Coming Soon: On-Demand Video Game Service

If Steve Perlman—the veteran entrepreneur behind WebTV—has his way, console gaming’s days are numbered. Today, Perlman and his partners unveiled OnLive, an on-demand video game service that offers the tantalizing prospect of playing any game, as soon as it’s released, on any computer or TV. The games would run on a remote server, and stream via broadband, the Wall Street Journal reports.

“For the first time, you can get any game, anytime, anywhere,” said Perlman. “Getting the latest games won’t mean getting the latest PC or console.” That could be a great proposition for consumers, and an even better one for game developers, who could cut down on expensive physical disk distribution, used game sales and piracy. So far the likes of EA, Take-Two, Ubisoft and Atari have already signed up. (More video game console stories.)