Gamasutra’s Simon Carless today reported on OnLive’s iPhone ambitions. He writes,
As a final party trick, [OnLive President and CEO Steve Perlman] showed Crytek’s notoriously-demanding Crysis running on an iPhone version of the client. Like other OnLive games, it was actually a full high-definition version of the game running on the cloud, but resized to fit the iPhone’s screen resolution.
Crysis: Coming soon to an iPhone near you
OnLive is a video game service that was originally announced in 2009 as a way for gamers to experience high-end gaming on almost any Internet-equipped device. OnLive takes the heavy computing requirements of modern games and shifts them to remote servers. It then delivers the video feed in real time, allowing gamers to participate in games like Crysis on older computers, Internet appliances, and smartphones.
OnLive iPhone Demonstration: Will iPhone users want to play Crysis?
As we argue in a recent article titled, The Economic Challenges (and opportunities) of Developing Games for the iPhone and iPad, the iPhone can easily become a trap for game developers. OnLive’s Steve Perlman thinks he has a solution. According to Carless, “Perlman believes that, even though lower-footprint Flash and iPhone games are much closer to being delivered instantaneously than their larger-scale cousins, their monetization model is much worse.” Yet Perlman anticipates that gamers will be clamoring to take advantage of an iPhone client that allows them to play more sophisticated titles like Crysis.
The question is, do iPhone users want to play advanced games on their phones? Currently, most smartphone users are satisfied with the various low demand casual games that are already in plentiful supply. Most do not even know what Crysis is. Those who do will likely find the experience to be less than satisfactory compared to high end PC and console gaming. Network lag, small screens, and a less than adequate interface will limit playability on smartphones. Although OnLive may enjoy some success as a smartphone client, that market will remain limited for the foreseeable future.
In the long run, OnLive could revolutionize the way games are played and consumed. Eventually, cloud gaming will be deployed on a large scale and we will probably someday see TVs designed with OnLive-type integrated gaming capabilities. Until that happens, I see OnLive’s market as hotels, airports, and other public venues where deployment of expensive gaming consoles is impractical.
Prof. 
I have to say I totally agree with this article: it’s the future, but we are not there yet. The wifi internet connection is often not good enough and, most and foremost, the screens are way too small and the smart phones lack the joystick buttons and (big enough) keyboard to properly play a game like this. Also, people are often not willing to even spend a buck on games like that…this industry is facing some tough times (just like most other industries)! Consumers have become very careful about where they spend their money and are willing to sacrifice quality (I call it the Skype-Mentality: People deal with the bad connection as long as they don’t have to pay for anything). I think the companies that find a way around this problem (for example, with in-game sales and smartly placed Product Placements – which I think will become more and more common the way we can see it in movies) will be the ones that succeed.