[digitalcraft]

Server-side applications is nothing new. Microsoft had planned to move to a server side model for their Office environment that people would pay a fee to use, but it never really materialized, I don't think people were receptive to that.

Also as far as games go, even in the 80's there were server side games: MUDs. They were text based because that's about the amount of data you could transfer successfully.

As far as MMORPGs, they actually don't transfer as much data as people think, a lot of the calculation is actually done client side. You can play FFXI for instance over a 28.8 modem with a bit of lag yes, but it works. With a little lag you'll often see people bouncing around, which is actually because the server doesn't send constant position, it sends intermittent updates and the server side software chains them together to emulate smooth movement.

This onlive system basically was waiting for internet capability to catch up with aspirations. I'm not convinced its where it needs to be for this sort of video streaming yet though. There's a percentage of people who have the connection for it, but even in the U.S. its not a large percentage. Even expensive internet service often does have lag on send/receive and is fast once it gets going. We'll see if its enough to make this platform successful.