Streaming games service Onlive will no longer require a subscription fee to access basic functions such as demos and instant messaging.
The announcement, made by company founder Steve Perlman on the official Onlive website yesterday, essentially creates a free trial option for players who just want to try out the service.
Demos, messaging, spectating and friend lists will be among the base features available for free users. To play full games from the cloud, you will still need to pay a subscription fee - 3-day, 5-day and Full passes are available as always.
Onlive was announced early last year, and launched several months after. It allows computer owners to purchase and play games by having the data streamed from the internet, rather than booting a physical disk.
"Although we wish we could have confirmed no monthly fee from the get-go, pioneering a major new video game paradigm is hard: we had to first grow to a large base of regular users before we could understand usage patterns and operating costs," wrote Perlman in his statement.
"We’re excited because this opens the door for the OnLive Game Service to be used by everyone whenever they feel like it, whether for playing a full game on OnLive, or for just instantly playing a demo before buying a game for a console or a PC."
Free trial, eh? Willing to give it a fair crack, readers?
The announcement, made by company founder Steve Perlman on the official Onlive website yesterday, essentially creates a free trial option for players who just want to try out the service.
Demos, messaging, spectating and friend lists will be among the base features available for free users. To play full games from the cloud, you will still need to pay a subscription fee - 3-day, 5-day and Full passes are available as always.
Onlive was announced early last year, and launched several months after. It allows computer owners to purchase and play games by having the data streamed from the internet, rather than booting a physical disk.
"Although we wish we could have confirmed no monthly fee from the get-go, pioneering a major new video game paradigm is hard: we had to first grow to a large base of regular users before we could understand usage patterns and operating costs," wrote Perlman in his statement.
"We’re excited because this opens the door for the OnLive Game Service to be used by everyone whenever they feel like it, whether for playing a full game on OnLive, or for just instantly playing a demo before buying a game for a console or a PC."
Free trial, eh? Willing to give it a fair crack, readers?
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Comments
gingineer 5 Oct 2010 10:10
1/2
I just checked their website and don't fancy any of the games there. i would love to play starcraft II or Civ V on the cloud as my laptop would struggle to play it. but if i did i would need to drastically upgrade my broadband. as i bet the bandwidth required to play these games is fairly large!
irritant 5 Oct 2010 10:15
2/2
Don't forget the lag from you pressing a control to the game reacting to it. Nice idea, no infrastructure to support it.