RSSIntel, Verizon to Bring PC Games to TV
By Ed Oswald | Published November 2, 2006, 3:48 PM
Verizon and Intel announced a partnership Thursday that would bring the telecommunications company's games on demand service to television via Viiv-enabled PCs. Included with the new application would be PlayLinc, a service aimed at enhancing multiplayer games through chats and the creation of private servers.
The telecommunications company previously acquired a stake in Super Computer International, which created the PlayLinc service. Verizon says moves like this are intended to help the company find new ways to generate revenue, as its traditional landline phone business continues to struggle.
PlayLinc is also meant to show off the features of its fiber-optic Internet service FiOS when it comes to gaming, allowing up to 32 gamers to talk with one another at the same time, in addition to significant reductions in "lag," or the delay between a requested action and its execution in a online game.
"We're creating a graphics-rich, big-screen game-playing experience for the entire family," Verizon new product development director Colson Hillier said. "The games that families now enjoy on their PCs will become larger than life, more fun to play and accessible in virtually every room of the house, through linkages between a family's PC and their TV."
To use the service, an Intel Viiv computer running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 would be required. Additionally, the service would be optimized for use on the Intel Core 2 Duo processor.
Verizon Games on Demand is available for $9.95 USD per month.
Come play our games in lo-res, and pay us monthly while you're at it.
Cracksmokers.
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I've seen a demo of Viiv, and I have to say that's it's just amazing. When Intel launched that they were claiming that receivers from DirecTV will be available in 3-4 months. They were quite unrealistic because it took 12 months.
So, what's so special about Viiv? The key aspect of Viiv is the movie/recording studios and TV stations in several countries are backing this technology because of the licensing system they all agreed. On the other hand, MS & AMD have something similar but with no licenses and because of that nobody cares. Do you think Hollywood cares about freebies? Of corse not. A good example of compliance is the success of Apple with iTunes.
The demo I saw with Viiv, is that when your satellite or cable receiver is connected to DSL or Broadband, you can download news and movies from other countries that you would never see in the US. Bollywood and Hollywood are major players. Several Latino stations and movie studios have already agreed to telecast they productions via broadband too.
I think that Viiv technology with cable and satellite operators could revolutionize the way we watch TV. This technology is the only legitimate rival to TiVo, and in time we'll see which one succeeds.
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