OnLive Message Board older than one year ago

We recently sent Dan off to the Cloud Gaming Europe conference in London, where he interviewed Dave Perry. Following on from that he had a chat with Jim about this cloud gaming thing. This what was said.(more…)

I’m very late to the OnLive party. Cos I’ve got a PC that can play the games just fine, so, well, I’ve not yet taken the time. And then I saw news that they’ve now got it working on smart phones. I can play PC games on my phone? On my phone? And indeed I can. PC gaming is getting a lot more complicated. It’s getting a lot more complicated to know if it’s even PC gaming any more.

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Wondering whether to buy Lord of the Rings: War in the North? Depending on where you are in the world, you may have that option right now (US), on the 9th of November (EU) or in the distant future of the 25th of November (UK). All sorts of things can aid a purchasing decision, primary among them being our wise words, but few would argue against the use of a demo in addition. There is a demo for War in the North but it’s exclusive to the Onlive service, allowing a 30 minute trial starting from the beginning of the game. It should be available in the US and the UK right now.

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I'm thinking Deus-Ex HR, or I might try to wait for LA Noire

Last week, cloud gaming service OnLive launched in the UK. Americans have had it for a while now, and doubtless thus look down on us as some kind of addled-braind backwater cavemen who’ve only just discovered fire, but for this small and governmentally-besieged isle having local services for this ambitious technology could be a game-changer. Or could it? Everyone who’s used it has something to say about it, and very often that’s ‘it kind of works but it looks rubbish on my PC.’ I would say the same thing – full-screen play on my 1920200 monitor looks like someone threw grey jelly at my screen and like everyone in the game is melting into the scenery. In windowed mode, I can play for a bit without being too bothered, but if I want OnLive to use more than 25% of my monitor I give up within five minutes.

Then I tried out the Micro-console thing they’ve started giving out/selling over here and my tune changed almost immediately.(more…)

As promised, OnLive has brought its brand of cloud gaming to the UK as of today. If you're interested in checking it out, the service is offering some worthwhile deals.

If you use BT's broadband service, you'll be able to subscribe to the "PlayPack," a monthly program that gives you unlimited access to over 100 games, for 3 months at no cost. That offer through BT can be found here. Oh, and OnLive play won't count toward your BT usage limit from now until January 2, 2012. It may start accruing after that, unless BT offers any other usage deals.

Additionally, if you visit OnLive at the Eurogamer Expo, you can get a free MicroConsole, and all new UK OnLive users can get their first game for £1. Regular prices for those services are £6.99 a month for the PlayPack and £39.99 per purchased game, should you like it enough to use it again.

Fear not, there's some good news to report about OnLive today as well. CEO Steve Perlman told Joystiq about three new features that are live on the cloud-gaming service ... right now.

Group voice chat allows users to specify "groups" of people, and maintain persistent chat sessions with them, even when they're playing different games, accessing menus, etc. It's even possible to send out an email from within the service inviting group members to chat.

Second, parental controls will allow parents to set limits on the content their kids can play, along ESRB or PEGI lines, with the potential to fine-tune to allow individual games (in the case of, say, unrated indie games). "With a different account, if [parents] want," Perlman explained, "they can actually watch the kid playing, and chat with the kid, and so on." He clarified that, since the parent would presumably be in control of the child's account in the first place, a parent can limit spectating and chat to "friends."

Finally, it's now possible for achievements to automatically post to a user's Facebook wall. OnLive will automatically record the ten seconds of gameplay up to that achievement, and post it as an HD "Brag Clip." "Facebook has been terrific to work on with this," Perlman said. "They actually made a couple of mods to their system -- because we're the first guys posting HD resolution videos nonstop over to Facebook. They're into it."

OnLive is celebrating "Indie-pendence" Day with a massive sale on -- you guessed it -- a random selection of mainstream blockbusters and popular underground games.

The sale includes Batman: Arkham Asylum, Darksiders, Just Cause 2, a pre-order deal on Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and of course an inundation of hit indie titles such as Braid, The Maw, Osmos and Amnesia: The Dark Descent. OnLive's "Indie-pendence" Day Sale runs through the completely unrelated day of July 4, so hurry and check out your options after the jump before this thing vanishes like smoke after a firework.

Cloud gaming poster child OnLive took the opportunity at E3 to show off its tablet-bound OnLive Player application, coming to both iPad and Android devices "later this year," while providing "far higher performance, richer gameplay and deeper social integration than any console announced for 2012." Yeah, that's a not-so-subtle dig at the Wii U.

While the OnLive Viewer app currently available doesn't allow for actually playing OnLive on a tablet, the upcoming Player app "will enable gameplay of virtually all OnLive games on an iPad and Android tablet with touch or OnLive's new Universal Wireless Controller." Demoed in the video below is Ubisoft's From Dust, which accepts touch-based input on the tablet applications.

Even more notable, considering Nintendo's latest console announcement, is news that the OnLive Player app will allow "the tablet to be used as a touch and motion controller combined with an HDTV (or PC/Mac if preferred)." The tablet can even enable "both synchronized or independent video on the tablet and HDTV screen, enabling combined gameplay with tablet and HDTV" or, more like the concepts we saw of Wii U, "separate gameplay on tablet and HDTV."

Take a tour with OnLive prez Steve Perlman after the break; we'll stop by OnLive's E3 booth tomorrow for a tour of our own.

It's about time.

Voice chat was one of several upcoming features touted by OnLive during its panel for potential publishing partners at GDC. Its rollout wasn't dated at the time -- merely "by the end of the year" -- but it turns out there wasn't much of a wait at all; it's available now.

By enabling the voice chat beta option in the OnLive client, users of the service can access two chat channels: one for in-game yacking (open mic), the other for talking with other players while spectating in the Arena (push to talk). Corded and USB microphones are supported on PC and Mac; the OnLive MicroConsole adds support for Bluetooth headsets and VR goggles.

Okay, we were kidding about the goggles -- but you have to admit it'd be pretty cool.

The future features of cloud-based gaming service OnLive got a little less nebulous during the company's GDC 2011 panel. Speaking to developers, its VP of engineering, Joe Bentley, laid out a list of advancements gamers can expect by the end of the year.

Among the new features being rolled out for game makers to implement are achievements (not detailed, but we're guessing these are derived from the console versions), voice chat, game invites and the ability to directly upload Brag Clips to YouTube.

The latest version of the OnLive SDK will also enable developers to let their games support wireless controllers when played on mobile devices such as iPad, iPhone and Android-powered contraptions. (But not actual androids -- those guys hate it when you press their buttons.)

"Yes, OnLive works on cell phones, too," the company's enterprising CEO Steve Perlman assured us all ... fifteen months ago. Did you forget? 'Cause HTC sure didn't. The smartphone manufacturing giant has unannounced plans to buy 5.3 million OnLive shares at $7.50 each -- that's about a $40 million stake in the cloud-based technology outfit -- to better position itself in the gaming segment of the smartphone market, reports The Wall Street Journal. Currently, HTC designs smartphones for both the Android and Windows Phone 7 platforms.

HTC's investment would follow the reported $60 million raised by OnLive in 2010 through investments by British Telecommunications and Belgacom Group. During CES last month, OnLive also unveiled a partnership with Vizio to bring its games-on-demand service to a suite of products, including TVs and Blu-ray players.

When OnLive announced its particular brand of cloud-based gaming was making its way to Vizio's VIA Plus line of connected products, we were eager to get some more details. We got an opportunity today at Vizio's CES suite. While the Vizio tablet and smartphone were on display, they weren't rocking the OnLive implementation just yet; however, that's hardly surprising since, while it was running on the above television, it won't be available publicly on VIA Plus devices until "late in the year."

So what did we learn? That by building the OnLive functionality right into the hardware, they're managing to bypass the input latency associated with an attached device. The television is also able to automatically switch to "game mode" to help ameliorate those delays. And since all of the VIA Plus sets support 3D, OnLive will be working with publishers to support 3D mode directly in the service.

A month after beginning shipments of its Microconsole hardware, cloud gaming service OnLive is announcing a partnership with VIZIO, whereby the electronics company will offer televisions, Blu-ray players, tablet computers and mobile phones that can connect to OnLive right out of the box. According to the announcement made at CES 2011 today, OnLive will be featured as an application on VIZIO's new VIA Plus line of products, which includes the VIA Tablet and VIA Smart Phone, alongside other preinstalled "VIZIO Internet Apps."

OnLive founder and CEO, Steve Perlman calls the partnership "a major milestone," while VIZIO's chief technology officer, Matthew McRae, says the inclusion of the OnLive client on its VIA Plus devices will give users "the freedom to switch games much like you change the channel," and is as integral to these products as software for streaming movies and music.

VIZIO wil be demoing its VIA Plus products during CES and we'll have a first look at them soon.

Following today's GDC keynote from OnLive CEO Steve Perlman, his COO, Mike McGarvey, fielded questions about the game streaming service that's launching June 17. Unfortunately, just how much full games will cost on top of the $14.95 monthly subscription fee was not one that he answered.

McGarvey did confirm that the service will launch with a lineup of titles "in the teens," comprised of some that will have been on shelves for a few months -- Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins were examples -- and others that will release closer to OnLive's debut, such as Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. The catalog will grow from fewer than 20 games on day one to "50 to 60" by the end of 2010, according to McGarvey. These (and all) games on the service will be playable "for years" after release, he said, addressing concerns that buying a game "hosted" by the company could be a risky investment.

Some details are being saved for an announcement at or leading up to E3, including when the OnLive micro-console will be available and, of course, game pricing. McGarvey would say that the company is looking to offer incentives (free games, perhaps?) to build the subscriber base, and that those who sign up "may get some free content" for the monthly fee ... at some point. The micro-console may also be offered free with a service commitment, McGarvey stated, though it will "potentially" be sold on its own.

Saying that more than 250,000 people signed up (but weren't all accepted) for the OnLive beta, McGarvey admitted that the company expects "demand will far outweigh capacity" for the service's launch -- we'll be interested to find out how many people actually "pre-subscribe" and if the company changes its outlook leading up to mid-June.