provided they live within 1500 miles of you. That is only the initial requirement and would eventually be available if your friend or friends are within 3000 miles. Still the multiplayer capability alone is quite attractive, for the games that work well as multiplayer.
All your game saves will be on the servers, just waiting for your next visit. Well, there are a number of features and if you want to learn more there are bound to be lots of stories about this in the weeks and months to come. Here is what it looks like (the 5 minute video):
What would you be willing to pay for the onlive gaming service? I know millions pay about 15 US$ per month to play one game *cough* wow *cough*. So what would you pay to play games like Crysis or Burnout or Mirror's Edge without needing to upgrade you computer? There currently isn't a price for the unit you see above, controller not included or even with the controller. The browser plug-in is supposed to be free, you only need to subscribe to the service.
The current plan is for OnLive to have a base cost (for the unit above that connects to your TV) plus a monthly subscription fee. Although there is no announcement about exactly how much any of this will be, they have indicated that there will be varying levels of the subscription. That means if you spend 20 hours a week on their service you will not pay as much as someone that spends more, or a lot more, time per week on the service. Yeah, it reminds me of shopping for a cell phone plan.
Is this an end to piracy? Probably not, but it might help. Is this the end to consoles? Again, probably not. Is this the end of actually having a copy of the game? I don't think so, and this may be the thing that keeps a lot of people from going to OnLive. If you are a collector then you probably don't want to pay twice for the same game. If your interest is mainly single player games then this doesn't have as many advantages.
What happens if you want to play one of your games, but you are at a friends house and they don't have the OnLive gaming service or broadband connection or whatever? You have to hope that they have a copy of the game.
This turns out to be a lot longer than I intended, so I'll just ask for your comments and thoughts.
Comments
I like what I'm hearing, thanks for the info
@FM_punk: I'm glad you like it.
@BrandonR89: There are some definite advantages, and you're welcome.
@Ataraxia94: Actually even routing to the computer skips the requirements because the requirements are met at the servers. You only buy that box if you are going to use your TV instead of a computer.
it's an interesting concept tho.. id like to see the result.
However, I do consider myself kind of a collector, and I like having a collection of games and boxes I can see, you know? It would be very cool to have it stream to your TV, and while the idea of it costing more if you play more often makes sense, I don't like that part too much. If I'm playing FFXIII and I have a whole week to do nothing else, I'm gonna get a huge bill. Whereas if I bought FFXIII in box form and played it on PS3, it's just that one initial price. Still, I like the idea and I really hope it works. I'm gonna keep up with it.
@MareInfinitus: I think the real benefit is in multiplayer games, still I like having those dusty boxes too.
@Ataraxia94: I should probably edit in a link to the video because there is so much to say about the system. It is an amazing tech, but it will be years before it is available everywhere.
@slipknoob: The launch is supposed to be winter of this year, but like you said we will have to see more details.
@travisstaggs: Like a lot of new things it has some interesting features, and there will be a lot more about this I'm sure.
@Bigboi500: I think that is what they are counting on, people want the amazing experience but don't always have the means. This would provide the means so we have to see what the price is going to be, and how the cost of the games will work since you don't actually download the game or possess and evidence of ownership.
@SquareEnixFan13: That was my first thought when I heard "play any game at any time." It appears that it doesn't really mean ANY game either, just the ones from the people they can make the deal with.
@black_hen: I don't think I would ever use it, but I can see where a lot of people might. I'm drawing a blank on "TB3", what is that?
@NinjaMunkee: It looks amazing too, there is an hour long video of this from the actual live announcement. It was just announced late Tuesday/early Wednesday.
@Papitar: I agree, they do promise a lot and it will take some time to perfect.
@black_hen: Thanks, I just couldn't think of what it could be.
@jaykho213: Yes a lot of it looks nice and we will hear more about this.
@parkaar: It does and I will be glad when we see exactly how it works, but there are a lot of things that will affect the success of OnLive.
See ya
and I'm really sorry that I can't drop by in the union 
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FM_punk