You ever been so bored at work that you wished there was a way to play your console video games until your lunch break? Maybe you’ve been stuck at an airport for a few hours and daydreamed about Call of Duty 4.
Or, if you’re like me, you’ve been stranded at a family member’s house with no video games anywhere in sight. It’s a freaking nightmare.
Well, a startup company out of Austin, Texas, claims to have a way for us to never be more than a broadband connection away from our consoles. Read more to learn about the Spawn HD-720, including how it works, how much it costs and what all you can do with it.
Put simply, the Spawn HD-720 is a device that will allow us to connect remotely to our consoles over a broadband internet. It’s not a server-based service that streams games or charges us a subscription. It just puts us in touch with our consoles.
But David Wilson, CEO of Spawn Labs, told The Gamer Access that his product also lets friends connect to your console for a session of co-op gaming or just to watch you play a game. It will record game play, read existing console controllers and give you access to everything on your console.
That includes movies, pictures, and downloaded games.
“Anything you can do with the game controller in your hand, sitting in front of your console, you should be able to do with this product,” he said during a phone conversation.
Here is a pretty solid demo the company did. It looks promising.
It will cost $199 and be available to the public in November. Here are the key points that should help you decide if it’s something you’ll want to own. The box will come with one adapter to allow one remote connection at a time. You’ll need more adapters if you want to connect multiple people remotely simultaneously.
Oh, it won't support the Wii at launch. But Wilson said adding the console is on his company's "road map."
How it works
The device itself works as bridge between your broadband setup and your console. It connects to your router on one ends and your gaming console of choice on the other. The connections are all wired. Then you just log in to the company website, loads its software and pick your console.
The software reads Xbox 360 and PS3 controllers and provides a mapping feature. Wilson said you can use controllers across platforms. So one Xbox 360 controller can be mapped to operate the PS3 through the device, assuming you have both.
The box also turns on your console remotely. So you won’t have to leave your Xbox on and risk burning down your home.
"Once we (connect you), we get out of the way," Wilson said. "This stuff is not running through our servers."
Broadband Requirements
The ability to play remotely is entirely dependent on your connection. So knowing the suggested broadband connection is crucial to deciding if you’re going to buy this device. As a side note, you can test your connection at speedtest.net.
The wireless connection I’m on right now is downloading at more than 16 mbps and uploading at a little more than 2 mbps. It should be much better on Ethernet. That is more than enough to play or watch remotely on standard definition, which Wilson said requires about 500kbps to 1Mbps.
"If you're in major metro areas you can absolutely get sufficient bandwidth to do standard-def gaming,” Wilson said.
High definition gaming requires 2Mbps to 5Mbps. So how many people does Wilson think will have access to that much bandwidth? He said there are about 30 to 40 million households that have the bandwidth to support high definition.
"That's where the market is going," he said. "And it's going there on a bullet train because as fiber rolls out, all the cable companies are responding."
How is this different from existing planned services?
The first thing that came to mind when I heard about the Spawn box was OnLive. This is also a new service that promising to gives us console games through broadband connected computer. The big difference, though, is that OnLive will stream the games from its servers to you.
The service is still in beta and doesn’t have a listed price yet. But it is expected to have the support of all the major gaming developers. Wilson said he wants OnLive to thrive because that means increased exposure what both companies are trying to do.
But he pointed out that there are some huge differences between the two. The primary difference is that Spawn puts you in touch with your library and consoles. It doesn’t charge you do play games or ask that you stream games from servers.
He wants people to play their existing games, not have to buy new ones to use his device.
"We give you mobility across the entire investment that you've made and are going to make," he said.
Playing with friends
I’ve decided to save the best for last. We all know that the console war has been raging for years. Halo 3 and Killzone 2 fanboys love to hate each other. The Spawn theoretically gets us closer to a one console world. Interested? Yeah, me too. So stay tuned. We’ll have more as the launch approaches.
Overall thoughts
I'm pretty certain I hit all the high points. There are some obvious challenges that Wilson and his team will have to face. The price point might be too high for people who are buying consoles at $299. And hitting the broadband connection requirements for these types of things sometimes doesn't mean smooth service.
Livestream comes to mind.
But in the short time I was able to speak with Wilson, I got the impression that his group did a significant amount of research and testing during the three years they worked on this product. They even held off on announcing until they felt the broadband availability had caught up to the idea.
It's a product that has my interest in a very big way. But Spawn Labs is hoping that is has yours. Discuss.
More info: Spawn Labs website, twitter, YouTube
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written by Matt Vongthongkham, September 19, 2009
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written by skip2mylou, September 19, 2009
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written by Louie Villalobos, September 19, 2009
@skip. I agree that the price is pretty good for what it does. Let's just see if the mass agrees. Pretty good stuff.
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written by PikminGuts92, September 19, 2009
I'm confused.
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Just watching the video I am amazed. I'm imaginging the endless possibilities.
My internet is too slow.