More News from OnLive!
OnLive Game Portal
Yesterday, I announced the launch date of the OnLive Game Service, and shortly thereafter OnLive held a session about how to port games with our Software Development Kit (SDK). The room was packed to overflowing, forcing us to request that people return today for a repeat of the session. It’s great to see that the development community is so excited about moving games to OnLive!
As I mentioned in my last blog post, between now and the public release of OnLive on June 17, we’ll be continuing to announce other OnLive offerings. These extensions of the service illustrate the scope of possibility with OnLive and serve to expand the overall consumer value proposition.
So, I’m pleased to announce the OnLive® Game Portal, a companion offering to the OnLive Game Service that I described on my blog yesterday.
The OnLive Game Portal is for gamers looking for direct access to OnLive games without being required to subscribe to the features of the full OnLive Game Service. Through the OnLive Game Portal, gamers will be able to play select games directly on a rental basis as well as game demos for free; subject to available OnLive service capacity and whatever usage limits are associated with each given demo. Rentals will be priced on a per-game basis. There is no service fee for the OnLive Game Portal.
We think this is a great offering for gamers to try out games, or if they prefer, play games they’re interested in for a particular period of time. We also think it’s a great way to get a taste of the OnLive experience to see if they want to join the greater OnLive community on an ongoing basis through the OnLive Game Service.
Of course, like all games in the OnLive Game Service, games in the OnLive Game Portal start instantly, are always updated, and don’t require high-end hardware to play high-performance games. It only takes seconds to install OnLive’s small browser plug-in, and only seconds more before you’re playing a top-tier game. And, of course, OnLive Game Portal games will also play through OnLive’s MicroConsole TV Adapter on an HDTV.
The OnLive Game Portal will be rolled out in 2010 at some point following the June 17th OnLive Game Service Launch and will be subject to the Terms of Service applicable to that offering.
And, we have more cool stuff coming! Stay tuned.
—Steve Perlman, OnLive Founder & CEO
March 11, 2010 at 6:36 PM
Wow this is exciting I cant wait to see the game portal, I was literally just talking about such a feature that could be integrated into my blog so others could watch me play games!
March 11, 2010 at 9:32 PM
“session about how to port games with our Software Development Kit (SDK)”
hi,
when and where we can watch the video of SDK presentation?
March 12, 2010 at 11:13 AM
that’s what i’m talking about!
ty for giving us this option.
March 12, 2010 at 11:24 AM
I agree very much. Though the pricing to my friends and me seemed to be really high due to the having to pay for the subscription to the service and then actually having to pay more for the game at first. With this it allows you a whole new pricing options for me.
March 12, 2010 at 11:43 AM
Whoooohoooo! When I originally read that there was going to be a 14.99 fee per month, not counting games, I got a lump in my throat. After reading this article, this is awesome!
March 12, 2010 at 11:47 AM
How long does a rental last?
March 12, 2010 at 12:31 PM
Sounds great!!! I can’t wait for the launch!!! Hopefully i’ll get a beat invite soon. Just make sure OnLive gets Gears of War.
March 23, 2010 at 10:14 AM
A Dream come true that would be. Supported.
March 12, 2010 at 1:07 PM
Well Onlive has just made something TOTALLY unique! I would have never thought this was possible until now. I’m VERY excited to see how this plays out and can’t wait till it comes out in the UK (Hope you will release a launch in Europe).
March 12, 2010 at 1:22 PM
Now, what about if I buy a game, but I stop paying the subscription fee. Will I be able to have a copy of that game sent to me?
March 12, 2010 at 2:26 PM
Does this OnLive Portal sport all the same basic OnLive features as playing for the standard $14.95 fee announced yesterday? I’m assuming it doesn’t but figured I’d ask. If it doesn’t what features does it include?
Right now I just don’t see how this service, at the basic rate of $14.95 has any major perks over the basic Gamefly service which costs the same but gives me actual game rentals and I can get my Sony exclusives for my PS3. There is a huge hurdle for the OnLive company imo.
March 12, 2010 at 3:22 PM
Hope OnLive can hit Australia in the near future …
March 13, 2010 at 12:51 AM
Advancing the internet age is great, distributed computing is stellar, my question is what will people have to pay for storage? How will DLC be handled? Can the unit take peripherals? Do they allow in house networking? Can I link my onLive system with my roommates onLive; will that be handled automatically by the onLive services? Will they recognize our proximity or will we have the capability to configure this behavior?
Will I have instant messaging capabilities comparable to my PC in terms of keyboard input?
Will the plastic of the unit age and turn yellow like the snes system did?
So many questions…
March 13, 2010 at 12:06 PM
You should release it in Europe too, there is so many gamers (like me), who would really want to play games. Europe also got a fast average internet speed.
i’m very very very exited!
March 14, 2010 at 12:56 AM
Well Onlive has just made something TOTALLY unique! I would have never thought this was possible until now. I’m VERY excited to see how this plays out and can’t wait till it comes out in the UK (Hope you will release a launch in Europe).
March 14, 2010 at 8:14 AM
Europe release!!!!??? =) plleeaassee;)
March 14, 2010 at 11:10 AM
Wow! I’m really intrested in the OnLive Game Service, but was hoping to try it first before I pay $15 a month for it… but now, there is a OnLive Game Portal that will let me do that!? Well, I’m defanalty going to try the OnLive Portal now. Also, If you guy could ask Telltale Game to putting Sam & Max, Strong Bad, and/or Tales of Monkey Island episode games on the service, then I’m totaly sold.
March 16, 2010 at 4:43 PM
Please, bring the system to Brazil ASAP!!
This is awesome!!
March 22, 2010 at 11:00 AM
Sounds Great, looking forward to the launch and reviewing the game portal. Are we any closer to having a European release date, or will the service only be available to US users for the foreseeable future?
March 23, 2010 at 9:22 AM
Extremely nice post. You have touched on a lot of great points. Thank you for taking the time to put that together. Putting this blog in my RSS !
March 23, 2010 at 10:11 AM
Will be checking this blog often.
I personally think a flat rate, monthly fee of is best with the option to play anything you want… first onlive would take their cut and then the developers would share out the remainder of my subscription…. and how would be profits be divided? :
Basically, (1) all the games I play within each month are put together to form my total gaming time in one month, (2) the amount of time I spend on each game is then put into percentages, for example:
I spent 23% of my total time on onlive playing GAME 1
I spent 14% of my total time on onlive playing GAME 2
I spent 63% of my total time on onlive playing GAME 3
Total: 100%
So now, the developer who made GAME 1 for onlive would get 23% of my personal subscription for that month, the developer for GAME 2 would get 14% and the developer for GAME 3 would get 63% of my total subscription for this month.
The more I play their game, the more percentage of my subscription the game developer gets. Effectively, this means that a developer could get an endless supply of profits as long as onlive remains active & my subscription stays a flat fee and never changes.
Also, I think it promotes more competition amongst developers to keep providing a high quality games and it empowers the gamers as well. In fact, other people could get in on the action by designing games (or movies, music etc…) and post them onto the onlive service, if people watch their movies, listen to their music or play their games, then the creator makes a profit! Nice!
March 28, 2010 at 7:08 PM
Ok last time asking cos I’m sick of being ignored by people who are so good at keeping us informed about everything else. Even if nothing is certain yet or even if you just plain don’t know… Please at least answer the question… When does it hit uk? If it’s too long eg a year or so then that smart console thing is gonna bee you to the punch but I want to be sure all my friends get the same cloud gaming device that u do
March 30, 2010 at 2:39 PM
@Hero face It will hit UK as soon as they see how well it runs in the US. It will suck really hard if they launch this world wide and the fails epically.
April 6, 2010 at 5:39 PM
Will this video-game service be available for Puerto Rico? I certainly hope so. I’d get it on launch day if it was available here or if the had one of those awesome servers here. This is very interesting new and amazing.
April 10, 2010 at 2:02 AM
when will OnLive be available in Europe
April 11, 2010 at 2:41 PM
we are definitely going to need call of duty on this =]
April 12, 2010 at 2:26 PM
thats one of the big games ive been waiting for
May 6, 2010 at 3:45 AM
I´m waiting that ONLIVE in my country, Spain.
That´s a great idea to play videogames!
May 13, 2010 at 2:38 AM
When and where can we in sweden sign up for beta-testing?
May 15, 2010 at 5:28 PM
Will this video-game service be available for Puerto Rico? I certainly hope so. I’d get it on launch day if it was available here or if the had one of those awesome servers here. This is very interesting new and amazing.
June 21, 2010 at 7:51 AM
I’m so excited that OnLive is coming to the UK sooner than I thought. Mark my words: making the deal with BT will trigger a multi-BILLION pound deal between these 2 companies in the UK alone (so who knows what kind of figures OnLive will hit in the US and Europe each ALONE!!)
Between BT & OnLive, will bring not just gaming, but also music, film or video entertainment and also all other forms of communication together and spark HUGE (well deserved) profits. BT is set to finish rolling out Fibre Optic cables for every piece of the UK soon, it’s such a great choice to work with them. Good move. These kind of funds will prove very useful to OnLive, which I am so happy about. Good Luck OnLive.
I’m waiting for you!
July 3, 2010 at 8:28 AM
I agree a flat fee would be better. Why not charge $50/mo. to access all games?
-Developers can be paid according to what % of time customers spend playing their game. This encourages developers to make games with long-term replay value.
-There would be fewer complaints when a game was retired from the server. Since no one paid specifically for that game, they won’t object as strongly when it is removed from the lineup.
-It would offer something truly new and unique that only a service like this can handle.
Think about it. A customer can pay $50 this month for one game, or they can pay $50 right now and have EVERY game for 30 days. A lot of people will go for the latter.
August 16, 2011 at 3:55 AM
When will Onlive come to Germany? Any ideas?