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One day, I'd fuck to be able to endeavor Bioshock, Assassin's Creed, or modify World of Warcraftâ€"the PC versions, mind you, not a watered-down, mobile-optimized portâ€"on a smartphone or tablet. It's a tantalizing idea, and while a past investment by phone concern HTC in moving mettlesome consort OnLive haw not signal some close products, it's certainly sparking imaginations.

The Wall Street Journal reports that HTC meet took at $40 meg stake in OnLive, the "in-the-cloud" recreation assist (check out my hands-on analyse from terminal summer) that lets gamers course full-on PC games (ranging from Batman: Arkham Asylum and Bioshock to Unreal Tournament threesome and Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II) to desktops, laptops, and today HDTVs.

OnLive has also condemned a few child steps into mobile, supply an app New terminal assemblage for Android and iPad tablets that lets you watchâ€"but not playâ€"in-progress matches.

While the prospect of genuine PC recreation on a phone ease seems somewhat distant, it's a prospect that's clearly gotten HTC's attentionâ€"not to name its money.

Maker of such Android-based hits as the Droid Incredible on Verizon and the Evo 4G for Sprint, HTC has been laboring supporting up its investments in cloud-based, on-demand noesis for ambulatory devices (it also took a stake in Saffron Digital, a London-based transmission conveying company, on Monday), so establishing a foothold in the nascent moving recreation playing seems same a formal move.

Of course, meet because HTC unsuccessful $40 meg in OnLive doesn't stingy we should wait to endeavor a moving edition of BioShock on, say, the HTC Thunderbolt anytime soon.

For digit thing, meet because digit consort invests in added doesn't stingy it'll needs assume production as a concrete, transport product.

Also, OnLive faces a series of daunting challenges when it comes to moving PC games to tablets or phones, such as modifying mouse and keyboard controls for touchscreens (no small feat), squeezing Byzantine HUDs onto cramped ambulatory displays, and dealing with frustrating holdup over Wi-Fi or modify cellular data networks.

Still, trying the OnLive viewer app on an Android paper or the iPad makes for an eye-opening experience. There's something pretty compelling most watching a springy Red Faction: Guerrilla match on a 9.7-inch iPad screenâ€"or, modify better, a real-time strategy denomination same Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II, a mettlesome that doesn't rely on hair-trigger controls that strength be stymied by lag.

But while watching springy PC games on a paper is digit thing, playing them is something else. For instance, how *would* you deal with converting mouse-and-keyboard controls for a touchscreen? Good question. Perhaps the answer lies with those PC remote-control apps for tablets and smartphones that permit you curb a noise indicator by pinching and zooming the desktop in the background, or maybe a custom, touch-friendly UI could be designed.

While those ideas strength not be workable for a fast-action mettlesome same "Just Cause," they could be feasible for slower-paced strategy and role-playing gamesâ€"heck, maybe modify MMO epics same World of Warcraft and Eve Online (neither of which are acquirable finished OnLive, unfortunately).

No question, moving playable PC games to ambulatory devices same tablets and smartphones ranks as a serious challenge, but I hope that OnLive and HTC verify a crack at it.

Related: HTC Invests in Two Mobile Software Companies [Wall Street Journal]

â€" Ben Patterson is a technology blogger for Yahoo! News.

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