AfterDawn: News

OnLive cloud gaming service to launch in June

The cloud gaming service OnLive, first announced last year, finally has a set launch date.

Starting June 17th in the U.S., users can pay $15 a month to play games from major publishers EA, THQ, 2K Games, Warner Bros., and Ubisoft in the "cloud."



"This marks a huge milestone for both OnLive and the interactive entertainment landscape as a whole, changing the way that video games are developed, marketed, accessed and played," says Steve Perlman, Founder and CEO of OnLive. "We are opening the door to incredible experiences for gamers and enormous opportunities for developers and publishers."

The service includes standard features such as voice chat, profiles and gamer tags and will allow for pausing and resuming of games. OnLive is available for PC and Mac users.

"The OnLive Game Service creates a new opportunity for consumers to play the latest games without spending hundreds of dollars on a hardware system to make it happen," adds Mike McGarvey, COO of OnLive, via Gi.biz. "As a Mac user myself, I'm excited about the opportunity to help bring high-end gaming to this new and significant market."

New and popular titles that will be included are Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age Origins, Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands, Borderlands, Assassin's Creed II, and Metro 2033.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 11 Mar 2010 13:14

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• 21 comments

• andmill11

  So now we get to worry about the onlive service AND the assassins creed servers going down

  11.3.2010 13:22 #1

• stuntman_

  I kind of like the on live service only for the fact that my PC sucks balls and the idea of being able to play such newer games on it makes me interested

  11.3.2010 13:25 #2

• ZippyDSM

  Onlive is a mess but I tell you if they use PCs to help the cloud it will work like crazy. Why not pay people by the bits they help send and receive like 0.10 a bit and it would pay for the service but not more than that.

  11.3.2010 14:52 #3

• av_verbal

  removing ownership and forcing us to rent, for a higher cost than the second hand value of the games, i think not.
  
  cloud rip off gaming = fail.

  11.3.2010 15:02 #4

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by av_verbal: removing ownership and forcing us to rent, for a higher cost than the second hand value of the games, i think not.
  
  cloud rip off gaming = fail.Right now it is, in ten years you subscribe to it for a flat hardware fee of 5-10 you get a software pack for new and old titles for 20-30$ and new games would be gotten for 5-20$ if they are not covered under your plan. Right now it sucks as did cable 30 years ago.

  11.3.2010 15:11 #5

• av_verbal

  Quote:Originally posted by av_verbal: removing ownership and forcing us to rent, for a higher cost than the second hand value of the games, i think not.
  
  cloud rip off gaming = fail.Right now it is, in ten years you subscribe to it for a flat hardware fee of 5-10 you get a software pack for new and old titles for 20-30$ and new games would be gotten for 5-20$ if they are not covered under your plan. Right now it sucks as did cable 30 years ago.so i pay a flat fee for lazy programmers to churn out crap while the better titles will have extra fees + required mirco payments for "essential" downloaded add ons.
  
  i pick what titles i like ty very much, i own the disc you cannot turn me off and force to to purchase the new "best ever" version of madden as i am happy playing the one from 5 years ago as it satisfies my needs.
  
  subscription models suck unless its huge online titles like wow (world of warcraft),
  
  this is not a model for any other type of games unless you are the studios/publishers wanting to make gazillions charging a monthly subscription for a title that costs £20 outright second hand, not £10 per month.
  
  lets see who is rubbing their hands and if this is good for the consumer!
  
  game purchased outright forever = £40 max on pc.
  
  game purchased subscription:
  
  12 months = £120
  24 months = £240
  36 months = £360

  11.3.2010 15:43 #6

• ZippyDSM

  Quote:Quote:Originally posted by av_verbal: removing ownership and forcing us to rent, for a higher cost than the second hand value of the games, i think not.
  
  cloud rip off gaming = fail.Right now it is, in ten years you subscribe to it for a flat hardware fee of 5-10 you get a software pack for new and old titles for 20-30$ and new games would be gotten for 5-20$ if they are not covered under your plan. Right now it sucks as did cable 30 years ago.so i pay a flat fee for lazy programmers to churn out crap while the better titles will have extra fees + required mirco payments for "essential" downloaded add ons.
  
  i pick what titles i like ty very much, i own the disc you cannot turn me off and force to to purchase the new "best ever" version of madden as i am happy playing the one from 5 years ago as it satisfies my needs.
  
  subscription models suck unless its huge online titles like wow (world of warcraft),
  
  this is not a model for any other type of games unless you are the studios/publishers wanting to make gazillions charging a monthly subscription for a title that costs £20 outright second hand, not £10 per month.
  
  lets see who is rubbing their hands and if this is good for the consumer!
  
  game purchased outright forever = £40 max on pc.
  
  game purchased subscription:
  
  12 months = £120
  24 months = £240
  36 months = £360Look at TV subscriptions thats the ultimate model that Onlive is trying to get to, the trouble is game licensing is not setup for it right now and it will take 10 years to get all that fixed.
  
  So think of it like this 30$ a month for anything older than a year but up to 3 years old but for a few select titles, then add 15$ for all the back catalog and another $20 for ALL the newest stuff once it comes out.
  
  Then halve the price and add it to TV packages, we are getting there bit by bit but getting there will not be pretty....

  11.3.2010 15:52 #7

• mike.m

  The only game I was going to get this for was Crysis. And that was last year. Now that I have a fast PC and since Crysis 2 is coming to the 360, there's is no way in hell I'm going to pay $15 a month for something that relies only on your internet connection. I already have speed problem with my ISP as it is. If you only had to pay for the game, and without a subscription, I might have still been interested in this.

  11.3.2010 16:21 #8

• cart0181

  The way modern "online" DRM is going, I think this is a much better alternative. It's better than having to pay full price for a game you don't actually "own" because they can shut it off anytime they want. I do, however, prefer the "old way" where you could actually buy a game and truly own it. For example I can still play Total Annihilation, which is a 12 year old game or so. Or, I can go back and play my NES games on the original system. The way things are going, all the great titles of today will simply disappear at some point in the future. Poof! Gone like a cloud in the wind! Meanwhile, I'll still be playing Donkey Kong.

  11.3.2010 17:26 #9

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by cart0181: The way modern "online" DRM is going, I think this is a much better alternative. It's better than having to pay full price for a game you don't actually "own" because they can shut it off anytime they want. I do, however, prefer the "old way" where you could actually buy a game and truly own it. For example I can still play Total Annihilation, which is a 12 year old game or so. Or, I can go back and play my NES games on the original system. The way things are going, all the great titles of today will simply disappear at some point in the future. Poof! Gone like a cloud in the wind! Meanwhile, I'll still be playing Donkey Kong.ya once they adopt a subscription model for gaming its going to make things alot better as long as you are paying 10X less for hardware and software on a yearly scale.

  11.3.2010 18:54 #10

• Ryoohki

  OnLive is going to fail miserably. You have to pay then 15$/mo and they give you nothing. You have access to games that you have to purchase at an additional fee. You stop paying your OnLive subscription and you would lose access to anything you have purchased. You would have to be retarded to subscribe to a service like that. People will pay a monthly fee to rent a certain number of games a month or they would buy the game outright to have their own copy but only crazy people would pay 15$ for nothing per month and an additional amount to rent games they cannot take with them should they stop their subscription.

  11.3.2010 22:38 #11

• windsong

  This is just another in the long list of scams that guy has put out. Look him up and see other failings he has initiated. In any event why would ANYONE trust their save games to a f'ing SERVER?! We're not talking about some WoW game, but something like Dragon Age or Baldurs Gate II where you've got 60+ hours invested.
  
  I like my saved games in one place..in MY possession.

  11.3.2010 22:43 #12

• KillerBug

  This all seems great in theory, but let us remember how slow, buggy, and unreliable the internet is in most places. It is bad enough if your neighbors are all online so Ubisoft's "Always On DRM" takes 20 seconds to connect...just imagine if you were unable to game every time your connection dropped below 20mbps/2mbps. On top of that, most ISPs have high pings; so there is always a delay, even in the middle of the night.
  
  Give fiber another 10 years and perhapse this would be a viable option for some people...or maybe when fast 4G data plans get cheap; that way you could play all the latest games on a netbook or tablet (at lower resolution for the lower speed).

  11.3.2010 23:14 #13

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by KillerBug: This all seems great in theory, but let us remember how slow, buggy, and unreliable the internet is in most places. It is bad enough if your neighbors are all online so Ubisoft's "Always On DRM" takes 20 seconds to connect...just imagine if you were unable to game every time your connection dropped below 20mbps/2mbps. On top of that, most ISPs have high pings; so there is always a delay, even in the middle of the night.
  
  Give fiber another 10 years and perhapse this would be a viable option for some people...or maybe when fast 4G data plans get cheap; that way you could play all the latest games on a netbook or tablet (at lower resolution for the lower speed).The game was said about digital distribution, I say in 10 years it will be easily feasible to pull it off where it can gain a profit and in 20 to 30 years the only thing you will keep on you is your user data that has your recites and crap in it.

  11.3.2010 23:25 #14

• cart0181

  I agree with KillerBug. This does seem like something that is ahead of its time, 10 years ought to do it. Its a great concept if properly implemented, which OnLive certainly won't be.
  To windsong, I would be surprised if they don't let you at least store a backup of your saves on your own computer. You're right, it would feel way too risky otherwise.

  12.3.2010 02:06 #15

• ogden2

  I used to game on the pc, until i got a ps3 and i've never looked back,goodbye pc for gaming.

  12.3.2010 09:03 #16

• lissenup2

  $15.00/month x 12 months = $180.00/year..................Hmmmmmmmm................
  
  with PC games being 49.00 at the start and a couple months later being only 39.00, that means you'd have to buy 5 games (at the 39.00 mark) to make up the difference of that monthly GOD awful cost. I don't buy 3,4, or 5 games a year. Only this year did 2 games come out that I wanted to actually buy. But this was a great year for games.
  
  Cloud gaming is a scam that no doubt will lure the unsuspecting in and then later they'll realise that they're not using it enough to justify the cost. Besides, Mass Effect 2 is what I'm playing now and it's HUGE like Fallout 3 and will probably rack in the same playing hours at about 50+ (which is what it took me for Fallout 3). Now...........I play on the hardest level to keep the realism and make the most of the game.
  
  Besides.......computers now can just about always play all the games with a minor investment in a good video card for 200.00 bucks..........so long as people stay away from Celeron-type procs.
  
  AS FOR GAMING ON A PS3 OVER A PC................Whatever.
  
  First Person Shooters are nigh impossible to play with controllers. Constant adjusting for aiming........especially at distances and the fact that many many games that come out for the PC and/or the 360 are NOT available for PS3.
  
  However.......God of War 3 LOOKS INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  12.3.2010 12:57 #17

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by lissenup2: $15.00/month x 12 months = $180.00/year..................Hmmmmmmmm................
  
  with PC games being 49.00 at the start and a couple months later being only 39.00, that means you'd have to buy 5 games (at the 39.00 mark) to make up the difference of that monthly GOD awful cost. I don't buy 3,4, or 5 games a year. Only this year did 2 games come out that I wanted to actually buy. But this was a great year for games.
  
  Cloud gaming is a scam that no doubt will lure the unsuspecting in and then later they'll realise that they're not using it enough to justify the cost. Besides, Mass Effect 2 is what I'm playing now and it's HUGE like Fallout 3 and will probably rack in the same playing hours at about 50+ (which is what it took me for Fallout 3). Now...........I play on the hardest level to keep the realism and make the most of the game.
  
  Besides.......computers now can just about always play all the games with a minor investment in a good video card for 200.00 bucks..........so long as people stay away from Celeron-type procs.
  
  AS FOR GAMING ON A PS3 OVER A PC................Whatever.
  
  First Person Shooters are nigh impossible to play with controllers. Constant adjusting for aiming........especially at distances and the fact that many many games that come out for the PC and/or the 360 are NOT available for PS3.
  
  However.......God of War 3 LOOKS INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Right now its a scam, once they get the subscription model up and running that will be what mainstream gaming will turn into with the portable crap for the ipple crap and smart Phones and such..

  12.3.2010 15:01 #18

• navi1199

  i'm all for cloud gaming as long it's like netflix, 1 price for unlimited play, no problem. but if they going to charge us for each game on top of a monthly payment, their out of their minds :/

  12.3.2010 19:42 #19

• KillerBug

  What we really need is some kind of Universal Account; say $40 a month for access to all music, games, movies, and TV...all through the internet.
  
  As for the trust-worthy-ness of cloud servers, most people don't even have regular backups, let alone RAID...the cloud servers certainly have RAID...so most people are more likely to loose data on their hard drive than on the internet.
  

  [DFI M2RS] [Athlon 9950] [ATI 3870HD] [Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600] [6GB Corsair DDR2] [4x Seagate ST31500341AS + 3ware 9690SA = 4.5TB RAID5] [2x Seagate 750GB + 2x Seagate 500GB + Adaptec 1430SA = 750GB RAID1 + 500GB RAID1] [Intel Gigabit NIC (PCI)] [LG 20X Lightscribe DVDR] [Coolmax 1200w Power Supply] [Logitech G15(first edition)] [Logitech G5(Second Edition)] [320GB Hitachi Boot] [320GB Hitachi Temp/Swap] [Modified and overgrown 4U Rackmount case] [22" & 24" screens mounted overhead] [Perfect Chair 085] [Logitech 5.1 Audio] [Windows 7 RC1]

  13.3.2010 02:57 #20

• cart0181

  Originally posted by KillerBug:
  As for the trust-worthy-ness of cloud servers, most people don't even have regular backups, let alone RAID...the cloud servers certainly have RAID...so most people are more likely to loose data on their hard drive than on the internet.Good Point. You're more likely to lose your own saves than they are.

  14.3.2010 21:31 #21