OnLive will launch in UK on 22 September
OnLive: coming to a internet-enable screen of any description near you soon...
This means that you can play AAA games at 'console-quality' on practically any internet-enabled device with a screen – OnLive demoed dual-screen PC games running on a tablet at E3 this year (see the video below) and says it has ‘over 100 top-tier games instantly available for play via almost any broadband internet connection throughout the UK on HDTV, PC, Mac, and iPad and Android tablets.’
Unlike download services such as Steam, games stream to the device, meaning that you can start playing immediately rather than having to wait for them to download. OnLive membership is free. You can try any game for 30 minutes before deciding whether you buy, rent or reject it, and there are demos to try too if you want more time.
Furthermore, there's no discs to lose, drivers to manage or compatibility issues, as all the games are managed on OnLive's '2013 spec' data servers. The service also supports ‘massive spectating with voice chat’ and you can log in to your account from any location on the planet (you’ll need a broadband-like connection to play).
OnLive boasts that it will have ‘over 100 games, including top titles released the same second as consoles and PCs, available for great deals under a range of pricing plans.’ The flat-rate 'all you can eat' PlayPack bundle has over 70 games, rentals and full purchases, for example.
‘OnLive will utterly transform gaming in the UK,” said OnLive founder and CEO Steve Perlman. ‘No discs, big downloads or specialised hardware needed. OnLive gives you the latest games instantly, anytime, anywhere on HDTV, PC, Mac, as well as iPad, Android tablets. High-performance gaming as accessible as streaming video, with unique social features such as massive spectating with voice chat and Facebook integration.’
OnLive also confirmed that the UK service will be integrated with its North American service, 'including trans-Atlantic massive spectating and voice chat. OnLive will steadily expand to other European countries as well as to other continents following the UK launch'
Well, that’s the end of September sorted for us, what about you? Tempted to at least try the service, or are you already using it? Let us know in the forum.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyDoes that mean the datacenter is in north america. if so then no thanks, the mouse lag made it unplayable when i tried NA servers from UK.
If the servers are in UK then it MIGHT work. The only issue I have is the multiplayer games are in a closed system, meaning that you will only be playing with others who are using OnLive. Weather that was just the games I tested I dont know, but every MP game I did try everyone on the server was using OnLive.
However, I like building a powerful PC, and their streaming games will never be as good quality as playing the game on my own PC.
The only way the service can remain fair is to keep it on-live only, otherwise other users, with real computers & no latency, would have a huge advantage.
TSB
its video quality is far from good. so i'll pass until they can do better video quality that uses acceptable bitrate, better than current gen consoles.
With the proper internet speeds available this service could work, sadly, in the UK this will always be the stumbling block. BT & Virgin are in a speed war where only the areas that benefit currently have the fastest connections. As far as I'm aware, Virgin media are not expanding, and it appears everytime BT comes out with something New (BT Infinity) they stop any existing rollout (CN21) to install the new product in area that already have fast internet :(
Oh well.. :
most urbna homes can get 8mb/s which is fine however very very few people have no data caps
Let's face it, this really isn't aimed at PC gamers.
Oh god, oh god, oh god...
No help if you have a BT 10GB max usage...
I would eat there daily fair usage amount up in like an hour!
As for the whole "I don't wanna rent games" - you still pay for xbox live with no complaints, look at sony too, you have downloads from PSN which you can't use between the PSP and xperia play, many of which you had on ps1 (I rebought final fantasy 7 and 8 on PSN). The make it clear you don't really own anything, just a few bytes of data, if we don't support it. Its like the european housing market, we're moving from owning to renting. Lovefilm and netflix is essentially the same. TBH paying a fee per month and having accesses to what ever game I want when I want is a win. Especially when that fee is gonna be less that that of a new title, many of which I complete after 10hours and spend the rest of the month bored.
http://youtu.be/muCtJsy-d9w
This was done by MOVA, an OnLive subsidiary that offers motion-capture services for movies like Harry Potter, Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbeans.
According to Steve Perlman, CEO of OnLive, this quality of graphics could be achieved in real time in video games but only if it is computed on servers and then streamed to the player screen (Like Onlive).
I'd really like to see if they can do that.
Pfft give me a break, we're miles away from being able to achieve that. OnLive might not even be around when we reach that level of capability and the Internet connections to handle it, and they won't certainly be the only ones when we do.
As of right now, OnLive is poor. Just take a look for yourself here and here - why would I want to play a game on my PC which has worse graphics than a console game, yet costs more? People are always talking about the potential of OnLive but always seem to ignore the fact that, in its current form, it sucks balls.
yeah i get games from steam but steam doesnt require me to pay a subscription on top of paying for the game to access the service
i.e. if i stop my subsciption all my BOUGHT games dont mean jack as i cant access them hence you are only leasing. steam platform on the other hand is FREE so unless steam go bust and shutdown their servers with no unlock of your games then ive bought them and i own them
will be interested in using it.
It just reeks of fail. Come back in 5 or 10 years maybe
Mike
Not for a long time yet. You would need an entire server farm to render it for each and every person playing.
Umm...
Have you read the article?
The subscription is free ;)
I dislike the shift towards cloud computing and handing over control of my gaming to major publishers even more than they already demand, as well as all of the other inherent downsides of OnLive.
I also dislike the precedent this kind of thing sets in an already increasingly anti-consumerist market so I still hope to see this entire thing flop.
your thinking 10 20 30mb VM broadband (well they do have an upload cap on 50 and 100mb service thought but it still faster then most download speed you can get on BT where FTTC is not around)
The service works fine for me in this short space of time as i can't bring my rig and i only have my crappy notebook that can't run anything past 2002. I wouldn't recommend purchasing full games on the service but it is really cool how you can pretty much play anygame on the lists for free for 30 minute limits very quickly. Some games even have rental fees where you can pay a minuscule amount to rent it.
I was surprised by how good some games were (homefront MP/FEAR 3) by buying the playback bundle which nets you 70 games for 10 bucks(a lot of which are rubbish) to play fully for 1 month. that's a lot of entertainment for 10 bucks.
The only negatives i'd say are:
- that there is a noticeable difference in mouse lag for FPS games. It's similar to some sort of mouse acceleration and takes a while to get used to.
-some games have their graphics settings capped at lower than max or at console quality levels.
-you can't play some of the co-op games with someone who doesn't have onlive.
tl;dr- onlive is best used as a rental service for now.
I've signed up for it....it's FREE.....If I end up using it for nothing more than game demos or renting a game I'm thinking of buying for a couple of days to see if I like it then it will still be worth while.
It will also mean I can game on my low powered general purpose pc rather than having to retreat to my gaming rig in my man cave......lol.
Not when nobody can use it, no.:|