HTC Hints at Cloud Gaming for Smartphones through OnLive Investment
OnLive is currently the leader in cloud gaming services, and HTC is one of the most popular smartphone manufacturers. So what happens when they combine forces? We'll soon find out.
The Wall Street Journal reports that HTC has invested $40 million in OnLive's growing service, indicating that HTC will put greater emphasis on providing content to smartphone users , specifically games.
HTC spokesperson Maggie Cheng told the WSJ that the investment will "strengthen its gaming capabilities and help HTC tap into increasing demand for games on smartphones."
OnLive is a good fit for smartphone gaming because it relies on cloud-based gaming. The service houses and runs the games on local servers and pipes the video feed out to the player over an Internet connection. The player gives input, which is sent back to the servers and computed. The results are then sent back. The benefit of this setup is that underpowered hardware can run high-end console and computer games.
If HTC can bring console games to smartphones, it would be a big win in the app war currently being waged by manufacturers and developers alike. With the advent of 4G data speeds and higher-resolution displays , graphics-intensive console games could not only be feasible for OnLive-compatible smartphones, but they would look great, too.
OnLive already brings its cloud gaming service to computers and TVs (the latter via a small "microconsole" hub), but has yet to foray into the mobile market.
