Hardcore games could battle social games on Facebook with OnLive

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. During an interview with MCV, OnLive founder and CEO Steve Perlman hinted that he's interested in bringing his videogame streaming service to Facebook. What the OnLive service does is bring hardcore, graphics (and hardware) intensive games to gamers with low-to-mid level machines over the Internet in HD resolution.

This is thanks to how far streaming technology has come, and the service is already coming to iPads soon. But now, "OnLive will," Perlman told MCV, "bring core gaming into a social space currently dominated by casual content."

Perlman went on to say: "The thing about FarmVille and Mafia Wars is that they work on every device for every user. So when you invite someone to help you or play with you, they're immediately there. With core games, you can't do that. With OnLive you can do that."

"So what's really exciting was actually buried in the initial press release, and that's the fact that all the Facebook interaction is exposed in the SDK, so developers can make games that are social games but are still high performance core games," Roberts told MCV. "You'll see the first of these round about the time of the UK launch."

So, there you have it--hardcore games are coming to Facebook through OnLive. Not only that, but they'll be expected to have the common features of social games, competing with their own game. The way Roberts puts it, it's as if OnLive and Facebook game developers like Zynga will have to settle this rivalry on a green field with war paint and broadswords. But that's probably not going to happen, regardless of how awesome it sounds.

Today's Facebook games cater to a very specific audience, as do hardcore games. Just because more hardcore games become available on Facebook doesn't necessarily mean that social games will instantly get pushed to the side. In fact, it's going to take some time for OnLive to gain traction as is. Sure, OnLive lowers the barrier to entry to a piece of uneven pavement, but that does not mean social gamers will leap to a "richer experience" either. Believe or not, a lot of us like these games, and they're only becoming better, faster, stronger.

[Via OnLive Fans]

[Image Credit: All Facebook, OnLive Informer]

Do you think OnLive will give social games, and their players, a run for their money? How will OnLive change how gaming is done on Facebook and the web overall? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.