Imagine if every penny in your change jar was worth hours of incredible gaming. One for BioShock. Another Batman: Arkham Asylum. A penny for weeks of Homefront Large-Scale Multiplayer Warfare. Starting today—for a limited time—OnLive is making that dream a reality.

Today we introduced our 200^th game to the OnLive PlayPack, our revolutionary subscription service that now offers unlimited, on-demand play of hundreds of incredible console-class games on nearly any device. And, as part of our 200-hour celebration, we’re offering PlayPack at an unprecedented introductory price: your first month’s access to all 200+ games for just $2.00 USD/£2.00 GBP.

The OnLive PlayPack has always delivered a tremendous amount of entertainment value for a ridiculously low price. At just $9.99 USD/£6.99 GBP per month, the subscription service has been growing by the week, adding everything from top-tier shooters like Just Cause 2 and Red Faction: Armageddon (added today) to retro SEGA classics to cult indie titles like World of Goo. With addictive single-player gameplay and, for many of the games, rich multiplayer modes that you can return to again and again, the ever-growing collection amounts to thousands of hours of gameplay—and that’s not including time spent sharing and posting Brag Clip videos on Facebook, spectating and chatting with friends in the Arena, or inviting friends to play through instant-launch links on your Wall.

OnLive PlayPack deserves celebrating because no other on-demand subscription service comes close to delivering this kind of value, value that gets better all the time.

Whether you’re a past or future PlayPack subscriber or merely a fan of great games, you can get in on the fun with our PlayPack 200 Celebration: 200 hours of nonstop challenges, prizes, contests, multiplayer madness and more.

The PlayPack 200 Celebration runs from today through Friday, April 27, at 11:59 pm PDT (28 April (7:59am BST). Here’s a quick rundown of events:

• PlayPack 200 Sweepstakes: Receive an entry for every PlayPack game you play for a minimum of 200 seconds each.[i] Prizes include tablets and controllers!
• Multiplayer Madness Developer Events: Take on game developers and other OnLive members in 200-minute events featuring games such as Homefront and Air Conflicts.
• Brag Clip Event: Post Brag Clip™ videos of your best and worst gaming moments.
• Live interactive streaming broadcasts with the OnLive staff

You can get the full scoop on how to join in at www.onlive.com/playpack or follow OnLive on Facebook or Twitter for daily Community events. Official rules for the sweeps can be found at

U.S.: http://blog.onlive.com/playpack-200-sweepstakes-official-rules/
U.K.: http://blog.onlive.com/playpack-200-giveaway-official-rules-uk/

Hope to see you there!

—Steve Perlman, Founder and CEO

Here are just a few of the highlights:

Arena
Find out just how big a crowd someone has gathered with a new at-a-glance spectator icon. You can also control your Arena view with new View (V key on keyboard; Y button on gamepad) and Refresh (R key on keyboard; X button on gamepad) options.

Notifications
Take the bad or take the good: You can now control Cheers and Jeers notifications separately in Settings/Notifications.

Brag Clips

Check out and manage your Brag Clips without leaving your game. Just open your Dashboard and hit Alt + O (center gamepad button) to see your new My Brag Clips pane.

My Games
Want to see all your purchases in one place? The Play History tab in My Games has been changed to PlayPass, so you can see what you own, sorted by last played. (With more than 200 games available, this was a hot request.)

OnLive PlayPack
Find out more about PlayPack games. Trailers and related media are now supported for PlayPack games in the Game Details pages and will be added as available. Not yet a subscriber? Go see what you’re missing!

We’ve also made other miscellaneous fixes to improve performance throughout. Launch the OnLive client to check them out for yourself! And don’t forget to tell us what you think by following us on Facebook and Twitter!

See you on the service,

—Matt Jensen, Community Manager
OnLive Player Tag: OnLive_MJ

We’ve always been fans of indie games. After all, independent developers have created some of the most innovative gameplay experiences out there, and this year they’ve done it again. So we decided to partner with the Independent Games Festival and bring 15 of the year’s nominees and honorable mentions to the public.

Launched on February 27, the OnLive Indie Showcase is a two-week celebration in which gamers across the US and UK can demo IGF honorees free on the OnLive Game Service and “Like” their favorites on our OnLive Facebook page. On March 12, the day after the Game Developers Conference ends, we’ll announce the top picks online, based on which game received the most Likes and which was the most played. We’re also putting IGF honorees from past years on sale this week for 75% off, because they deserve celebrating too. (Click here to see all games on sale.)

Hundreds of Likes are already populating our Facebook page, with Toren (developed by Swordtales), Atom Zombie Smasher (Blendo Games), Dear Esther (The Chinese Room) and Nitronic Rush (Digipen Institute of Technology) leading the way so far. But the deeper I get into playing these games, the harder it is to choose: from mercenary zombie killers to acrobatic janitors to suburban boys who change their world using just a smile or frown, you can play as just about anything and get hooked on pretty much any style of gameplay. It’s not apples to apples; in some cases, it’s not even fruit that you’ve heard of. But one thing I can guarantee: there’s something for everyone here.

Now if you still need convincing, there are two other reasons you should check out some of these games:

1. Do it for you: You’ll not only discover some pretty incredible games, you’ll be entered to win an OnLive Prize Pack just for playing free.
2. Do it for them: We’re all about getting the underdogs exposure. These developers created amazing experiences, and every time you Like a game, your Facebook friends get a chance to discover it, too. You can even double-down and post some Brag Clips of your gameplay so your Friends get a window into what you Like so much.

If you’re lucky enough to be going to GDC, you can demo all these games at OnLive’s kiosk in the IGF Pavilion, booth 838 in Moscone North. If you’re not, you’re still lucky: you can play all 15 games free instantly, with no discs and no downloads, on just about any PC or Mac, your TV with the OnLive Game System, and select tablets. Check them out and post your Likes at facebook.com/onlive. Here’s the full lineup:

• Atom Zombie Smasher (Blendo Games)
• Be Good (DigiPen Institute of Technology)
• Dear Esther (The Chinese Room)
• Dustforce (Hitbox Team)
• English Country Tune (Stephen Lavelle)
• Frozen Synapse (Mode 7 Games)
• FTL (Justin Ma and Matthew Davis)
• Lume (State of Play Games)
• Nitronic Rush (DigiPen Institute of Technology)
• Once Upon a Spacetime (RMIT)
• POP (Rob Lach)
• SpaceChem (Zachtronics Industries)
• To the Moon (Freebird Games)
• Toren (Swordtales)
• WAY (CoCo & Co.)

Can’t wait to see your top picks!

—Matt Jensen, Community Manager
OnLive Player Tag: OnLive_MJ

The OnLive Desktop App is now available free in the Android Market, empowering you to get your work done anywhere with unprecedented speed and efficiency. Enjoy a no-compromise, media-rich, multi-touch Windows desktop on your tablet, with fully functional applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Adobe Reader, along with 2GB of cloud storage. The OnLive Desktop Plus service, available for $4.99/month at desktop.onlive.com, provides all OnLive Desktop Standard features plus our gigabit-speed accelerated browsing—the world’s fastest browsing experience, whether you’re connecting over Wi-Fi- or 4G LTE. Together, we think they’ll change the way you look at your tablet forever.

Let me give you an example. Say you’re in transit to a meeting and you need to put some finishing touches on your PowerPoint presentation. You can just upload it from your PC or Mac into your free OnLive storage at files.onlive.com (or, if you have OnLive Desktop Plus, save it into third-party cloud storage like Dropbox) and open it instantly on your tablet on the go. Create new graphics, add in videos … with full app functionality and instant-response multi-touch gestures, you’ll feel like you’re working locally. And, with a Bluetooth keyboard and/or mouse you may forget you are not using a local PC.

With OnLive Desktop Plus, you can even email your presentation to co-workers for input or approval and make changes on the fly. Webmail attachments, even 50 MB ones, transfer in less than a second. By the time you arrive at your meeting, your presentation is polished, up-to-the-minute accurate and ready to present, either directly from your tablet or by simply signing in to OnLive Desktop from a different device. (OnLive Desktop is also available on iPad. Smartphones, PCs, Macs and monitors/TVs are coming soon.)

Simple, right? You look professional and your work does, too. No time lost. No compromises.  Even better, OnLive Desktop Plus can actually reduce Web browsing data usage by a factor of 10 or more, since only the top layer of the current view of a website is sent over your local Internet connection**.

The OnLive Desktop app requires at least Android 2.3 and is compatible with the following tablets:  Acer Iconia Tab A500, ASUS Eee TF101, Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1, and HTC Jetstream. For more details—and to sign up for your free OnLive account—check out desktop.onlive.com.

Welcome to your newfound freedom!

—Steve Perlman, Founder and CEO

*See desktop.onlive.com/plans for details and terms and conditions.

**OnLive Desktop’s local data usage is based largely on screen motion, not the amount of data transferred from a website.

Just a few short weeks ago, we introduced our free OnLive™ Desktop app, delivering an instant-response Windows desktop and full-featured Microsoft Office apps to your iPad. Now, with OnLive Desktop Plus, we’re excited to transform the iPad even further—into the world’s fastest mobile Flash player.

Available today at desktop.onlive.com, the OnLive Desktop Plus service delivers priority access to all the standard features of OnLive Desktop, plus gigabit-speed* accelerated browsing with full Adobe Flash. That’s not simply a fast browser, it’s faster than any consumer browsing experience we know of.

For you that means—whether you’re on Wi-Fi or 4G (Android LTE tablets coming soon!)—you can expect even the most elaborate Flash websites to load in seconds, even if it would have taken your home computer minutes to load the same page. Animation, video and sound come through impeccably and instantly. And, large cloud storage files and Web email attachments—even 50 MB PowerPoint presentations—to upload or download in less than a second.

All of this—gigabit-speed accelerated browsing, plus Flash, plus access to fully functional PC apps like Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and now Adobe Reader, plus your cloud desktop, plus 2 GB of cloud storage—is available for just $4.99 per month.

What’s really cool is OnLive gigabit-speed browsing doesn’t come out of your local data usage; you might actually save money. OnLive Desktop Plus can dramatically reduce Web browsing data usage by as much as a factor of 10 or more, since only the top layer of the current view of a website is sent over your local Internet connection**. So you get the world’s fastest mobile browser, at quite possibly the world’s best value.

If you don’t have an iPad or you’re not in the U.S., don’t worry—we’ll be bringing OnLive Desktop to more platforms and territories soon. Android, smartphone, PC, Mac and even monitors and TVs (via OnLive MicroConsole thin client) are all on the way.

In the meantime, check out OnLive Desktop Plus at desktop.onlive.com.

—Steve Perlman, Founder and CEO

*See desktop.onlive.com/plans for details and terms and conditions.
**OnLive Desktop’s local data usage is based largely on screen motion, not the amount of data transferred from a web site.

Soccer. Footie. Whatever you like to call the sport, if you consider yourself a true fan, we’ve got some exciting news: Now you can experience it with unmatched realism anytime and anywhere you like.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 has just launched on OnLive, bringing a whole slew of gameplay improvements (and a kickin’ sweepstakes) along with it. From brand-new Active AI to a cool new Teammate Control system, which lets you command the movements of two players at once (a really fun way to draw away defense, among other things), PES 2012 has taken some impressive steps forward from past games in the series. You not only feel more in control of your team, the animation is better, players’ reactions are more defined and Konami has added some cool details to bring the whole stadium to life.

But what I’m most excited about is playing it on OnLive, and I know I might be biased but hear me out:

1. You can spectate. With the OnLive Arena, you’ll be able to watch matches between friends and strangers, and even add your own commentary over voice chat.
2. You can show off. Snap a Brag Clip™ video of the play that brings the crowds to their feet and post it on Facebook for the real world to see.
3. You never have to stop. Seriously, this is awesome. With the new OnLive app for Android tablets and smartphones, you can stream your OnLive games to almost any device you have on hand and pick up playing wherever you left off. Since we just released our Universal OnLive Wireless Controller, you can even control the action exactly the same way on your PC, Mac, TV, tablet or smartphone by just bringing that one controller with you.

Pretty cool, huh? We thought so, too. So we decided to welcome all true fans onto the service with the PES 2012 Kickoff Play 2 Win Sweepstakes.

Play any time between now and January 31 12:01 AM PST/8:01 AM GMT 31 January and be automatically entered to win incredible prizes! You even get a shot at scoring some pretty sweet gaming packs just for checking out the free demo.

UK fans, get the details on how to enter—and what you can win—here.

US fans, your rules and prizes are here.

Don’t miss out—the sweeps only lasts one week. And we have a feeling our Arena will be popping!

See you there,

—Bruce Grove, General Manager, OnLive UK
OnLive Player Tag: BrooseG

Videogames just took a huge leap into the future with OnLive cloud gaming on Google TV.

With Google TV, you take it for granted that you can stream just about any type of linear media—video, movies, music—on demand and experience it instantly. But, when it comes to the latest high-performance console-class games, you probably still need discs and big downloads to experience them, and gameplay is anything but instant.

With OnLive, the latest high-performance videogames stream just as instantly as videos or movies. It’s really cool.

Download the OnLive Viewer app, fire it up and check out my favorite place, the Arena. What you’ll see are gamers around the world playing top-tier videogames live, some of them approaching the visual realism of live action, and before long, you might even think you are watching a movie. Cheer (click thumbs-up) if you like what you see, and that cheer might appear on the screen of a gamer on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Try friending and striking up some chat. And, definitely watch some Brag Clip® videos, showing the best (and worst!) of OnLive gaming, with the most jaw-dropping and most hilarious moments captured from live gameplay.

As we do with most new platforms, OnLive is starting out with a Viewer on Google TV, so for now, you can just watch and use OnLive social features. But hang in there, OnLive is working closely with Google to enable full gameplay with OnLive gamers from around the world on Google TV.  And more Google TV devices are coming, with OnLive built right in.

In fact, this week at the CES Show in Las Vegas, VIZIO will showcase the first-ever line of Google TV products with OnLive playability built in. With this next generation of VIZIO Internet Apps Plus (V.I.A. Plus) devices, equipped with Google TV 2.0, you can simply power on your HDTV, pick up your Universal OnLive Wireless Controller and play amazing games instantly on demand—no console necessary. Play the first 30 minutes of almost any of OnLive’s 200 games free and buy only what you like, or subscribe to the OnLive PlayPack Bundle for unlimited access to over 140 games. No discs, no big downloads … just like the instant media experience you’ve become accustomed to with Google TV.

Google TV gives you unprecedented choice and control of instant media on TV. With OnLive, you can now add top-tier videogames to the list of media available. I hope you have a great time with it!

—Steve Perlman, Founder and CEO

We love our iPads. There’s no question. But when you’re on the go with work and a file needs editing—or creating—it’s hard to feel free to leave your computer behind. At least, that’s how it has been.

But starting this Thursday, life is going to change.

OnLive has just re-imagined what’s possible on iPad with the OnLive Desktop app, available Thursday in the iTunes App Store. Launching a brand-new chapter for OnLive (and everyone), OnLive Desktop gives users instant access to a seamless Windows desktop experience, with full-featured Microsoft Office applications and 2 GB of free cloud storage for secure file access anywhere. Need to edit a Word doc with redlines and comments? No problem. Need to give some oomph to that PowerPoint deck for your meeting? Go for it: present animations and slide transitions, edit diagrams and embed videos. Desperate for a pivot table in Excel? Pivot away … Anything you can do on your office desktop, you will be able to do on your iPad—at home, in your hotel, anywhere.

Of course, Windows 7 multi-touch navigation has a different feel than mouse navigation. But it’s actually pretty slick. Because OnLive Desktop is built on the same proven technology as our instant-action game service, Windows responds instantly and fluidly to your touch. Using touch gestures like Aero snap, swipe to scroll, drag, drop, pinch and zoom, you can quickly and easily control both desktop folders and Office applications. Even HD videos and animations play instantly and smoothly (after all, if we can meet the performance discipline demanded by high-end games, why not linear media?). With OnLive Desktop, remote feels local.

Another cool thing? Whatever you create or save on your iPad is accessible (by you) anywhere, so if you do update that impressively media-rich PowerPoint deck on your iPad at home, and need it on your computer at work, it’s simple. You can see all of the files in your OnLive Desktop’s Documents folder when you sign in to desktop.onlive.com and download what you need through your work computer’s web browser. (Or better yet, present it directly from your iPad, onscreen or via an external monitor, since all of the screen transitions, animations and videos in PowerPoint will run cleanly.)

OnLive Desktop is starting with iPad, but it will soon be available on iPhone, Android™, PC and Mac®. Also, you’ll be able to use monitors and TVs via OnLive MicroConsole with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. All of these devices will share your same OnLive Desktop, with instant access to your same files and applications. So, as you move from place to place, and device to device, you’ll always have access to your personal OnLive Desktop and files. Essentially, you’ll be taking your computer with you without having to carry it.

Also coming soon:

• OnLive Desktop Pro will offer individual subscribers up to 50 GB of cloud storage, priority access to apps, full-featured cloud-accelerated browsing and additional PC applications for $9.99/month.
• OnLive Enterprise, a variation on OnLive Desktop allowing complete customization for businesses and organizations, including multiple levels of access as well as the integration of custom independent software applications, including inventory and reservation systems.
• OnLive collaborative services, for both Pro and Enterprise, which will enable thousands of users to simultaneously view, control and discuss a shared media-rich desktop via voice chat. Essentially, this is the Cloud Desktop version of the OnLive Game Service Arena.

OnLive Desktop marks the start of new chapter in Cloud Computing: The era of Instant-Action Cloud Computing, where the response time from the cloud is so fast, you can’t tell you’re connected to the cloud at all. We gave the world a first peek at the possibilities with the OnLive Game Service within sphere of videogames—bringing the immense power of the cloud instantly to your fingertips, regardless of the performance of your local device. But with OnLive Desktop, we’re opening the floodgates to eventually allow any application to leverage the immense power of the cloud, changing the way you think about the potential of mobile devices forever.

With Thursday’s launch of the OnLive Desktop app for iPad, we are pairing the superbly-engineered iPad with as much computing power (and as much applications compatibility) as you need from a high-powered Windows PC that could be 1000 miles or more away. With OnLive Desktop, your iPad literally will be outperforming even most powerful notebook computers, and still be instantly responsive to your touch.

We very much hope you enjoy using OnLive Desktop. Welcome to the future of computing.

—Steve Perlman, CEO and Founder

Happy Holidays, Free Games and Prizes from OnLive

I have a confession to make. I’m feeling festive.

Perhaps it’s because, as 2011 draws to a close, I can’t help but reflect on all we’ve managed to achieve this year—from expanding OnLive’s library to almost 200 amazing titles, to integrating voice chat and Facebook, to bringing the highest-performing games in existence to tablets and smartphones.

That’s why we’re inviting everyone across the US and UK to join us for a multiday celebration: the OnLive Winter Three-For-All, offering free-play games, sweepstakes and more exciting festivities to last until the New Year! Come one, come all—sign in from wherever you are—and help us ring in the future of gaming with a great big party in the cloud.

TODAY - January 1
Super Street Fighter IV Supercharged Sweepstakes

Come celebrate the launch of Super Street Fighter IV® Arcade Edition with a knockout sweepstakes packing a one-two punch of great prizes:

• Players who demo the game between 4:00 PM PST today (12:00 AM GMT 23^rd December) and 11:59 PM PST January 1 (7:59 AM GMT 2^nd January) will be automatically entered to win the Mad Catz Official Street Fighter IV FightPad™ and 95%-off promo codes!
• Play for more than three hours to automatically become eligible for a Grand Prize trip to Las Vegas to watch the Evolution Championship Series, or a runner-up prize such as the Mad Catz Official Super Street Fighter IV FightStick™ – Tournament Edition, autographed by game producer Yoshinori Ono!

December 28 – December 30
Borderlands Friends Fight Free Sweepstakes

Team up with friends for three days of free play with Borderlands. Play Co-op for a chance to win one of ten OnLive Prize Packs, including:

• 1 Universal OnLive Wireless Controller (for tablets, smartphones, PCs, Macs and more)
• A 4-pack of the game of your choice (1 for you and 3 for your friends)

December 31
Saints Row 5-Hour Achievement Sweepstakes

Demo Saints Row: The Third for up to five hours free starting any time on New Year’s Eve and receive a sweepstakes entry for every achievement you earn! Be one of ten winners to receive an OnLive Prize Pack, featuring:

• 1 Universal OnLive Wireless Controller
• 1 Free OnLive game
• 1 OnLive Game System

Be sure to follow OnLive on Facebook (www.facebook.com/onlive) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/onlive) for news on these sweepstakes and more. Details of how to enter can be found here. And whatever you do, enjoy Happy Holidays from your friends at OnLive.

—Matt Jensen, Community Manager
OnLive Player Tag: OnLive_MJ

Prepare to be blown away.

We’re really excited to announce the OnLive app for mobile: our new free app that makes the latest, highest-performance games available for instant play on millions of tablets and smartphones in the US and UK.  That’s right: gone are the days of needing a console or high-end computer to access top-tier games. With the OnLive app, your tablet or phone is your console, providing instant, on-demand play of AAA titles like Batman: Arkham City, L.A. Noire and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, anytime and anywhere you want to play.

To kick off this historic day in gaming, we are launching with a growing library of over 20 console-class games via touch control, including LEGO Batman: The Videogame, Defense Grid Gold, Dirt 3, Split Second, Darksiders and many more. Just download the free OnLive app and try them for FREE.

Soon, you can also get a grip on your game with the new OnLive Wireless Controller, which is compatible with many tablets and phones, enabling fast-action game play with almost every game in OnLive’s entire catalog of nearly 200 titles.

As always, almost all OnLive games are cross-platform, so you can start a game on your TV at home, continue it on your tablet on the train to work, then sneak in a session during your lunch break on PC or Mac, each time dropping seamlessly into the action just where you left off, with full cross-platform multiplayer and social features. With both Wi-Fi and mobile network support (especially the new low-latency 4G LTE), you have the power to play almost anywhere—on any device, indoors or outdoors.

While we are working as fast as we can to get the OnLive app for mobile working on as many tablets and smartphones as possible, bear in mind that we can’t exactly predict how long it will take to get through app store certification, especially during the holiday season. So, if OnLive is not available on your mobile device today, hang in there. Also, we are working with publishers to expand the library of touch-controllable games. More great games are coming with incredibly creative touch and motion interfaces.

This is a big milestone for gaming: now tablets and smartphones—the fastest-growing category of consumer electronic devices in history—can play the latest and highest-performance games, without compromises, and without big downloads gobbling up local storage. It’s amazingly cool.

Check it out for yourself wherever you are: pick up your tablet or smartphone, get the free OnLive app, and just play.

—Steve Perlman, Founder & CEO