OnLive Gaming Adds A New Twist In The UK

Tweet

OnLive, the online streaming game service,  hasn’t been in the UK very long. They only launched there back in September–September 22nd, specifically–and now, some fresh news has dropped about their service. They’ve added a little extra to the experience over there, thanks to a little boost from the folks at SRS Labs.

And if you’re a home theater buff, you’ve probably already recognized that name SRS from a variety of augmentations they’ve released for televisions and similar equipment, like SRS TheaterSound, SRS TruSurround, and the friend of the aurally sensitive, SRS TruVolume. See, what’s happened here is that the folks at OnLive have hooked up with the SRS crew to bring 5.1 channel surround sound to the streaming video and audio associated with OnLive’s gaming platform. Of course, you’ll need to be hooked up to a surround sound rig in order to get that kind of sound, but in case you’re not packing a large quantity of speakers and such on your home theater gear, be of good cheer, as you’re quite covered here as well.

For those folks who don’t have a nice big speaker array to call their own (or if you’re just not using a device that has an SRS system already in it, like some televisions and receivers do), you’ll get what’s described as an “enhanced stereo mix”, which probably won’t be quite as good as SRS 5.1 surround would have been, but still a good sight better than normal.

It’s definitely a perk to using the system, and does provide a little extra credence to the concept of a streaming game market, though I suspect that it’ll take a lot of doing to keep up with PCs and regular consoles, which will have the advantage of much newer content and much more of it available at any given time. And, at last report, it’s not just the UK that will be getting this perk either, as US users will also get the upgrade.

So what do you guys think here? Does a little extra boost in the audio make the idea of streaming games more palatable for you? Or do you figure that you can do better with your PCs and consoles? Either way, we want to hear from you, so head on down to the comments section and tell us what you think!