An online gaming system – which it has been claimed could revolutionise the industry – has been launched in the UK.
The ‘cloud’-based OnLive service gives users access to on-demand games via the internet with no need for a console.
Gamers can play around 150 games on various devices including PCs, Macs, tablets and net connected televisions.
It was launched at the Eurogamer Expo at Earls Court, where around 40,000 enthusiasts will gather over the next few days to try out the latest games.
Hundreds queued to test the new system.
“This is gaming over the internet,” explained Bruce Grove, OnLive’s senior director of business development.
“We’ve had on demand radio, on demand videos, now we have on demand video games.
“We have all the latest titles streamed direct to your TV, PC, Mac tablet, any device, all you need is a broadband connection.”
The gaming industry is now bigger than the film and music industries, with the UK market – the biggest in Europe – worth almost £2.4 bn.
It is predicted that by 2015, the gaming industry in the UK will be worth well over £3bn.
Playstation and Xbox have recently experienced problems with hackers accessing customers’ personal information.
But chief executive and founder of OnLive Steve Perlman says this does not pose a problem for them as personal information is stored with a third party billing agency, not on one of their servers.
He said: “The worse they could do if they hacked into our data centre is perhaps get your high score.”