The future of gaming is OnLive?

The newly announced OnLive could turn the video game hardware industry on its head.

The Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco was the stage for what could turn out to be a very significant unveiling: OnLive.

OnLive is the ultimate 'games on demand' service, where you can play any game on your HDTV by streaming them straight from OnLive's super computers. This means that Crysis can be played at 720p and 60fps without the need to create a super-PC with your own money.

Your input into the proprietary OnLive controller is sent back to the OnLive computer to then stream the content to your TV. Not only could this spoil the console maker's pursuit, it could destroy the PC maker's pursuit to make us buy more powerful computers as well.

So what do you need for the service? Either a piece of decompressing software on your computer, or a device (as pictured) to plug into your TV. Atari, Eidos, Codemasters, EA, Epic, Take-Two, THQ, Ubisoft and Warner Bros. have already signed on and the service has the potential to host any developed-for-PC game.

The company has spent years developing their compression technology, allowing anyone with a 1.5MB internet connection to stream SD content, or those with a 5MB connection to stream HD content to their TV. Whether the service really can perform well and without lag is what we're all waiting to see.

"OnLive is games on demand," said OnLive boss, Steve Perlman. "What we do is make available the top, high-end titles at the same window they're released at retail - so the same time they're on the store shelves you have access to them - and you can play all these high-end titles on any entry level PC or Mac just through a plug-in that's just one megabyte in size in your browser, or using this OnLive micro-console."

"You can hook it up to your TV and have the exact same games available on your TV."

Is this the future of gamimg and video gaming hardware? Well, with the rise of downloadable games there's no doubt that this streaming technology could take off and at a much cheaper price than your standard console. You can find out more by visiting the OnLive website, or by watching the demonstration below.