It's been a long time coming, but it looks like the wait for
OnLive is finally coming to an end: the service is now officially slated to launch on June 17 in the 48 contiguous states. The game streaming service will run users $14.95 a month, though buying or renting games is an additional cost (it's unclear exactly what that cost might be). Luckily there will be lower prices available for multi-month buys, and the first 25,000 people to sign up will get their first three months free. Service includes free instant-play demos, multiplayer and an "instant video-based social network," whatever that means. At the outset the service will run on Mac and PC as a browser plugin, but the MicroConsole TV adapter will be released later this year, with other devices to be added "over time." Initially the service will run at 720p, but 1080p / 60 fps will be added once the bandwidth becomes available. Out of the gate there will be somewhere between 12 and 25 titles available, including
Mass Effect 2,
Borderlands,
Assassin's Creed II,
Dragon Age Origins, and
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. There are five different data centers set up to serve up the games, strategically placed to reduce lag... let's
hope they work!
posted March 10th 2010 3:10PM
Best of luck to them. A monthly fee like that seems a bit high though.
@(Unverified) Its a dollar less than Gamefly. Considering you have to deal with shipping times and available quantities with Gamefly I'd say the price is a positive feature.
@(Unverified)
That's what I figured, but then I realized it's no more than that of a standard MMO. For a normal PC Gamer at least, it's not *that* big of an investment.
@tasteskindasalty At GameFly you don't pay for the games, you just pay a monthly rate.
@tasteskindasalty
You still have to "buy" your games with OnLive. Gamefly doesn't require me to pay $60 to play the game.
I think your missing the point guys... The service renders the game on there computers then streams it to you via web browser.. thus you can play the latest games with highest settings on an old computer... Its not like gamefly where you "rent" games.
@christru Yeah, but what's the point on maximum settings on an old display? I doubt this will take off with the monthly fee and paying for your games. This is a total ripoff. Say in a year if you don't want to pay the fee anymore then you lose the games you rightfully own and bought. Whereas on a console or pc, you keep them.
@christru
I think everyone understands why OnLive is a benefit. I think the real story is that you're missing the point that previous posters are making: On top of the monthly service fee, you still have to rent or buy the game you want to play. This raises further questions about what happens to your game ownership if the service tanks?
@christru
The settings may be on high, but they still have to overcome latency and bandwidth issues. How awesome would your high-settings game be if right as you round the corner to blast your enemies away your wife started downloading season 4 of LOST?
@Gasaraki I really hope this does well but I agree IF big IF the games are $60 bucks it will be expensive at $60 per game and then $15/month. Xbox Live is almost $60 a game and it's $7.99 per month.
@chispito if his wife is into watching LOST, she finished season 4 a long time ago
@(Unverified)
I think everybody is missing the point. $15/month for games that I have already beaten twice?
@(Unverified) You might be right on this one. I would give it a try up here in Canada if it ever comes. However, the mnthly fee is just too steep if you add in the games. So they better do something unless they are going to offer games for 10!
I think most of you are missing the biggest downfalls to this. It steams highly compressed 720p images and as we all know, PC gaming @ 1280x720 is nothing and can be done on a less than $100 video card.
@Pookiewood
7.99 a month for XBOX LIVE........how'd you come up with that #?
Considering renewal is $ 49.99/year that breaks down to 4.16
Considering you can usually get the annual cards on sale at some point during the year for 35$......well
@Rick James absolutely, they should take a cue from netflix and do a tier pricing for an amount of games that you can access per month- if you are paying only for what you are getting then it may take off but no one trusts the service not to tank
@(Unverified)
It does especially when there's also a game rental charge. So you pay $14.95 a month then maybe $2 a month for a game. I think this service is probably only a good choice for people who buy more than four full priced games a year. Which isn't me.
@tasteskindasalty
Correct if I'm wrong, but GameFly doesn't charge you to rent the game on top of the monthly fee? So, if games are $2.99 to rent, and you rent five games a month, that's $15 + 2.99@5 = $30 and ends up being rather expensive.
@christru Yea, so you pay more not to rent?
TACHYONS!
@archkron
damn it, beat me to it.
As I'm travelling at the moment with a small laptop and no console this will really cure some homesickness!
@DrCollossus
Except it won't. if you are traveling you'll have to use crappy internet service through airports, hotels and cell phone connections.
You definitely won't hit the "5Mbps or greater for HD-resolution games" and you probably won't be able to sustain the 1.5Mbps required for SD quality just because public internet services blow.
Just in time to upgrade to my 30mb internet
@Bowsa
Just what we need though, another subscription to anything...
So if I don't pay you, I don't get to play my games that I bought from you?! That's seriously wrong.
@Vincent
Hmm, would it not be working as a rental service? why would you want to buy games 100% and pay for a service?
@excelsium
You have to pay for game rentals on top of the $15 per month. You can buy games through them as well if you don't want to rent them. Either way, you have to pay money on top of the $15 to play games. After a year of $15 a month, you've already spent enough for an Xbox, so I'm not exactly sure who is going to use this.
@Vincent
That would be like having to pay MS an extra 15 bucks to use your Xbox. No thanks, I'll just stick to buying or renting my games.
@daytripper
$15/month ($180/year) is like buying 3 Xbox/PS3 games for the year.
It all depends on how much the OnLive games will cost.
If it costs $50 or $60 extra per game, then forget it.
If it only costs $5 per game, then it might be worth it.
If we had to pay $5 per game, then that would mean 12 OnLive games per year for the price of 4 console games.
Will it be $5 per game? Probably not. It'll probably be between $20-$30 per game ... and that would mean OnLive would fail.
Browser plug in? weird.
@VIRGINA awesome not weird. different perhaps, but not weird
@VIRGINA
Its kind of weird. I would think that if your playing a game, critical on the speed of your internet, you'd have a game client would have better network diagnostics and compatibility. I'm sure I could purposely screw myself by like running Mac OS on a PC using a Chrome beta....just saying.
@Chroma
You can code pretty much anything into a browser add on now, including network diag.
On a side note, i really wish people would stop saying just sayin' its sooooo fecking boring now.
@VIRGINA
Probably similar to the plugin for Battlefield Heros.
@VIRGINA
Battlesfield Heroes and Quake Live are two examples that use a browser plugin and work quite well.
$15 a month AND pay for games?! I'll gladly pay for a the Console and games if I don't have the subscription. Both is asking a little much. What a downer
@pullathomas
Yea, that really is the thin end of the wedge if true, perhaps it should be a tiered service, I could see some users using a few dollars of bandwidth, otherwise using $10 or $20 dollars worth of bandwidth, per month, for example... bandwidth costs too much :[.
@excelsium
Edit: Otherwise > other users.
@pullathomas The cost is fine. $15 a month means playing high end games on low-end hardware you already own like laptops with integrated graphics (over 50% of all laptop out there) without having the fan blasting away and battery dying in just over an hour.
It means you get to play demos instantly, which you don't always get with off-the-shelf games and you can pay by renting the time you use the game. If you buy say The Saboteur, check out the boobs and find it's a bad game, you only pay for the hours you played vs the whole game.
The games should be cheaper as the cost is taken away from the distribution or at least the publishers make more money so more likely to make exclusives for it.
If they increase the game list, I will make this my main gaming platform.
*opens new browser tab, plays Crysis*
The main downside is no wifi, you have to be hard-wired. For me it's fine but won't be for everyone as it defeats most of the point of the laptop portability, which this tech should be aimed at.
"launch on June 17 in the 48 contiguous states"
I wonder which two states will not get the service? Hawaii and Alaska?
@mad0maxx That's generally what that means. "Continental U.S." and "contiguous states" basically mean the same thing.
@mad0maxx Did not know what contiguous meant till I looked it up in a dictionary. Sorry for the stupid post.
@mad0maxx
I hope you are being sarcastic..but in case you aren't...do yourself a favor and go to google.com and type in "define: contiguous" :)
@Stereotype
Nvm.... :P
@mad0maxx Dictionary ? Try going to Google and typing define:contiguous
@Woovie I actually went to Webster.com. I do not actually own a dictionary if I can get it online for free.
@mad0maxx
here you go
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=define%3A+contiguous
I wonder if they can consider a cheaper service where I can watch some gameplay in 720p or higher... I dont really care about 'playing' some of the games, but watching them could be fun as well and there wont be latency issue...
@htd
You're willing to pay 15 bucks a month to watch someone else play a game?