The Game Developers Conference is on this week in San Francisco. One of the more interesting announcements has come from startup company OnLive — their website will feature a big announcement tonight at 2.15am UK time (7.15pm pacific time). They have developed an on-demand gaming streaming service, which essentially means you can play games running on their servers on your PC, Mac or TV — therefor removing the need to have a console or high-end computer of your own. All that is required is a 1.5Mbit Internet connection for standard definition gaming, or a 5Mbit for HD 720p gaming.

It runs via a browser plugin on any computer or via a small hardware device connected to your TV. IGN has hosted a video demonstration of the UI, while Adam Sessler interviews with one of the developers. OnLive has support from all of the large publishers such as EA, Ubisoft, Warner Bros, Codemasters and Epic and expects to be able to release new games within the same window as traditional retail launches.

The only problems I can see could come from a slow connection resulting in jerky video or delayed input response. Still, I’m able to play online games on US servers from the UK without any noticeable lag so suspect the latter won’t be such a problem. If this is successful it could effectively put console and high end gaming hardware manufacturers out of business, and provide a much more accessible and affordable platform for consumers. I can’t see why they couldn’t use the same infrastructure to stream movies or music too.

EDIT: Gamespot (Engadget) have posted a 53min video of the conference today.