A new online gaming service has been unveiled by Steve Perlman (formerly of Atari, Apple, WebTV) and Mike McGarvey (formerly of Eidos) that is set to revolutionise the way people play games.

Called OnLive, it’s an online service through which you will be able to basically ‘stream’ any available game through your online connection and play a game of any graphical detail on a standard, entry-level PC or Mac, while the servers do the heavy lifting on the other side, calculating the gameplay and graphical computations for you, the results of which are then delivered as video to you on your screen.

You’re also able to play these games on your TV with an OnLive set top box, also ‘streaming’ the gameplay data as you play, enabling you to theoretically play a game as graphically intense as Crysis on your TV (or through your PC or Mac) with the only determining factor being the speed of your internet connection.

If you have a faster connection (5 mbps range) you’ll be able to play games at a higher resolution than if you had a slower connection (1.5 mbps), which will then default to Standard Definition resolution.

OnLive currently has nine partners in the form of Atari, Codemasters, Eidos, Electronics Arts, Epic, Take Two, THQ, Ubisoft and Warner Bros., each of whom plan to host their games on the service, giving you access to quite an extensive library, with the possibility of many more partners to follow.

You can watch two interviews regarding OnLive to clear up any confusion below:

OnLive Interview Part 1:

OnLive Interview Part 2: