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OnLive goes live on June 17 for PCs and Macs

Queasy

Moderator<br>Console Gaming
OnLive was introduced at the Games Developer Conference last year to a combination of intrigue and skepticism. A closed beta was launched later in the year but few if any details were revealed of how it performed. Now one year removed from its initial announcement, a release date of June 17 has been announced for the OnLive service.

OnLive will initially launch on PCs and Macs but will eventually release its own micro-console to attach to TVs. Service will be a combination of a monthly fee and rentals or purchases. The monthly fee is $14.95 with more details about rental and purchase prices and other programs coming at this year's E3 conference just prior to launch.

Games expected to be included at launch include Assassin's Creed II, Metro 2033, and Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. Up to two dozen titles are planned for launch from major publishers like Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, 2K Games, Warner Bros Interactive, and more. OnLive is planning on having new games and not just older games.

OnLive works by cloud server technology that handles all the game computation and then streams the game to your computer or other compatible device. The idea is to make the time differences between the user's inputs and the video streamed back to the user as negligible as possible. OnLive is only promising 720p video to start off with but hopes to increase that to 1080p down the line in 2011 as the technology and home internet speeds improve.

OnLive will feature services similar to Xbox 360 and the PS3 such as friends, invites, and chat but will also include the ability to share brag videos and the ability to pause games and then restart them on a different machine.

The first 25,000 people that sign up and qualify for OnLive will get their first three months free. Sign-up here if you are interested in trying out the new service.
 
"Waiver of Service Fee includes free access to OnLive&#8217;s Game Service including game demos, video profiles and community features, but does not include playing full versions of games, which are to be purchased or rented separately."

So $15 a month plus title purchase/rental? WTF? Maybe if each title is less than half price of purchasing it retail or through steam, but otherwise the only thing keeping this project afloat will be hotel or internet cafe contracts.
 
Yep, the monthly fee plus having to rent or purchase games is a kick in the nads IMHO.
 
Yep, the monthly fee plus having to rent or purchase games is a kick in the nads IMHO.

Indeed. Ouch.

I believe they've said in most of their public demos that renting / purchasing would be an additional cost but, as mentioned, at $15/month the purchase price will have to be a significant discount from retail to be enticing.
 
I guess they're just trying to replace the need to keep a bleeding edge gaming box in your house. Interesting, but I just can't imagine a great gaming experience like this.
 
I wonder if publishers are preventing them from pricing lower to avoid pissing off the b&m retailers.

Since I have a 360 and decent pc already, I can't imagine signing up for this. Especially since once you stop subscribing, (i assume) those games you bought are useless.
 
This would slaughter my bandwidth. I don't know. $15 a month plus extra to buy games I technically can't own. I'll stick with Steam.
 
I guess they're just trying to replace the need to keep a bleeding edge gaming box in your house. Interesting, but I just can't imagine a great gaming experience like this.

I suppose, but even that idea doesn't hold much weight anymore. Most people have a computer in their home. Another $100-$200 for a video card isn't a heck of a lot of additional cost to play games reasonably well.

OnLive wants us to pay $15 a month just to get in the door? Then we have to pay additional for rentals and purchases? I can't see this service going anywhere.

And how will a purchase work? If I buy a game for their service, when their service shuts down in 6-12 months that game is no longer playable. That just sounds like a long term rental to me.

I like the idea of OnLive but their implementation sounds pretty sucky.

-KeithP
 
And how will a purchase work? If I buy a game for their service, when their service shuts down in 6-12 months that game is no longer playable. That just sounds like a long term rental to me.

Well that's the risk you take with any new service like this. If they die, you're f'd. It's the same risk us early adopters took with Steam.
 
Maybe I'm not understanding what I'm reading, since I'm not seeing where a separately purchased game is tied to their service.

Maybe I'm interpreting it naively but could it be you buy from a B&M or whatever, register/install the game on their service? You still own the game, but one of however many installs that game allows is used by installation here?

The 'rent' part of that throws that off a little, but maybe they'll operate in either mode.
 
This would slaughter my bandwidth. I don't know. $15 a month plus extra to buy games I technically can't own. I'll stick with Steam.

And what happens if they don't want to support a game you bought after X amount of years? Or what if it won't play on your hardware due to a new patch they implemented?
 
I guess they're just trying to replace the need to keep a bleeding edge gaming box in your house. Interesting, but I just can't imagine a great gaming experience like this.

Why not just buy a console then? I don't see how the experience would be any different. I mean, aside from being cheaper, less laggy and not requiring a fast solid internet connection or a monthly fee to play single player games.
 
Maybe I'm not understanding what I'm reading, since I'm not seeing where a separately purchased game is tied to their service.

Maybe I'm interpreting it naively but could it be you buy from a B&M or whatever, register/install the game on their service? You still own the game, but one of however many installs that game allows is used by installation here?

The 'rent' part of that throws that off a little, but maybe they'll operate in either mode.

No, it is definitely you're paying for OnLive monthly and then you purchase or rent games to be streamed to you to play.
 
Really not liking the idea atm...unless games are dirt cheap, Steam and Amazon make PC gaming QUITE cheap.

Only advisable for people with weaker hardware...but even then...
 
Not buying into the service but interesting to see how it works. Would I be able to play Crysis at 1920x1080 max everything? And isn't 1080p @ 60+ fps a lot of bandwidth? I wonder how they handle it.
 
Pretty sure the output is limited to a heavily compressed 720p. At that resolution, probably the cheapest OEM computer with a $100 video card would provide the same or better graphical experience at such a low resolution. The push towards broadband data caps isn't helping their cause either.

Their holy grail is probably to expand into native/built-in clients for TVs, cable boxes, DVRs, and current gen game consoles where you otherwise can't play PC games.
 
720p highly compressed (read:1280x720), and informal reviews point to "everything maxed" definitely not being the target. I'm not convinced 60 fps solid is a guarantee either.

For that kind of resolution and low video quality you'll be fine with a budget video card (240GT, 5670) on any PC bought in the last 3 years. A mainstream gaming box (tri or quad core, lots of ram, 4850 or 250 video) would facepwn this service very, very badly.

Even if the games are as cheap as $1/day to rent I can see this not being appealing as a gamer. I guess the target is very casual customers who only play a couple of weekends a month or not at all. If the business model is "collect fees, rarely provide service" then it may just work.
 
Despite that many of us here are not really going for this, since most of us have pretty good PC's, I have a feeling that this thing could really take off in the future.

The executives for OnLive are all-stars (check wikipedia 😀), and if you don't have high quality hardware (like many laptops...my laptop could use some OnLive love), or if you like console gaming on your TV (the OnLive box for TVs they're going to sell), then OnLive may be for you.
 
The idea is kinda cool....

However the pricing & data caps on ISPs.....

However if they offer people 30 day free trials. I would love to test it.

If we can get a future of fast access with no data caps. Then sure bring this stuff on.

However video card makers & other hardware makers must not like this idea....

So well see how it takes off.....They have some bumpy roads ahead.
 
The idea is kinda cool....

However the pricing & data caps on ISPs.....

However if they offer people 30 day free trials. I would love to test it.

...

I think they have to do this if they want it to take off. Just letting people spend a few hours on it would do wonders to convince skeptics. Also, Onlive performance is so dependent on the distance from the servers, you have to let people try the service so they don't feel screwed if their performance is bad.
 
The idea is kinda cool....

However the pricing & data caps on ISPs.....

If we can get a future of fast access with no data caps. Then sure bring this stuff on.

What's interesting is that OnLive has struck a deal with AT&T. AT&T hasn't implemented caps on its customers but has kind of thrown out hints that they would do so.

Atlanta is supposed to be one of the cities that has an OnLive datacenter. I'll probably try it out for craps and giggles if nothing else.
 
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