A remote possibility

One of the features of my new PS3 that has me most intrigued is the Remote Play function. This is where you fire up your PSP and use it to access content stored on your PS3, from either a home network or over the internet. At the moment, the number of things you can access is limited: Music, movies, and PS1 games are all fine, but the majority of PS3 and PSN games can't be played on the handheld, which is understandable. After all, the PSP has less buttons to work with, not to mention the lack of Sixaxis control. But why should it be like this?

Lets think about Onlive for a minute. You remember what Onlive is, right? It's a remote play service that allows users to connect to high-powered computers from a simple, cable-box-type device in their home. The cable box needs little processing power of it's own: just enough to register button presses and decode video. At the other end of the line, Onlive's computers do all the work - responding to the button presses and turning the gameplay footage into a high-def video signal, which is then sent across the internet into your living room. You are essentially playing a game on a computer that's miles away, then watching a video of it as it happens.

Do you see the similarity between these two services? Both allow a low-powered device to access content stored on a high-powered device, over the internet. Of course, the Onlive service isn't up and running yet, and there are many who say it can't work right now - our internet just isn't fast and reliable enough. However, the PS3's Remote Play function shows that this type of thing is possible, and can be done with something as simple as a home console. So why don't we take Remote Play one step further? If there were a portable device with the exact same buttons as a PS3 or 360 controller then we could access anything from our home console, including full retail games that no other handheld would be powerful enough to run.

As I said before, the device wouldn't have to contain much processing power of it's own; it would essentially be a controller with a screen and internet access. Now, how it would connect to the internet is another question. The cheapest way would be through Wi-Fi hotspots, much like the PSP, but this would limit use to certain locations only. Of course, this way it could be sold quite cheap, so maybe users wouldn't mind the fact that it couldn't be played everywhere. A second option would be to include a type of Broadband Card or 3G support, allowing it to connect from anywhere. This way would be more expensive, though, possibly resulting in a monthly subscription for the user. It's also unlikely that these wireless internet services are fast enough to support lag-free play, at least for now.

Maybe the device doesn't even have to be a handheld. What if it were a small box that connected to TV and internet, with controller ports on the side? It would be your "console away from home" that you could bring on vacations and when staying with friends, allowing full access to all your games without the hassle of lugging them with you. You would essentially be setting up your very own OnLive service, using your home console as the central server.

Of course, there are still many problems associated with such an idea. Like, what happens if a power surge knocks out your home network two days into your vacation? With no way of getting back, you could locked out of all your content until you return. And what happens if your connection slows, or even drops altogether while in the middle of a game? This is an issue that OnLive will have to deal with too, but so far they haven't revealed any details about how they plan on handling it. Then there's the question of whether or not current internet speeds are even fast enough for such a service to work reliably. With many games requiring split-second timing, even the smallest bit of lag would completely ruin the experience (as online gamers should know).

But despite these few issues, I really think that this type of remote play service will become much bigger over the next decade or so. It may be a while before we have a device that allows access to everything, but the PSP/PS3 connectivity is a sign that it's certainly in our future. So to all the people out there who make a living designing home console carrying cases, it might be time to start thinking about getting a new job.