The next generation console discussion has really started to heat up, now that the current generation of Xbox 360 and PS3 is starting to hit six years in. OnLive is hoping to bring in a new perspective to console gaming, saying that it would love to talk to Microsoft and Sony about including its technology in the next console generation.
"If they decide they want to use our technology, that would be a great discussion because we've already got the infrastructure," said OnLive UK lead Bruce Grove to Eurogamer. "We know how to do it. There are a lot of things we could bring to the table and they could bring to the table. It would certainly be a discussion we would love to have. It would be very interesting.
"For us, it broadens our market. Look at in the same way the Xbox is becoming a media hub. It's becoming more than just a game system. It's just announced with the BBC. In the US it's announced with U-verse for AT&T. They're saying, how do we become more than just this? And this [OnLive] is a service that could quite easily work through their service and would work quite nicely, to be honest."
OnLive has already hinted at some progress with the idea, claiming that they’ve talked with “many people” regarding the subject. Still though, Microsoft and Sony both deny that consoles are in the works, instead opting to continue with heavy support for the current generation.
Regardless of what the console manufacturers want, there will come a day that a new generation will be put to market, and there is no indication that consoles will be phased out. OnLive believes that a system of physical and cloud will start to make a heavier presence. Microsoft recently unveiled cloud saving support, as well as universal account sign-in with the latest dashboard update.
"We've built this technology to fit the growing broadband trend," said Grove, reflecting on the possibilities of a cloud-centric generation of consoles.
"They've also got to satisfy their userbase that isn't necessarily just going to leap on that. They've got a legacy to support as well as dive forward. We had no legacy to support, which means our userbase by nature is only going to be a connected userbase. So we get to move forward. That unshackles us in a way they can't be."
"Hybrid is got to be the way they're thinking about this. But knowing the technology works, seeing it works, they've also got to be thinking, this is going to be the future in some form. Just in the way with Xbox Live and multiplayer, they build them in, but not everyone takes advantage of them. It just becomes another feature that is part of the general gaming quiver."
