OnLive Launching June 17, $14.95 Per month

[mojoman0]

http://www.ugo.com/games/onlive-laun...4-95-per-month

At the GamesBeat portion of the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this morning, Steve Perlman, CEO of OnLive, finally announced details for the launch of the cloud computing gaming service. A year after the service was first unveiled at GDC in 2009, Perlman was able to point to E3 2010 as the official launch of OnLive.

June 17th is the date, and according to Perlman the service will be up and running in all 48 contiguous United States at that time.

Perlman also revealed a price point for the service's monthly fee: $14.95. This is the month-to-month rate -- different pricing options will be available for people who sign up for longer term commitments. He also mentioned that the first 25,000 people to register for the service will get the first three months of charges waived. However, it was a bit unclear as to what the service fee would buy you -- it's obviously access to OnLive and to all of its features (gamer tag, friends, spectator viewing, free demos, etc.), but in terms of the actual games there will be charges for buying and renting them, and we don't yet know what those rates will be.

One thing that was unclear is when the actual OnLive MicroConsole (the box you plug into your TV) will available -- the June 17th launch only refers to the service being up and running for PCs and Macs. And in terms of when the service hits in the rest of the world, Perlman says that more details will be available later this year.

But anyway, at least we now have a date for the initial launch. And E3 2010 is sounding more and more exciting.

[JasonPC]

This sounds like a costly service. But I guess it all depends on how much the games actually cost. The whole thing seems less than ideal. In the long run you'll end up sinking as much money as a console but you won't actually own anything.

[NarcissistZero]

If you "buy" a game, then let your monthly service subsciption die, I assume you can no longer access your "purchased" game?

This better die, but knowing my luck, it will thrive and be the new standard. Yay.

[nekrosoft13]

knowing the stupidity of the masses

I can't imagine core games doing well on this, this will thrive as a casual system for popcap games and the like.

[LurkerLito]

Though technically it is the ultimate in piracy protection. There is no way to play pirated games or to pirate them with the onlive service.

IMO there is no way it will succeed I can't see anyone ever shelling out $50 for a game then a monthly $15 fee to have the right to play the game. Even if the games were always 50% off Retail MSRP ($25) I still can't see it happening. For casual games that normally cost $10-$20, I don't see how anyone would be stupid enough to buy the same game for the same price + a monthly fee where you lose the game you "bought" if you don't pay the monthly. Casual games also are something less likely to succeed on the platform because the casual games require significantly less PC power than a AAA like game, that makes this kind of service completely unnecessary.

Where this might actually work is if it worked like steam retail games. You buy the game in a store or digital download service, then the Serial #, also works in OnLive. That way people who wanted to play their game via the service would also get to keep their games if they wish to no longer pay the monthly or finally build/bought a capable PC.

[Armed_Baboon]

this will be great for the Tower Defence crowd. and probaby the Japanese... but I'm not sure why.

[Chesskid1]

Originally Posted by Armed_Baboon

. and probaby the Japanese... but I'm not sure why.

probably won't be too big in japan since it's usa only atm

[CaptNKILL]

Originally Posted by NarcissistZero

This better die, but knowing my luck, it will thrive and be the new standard. Yay.

Agreed.

This needs to go down in flames.

If this catches on in a big way, say goodbye to our hobby... upgrading, tweaking, hardware, gaming PCs, control over how and when you play your games... it'd all be gone if this was the standard.

[NarcissistZero]

Originally Posted by CaptNKILL

Agreed.

This needs to go down in flames.

If this catches on in a big way, say goodbye to our hobby... upgrading, tweaking, hardware, gaming PCs, control over how and when you play your games... it'd all be gone if this was the standard.

Indeed. I fear it. I don't understand why other PC gamers do not fear it. Console gamers... I can see the indifference... PC gamers though, FEAR THIS CRAP.

[t3hl33td4rg0n]

Wow, this is just retarded. Pay monthly to play games that you could easily buy and keep, and not have to pay a monthly fee.


And how the are they going to deliver this high-quality streaming (didn't they say max detail?) @ 30fps without noticable lag? At a bare minimum, they would have to transmit at the very least 1280x768 or 1280x960. No way they could do that.

I imagine this could be good for peggle lol, click and wait 10 seconds.

Try to play a game via VNC with max compression, this is no different... lol, glhf!

[NarcissistZero]

It's 480p on standard cable internet/DSL... 720p on like super broadband. 1080p supposedly will come someday.

And yeah, they say max details, but who knows how much they will live up to that, especially when they see the upgrade bill for all their PCs. And with the compression grain and low res, it will look like crap anyway.

Such a horrible idea.