Top 10 of 2009: News
What were the key stories running through the past year? Find out here
Number 7: Head in the Clouds
Every year there's a new buzz phrase that enters the industry consciousness and becomes a new favourite topic for watercooler conversation. This year's was undoubtedly "cloud computing" and when OnLive announced its plans for enabling console-free gaming at GDC early in the year the industry quickly polarised into proponents and detractors - both camps surprisingly vehement with their own arguments.
The basic premise - that the games are run on remote servers, and that broadband connections are all that's required to play - was the scene of some of the most violent discussions.
Many proclaimed that the latencies involved in the data transfer would kill any chance for consistently strong experiences in twitch gaming, while others contested that general consumer speeds were too slow to allow much of an experience at all - the reaction to the UK government's pledge to provide 2mpbs broadband to all households in the country was recently met with enough derision to fuel that particular debate on its own.
But shortly afterwards another contender stepped up to the plate in the form of David Perry's Gaikai service - something intended more as a means to hook gamers into products as a stress-free trial service than a fully-fledged games on-demand offering, but enough along the same lines as to make people look again.
Since the middle of the year the subject has gone a bit quiet as both services launched beta tests, although I gather OnLive is set to ramp up its marketing machine again next year and purports to be much closer to launching fully than some might think.
Ultimately, most people seem to think cloud gaming has a future, but most disagree when that future becomes reality. For publishers it's a wet dream to consider skipping not just retail and distribution, but platform-holders as well - but in the meantime the core console installed base continues to rise, and consumers won't react well to being told their investment in hardware was ultimately unnecessary...