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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

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Demyx

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Edited By Demyx

ouch, no thanks. Having to pay a subscription and rental/purchase fees isn't something I want. I'd rather just build my own PC and have games on my computer.

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FreakAche

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Edited By FreakAche

I'm glad that this is actually coming out, simply because it will inevitably lead to competitors with better network architecture and a more reasonable pricing structure.

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dutch42

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Edited By dutch42

definitely interested to see how this works out. the company I work for has very recently branched out into cloud capability, it really seems to be the 'little black dress' of the IT industry at the moment.

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Ineedaname

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Edited By Ineedaname

How's this looking these days?
Last I time I heard of it, it was a post Diamond linked to, and it never looked so good.

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WitchHunter_Z

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Edited By WitchHunter_Z

Oh wow... $15 monthly fee gets you exactly... what? Is it just to cover server costs? Shouldn't that be included in the pricing of the games?

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momentarylogic

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Edited By momentarylogic

Apple fans should be prone to giving it a go... just so long as OnLive market their product appropriately, and has the quality of apple products.. wait, what were we talking about?

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Edited By NoXious

$15 / month and you still have to buy games? Not to mention the broadband cost for using a bandwidth heavy service like OnLive.
I bet this will end up being more expensive then actual PC gaming (if you do it right, get geeky to do so!) on the long run.

Well for OnLive's defense: I don't even pay for Xbox 360 Live Gold, because I think that kind of service should come free with a inet connection.

@Stoneious:
Oh shit you're right! What if I buy a game and stop paying subscription? I don't like the sound of this service at all!

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FinalDasa

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Edited By FinalDasa  Moderator

I'd rather see an Xbox Live model, small yearly payment to have full access to all the On-Live goodies. 
And then a discounted price on game purchases and rentals, otherwise I could save my $15 a month a buy games.

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teh_destroyer

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Edited By teh_destroyer

interesting, i don't know if i am sold on this yet though.

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Bunnyman

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Edited By Bunnyman

I still say this is the future of gaming. Perhaps not in this exact form, but give it some time.

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core1065

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Edited By core1065

SAY WHAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!!!!! This... This is actually coming out.......... 
  

 

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Edited By Scooper

"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."
 
I agree.

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RedJester1029

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Edited By RedJester1029

sweet
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jeff

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Edited By jeff
 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.