Crysis developer says OnLive’s tech viable in 2013

Over at Gamindustry.biz Crytek, the developers of Crysis, had a few things to say about the streaming technology behind OnLive, not the lest of which being that it will not be workable until 2013 at the earliest.  That is a good 4 years away.  Does Rearden Studios know something that they don’t?  “We had our research in 2005 on this subject but we stopped around 2007 because we had doubts about economics of scale. But that was at a time when bandwidth was more expensive,” says CEO Cevat Yerli.He went on to say “We saw that by 2013 – 2015 with the development of bandwidths and household connections worldwide that it might become more viable then.”

“It doesn’t take a lot to make a video-based renderer, but what you need is the right infrastructure that is beyond the technology we have, it’s more like cable net providers and communication networks.  They have to provide fast bandwidths and connectivity in order to allow such technology to excel. So as it was dependent on somebody else, we decided to wait.”  This doesn’t exactly sound like a ringing endorsement.  He went onto say “We’re not involved, we just allowed Crysis to be tested on it.”

Everyone’s stance seems to be the same, it’s just too early for this kind of technology.  Although the promised 720p 60fps claim seems somewhat optimistic, maybe if the focus was moved to more Wii-level 480p 3ofps gaming it could still be a good start to gradually building-out the infrastructure.

[Via GamesIndustry.biz]