Something went wrong. Try again later

Giant Bomb News

114 Comments

OnLive On For June

Pricing and availability announced for streaming game service.

 Users will be able to exchange video of their gameplay exploits and browse video user profiles.
 Users will be able to exchange video of their gameplay exploits and browse video user profiles.
In a talk given at GDC this morning, OnLive's Steve Perlman announced that the OnLive Game Service will go live on June 17, provided you live in the continental US. The base level of subscription service will run $14.95, with potential discounts for people willing to sign up for a multi-month subscription. That subscription doesn't include the actual rental or purchase of games, which will cost extra.

In case you forgot, OnLive is designed to be a streaming game service. Rather than running games on your local PC hardware, OnLive runs them on some server farm somewhere and streams video of the game directly to your device. The demos keep showing Crysis running on an iPhone, which is a funny little proof of concept, but not an especially useful one. You'll be able to stream it to "virtually any device," according to the announcement, but at launch this really means "PCs and Macs through a small browser plug-in." Last year, the company showed off a tiny video decoder device that'll let you stream out to a TV, as well. This "MicroConsole TV adapter" will be discussed later this year.

As for publisher support, OnLive is set to have games from THQ, 2K, Ubisoft, EA, and WBIE. The service is expecting to have somewhere between 12 and 25 games available at launch, and some of the included titles are Mass Effect 2, Assassin's Creed II, and Borderlands.

I'll be interested to give this another shot at some point, but I remain very skeptical. Last time I was able to actually play a game via OnLive, it seemed like a neat idea that would never work for action games that value split-second timing, such as Burnout Paradise, which is what I played when I saw it. But paying a monthly fee, then paying additional rental/purchase fees, just so I can play a latent version of a game doesn't replace having actual hardware in your home. If that problem hasn't been solved, then it's hard to imagine OnLive appealing to anyone other than less-discerning players who wouldn't know any better.
Jeff Gerstmann on Google+

114 Comments

Avatar image for killawogg
killawogg

244

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 5

Edited By killawogg

im surprised that they did go the steam route with some miner changes.... instead of charging monthly why not sell the consoles out right and then sell the games like steam does? it just seems like thats more money to play games that i dont physically own and if the internet is down then im totally boned. good  idea but i think they are implementing it wrong.

Avatar image for habibangel
habibangel

11

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

Edited By habibangel

They should of brought this out when the next generation of consoles comes out.

Avatar image for endrzgame
EndrzGame

325

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

Edited By EndrzGame

"....it's hard to imagine OnLive appealing to anyone other that less-discerning player who wouldn't know any better."
 
That's the market that I'm sure these guys are going after. I know my self and my circle of gaming friends have no use for a service like this and have said as much in conversations. It'll be interesting to see what kind of market penetration OnLive achieves in it's first year, if any.

Avatar image for dfsvegas
dfsvegas

375

Forum Posts

1

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

Edited By dfsvegas

I read a headline a few hours ago that mentioned a $14.99 subscription fee... My interest went through the roof. 
 
I come on here for some details, and I learn that the actual games will not be included in that fee, and will have to be purchased separately... And my interest came plummeting back through my roof, burrowed through the earth's crust, and is now floating down the river styx...  
 
At least I now know definitively that I no longer have to follow news about this product.

Avatar image for septim
septim

787

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 7

User Lists: 0

Edited By septim

Paying $15 a month + fees to stream 2-3 year old EA games you could have grabbed off Steam for $5-15 is laughable. 
 
Fundamentally it's a cool idea. The balance of content to price ratio is too out of whack as it stands.

Avatar image for woltkezero
woltkezero

63

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 1

Edited By woltkezero

YES my dear G-Bomers ONLIVE is not Vaporware.....HEheHAhaHOho... 
 
Dam I already signed up :-D cant wait to try it out. 
 
Remember Folks the ISP internet Speeds will only go up in the Future (I've already hurred of people with 100+mb now that is sic..) it will not slow down.  Remember all that BullShit in all those '80s movies that take place in the future...PEOPLE THE FUTURE STARTS IN JUNE..... OH SHIT...
Avatar image for woltkezero
woltkezero

63

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 1

Edited By woltkezero

Instant Books, Music, Movies, and now Video Games..... 
 
Hell I even order pizza thru the internet..... 
 
I can only imagin what the VPH will do later (for the uninformed...that would be Virtual Personal Holograms).....shudder.....
Avatar image for ryshe
RyShe

126

Forum Posts

38

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 8

Edited By RyShe

I have a five year old laptop if I onlive lets me play PC games less then ten years old I will pay anything for it, but if I'm honost I don't think it will work, so I'm stuck with the 360 and enviously looking at steam daily.

Avatar image for psytek
Psytek

184

Forum Posts

239

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By Psytek

Come to my restaurant, where you have to pay 20 bucks to get in, and obviously you have to pay for your food too. 
 
What a bargain.

Avatar image for pop
Pop

2769

Forum Posts

4697

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 8

Edited By Pop

im thinking the same thing as Jeff if it works like they said and you can't notice the difference then this will be the greatest thing ever, if not i'll give it a year of surviving but it will open doors to other companies to try and develope a better version.

Avatar image for twoonefive
TwoOneFive

9793

Forum Posts

203

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

Edited By TwoOneFive

shit, if they can build more databases around the country this will work great.  
one thing i love is how amazingly user-friendly it is. video feeds everywhere, being able to instantly watch a friend and chat with him.  
its everything xbox live and psn wants to be, its just the whole lag thing is scaring people, but the idea that i can play Crysis on max setting in my living room is still pretty fucking intriguing. 

Avatar image for cornonthecobbe
CornontheCobbe

2693

Forum Posts

288

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 3

Edited By CornontheCobbe

This looks so interesting, and frankly I'm surprised and didn't think it would actually happen!

Avatar image for gozertc
GozerTC

503

Forum Posts

103

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 4

User Lists: 6

Edited By GozerTC

Personally I'm interested in this depending on how well it works.  I want a free trial and such to try it out and see if I'd even use it.  Also will depend on what games and and systems it will emulate.  I am on FIOS so I think it'll have a lot less lag than it could have so maybe it'd be worth it fo rme, not sure.   
 
Avatar image for djtann3r
DjTann3r

217

Forum Posts

131

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 3

Edited By DjTann3r

at this point the thing is just an addition... everyone that knows about it already has consoles.