OnLive launches this Thursday, free for one year
6:48 pm in Gaming, Web by Sina Hamedian
The Palo Alto based startup, OnLive, will be launching their cloud based gaming service while E3 is in session this Thursday with the world watching with keen eyes. OnLive’s mission was to have instant, on-demand gaming accessible from either PC, Mac, or a television via a custom console for $15 every month plus the cost of the game. Desperate (not really) to attract more customers, anyone who signs up today, pre-launch, to July 15 will get the monthly fee eliminated for one year and have demos readily available for the customers. “Whatever you have with a broadband connection, you’ll still get the same deal,” CEO Steve Perlman said to PC Magazine. “Just try it out for a bit. That’s the whole point: a new concept for people to give it a go. We want them to give us feedback.”
Games purchased using the service currently range from $5 to $60 and include third party hits like Just Cause 2, NBA 2K10, FEAR 3, and more. The severs that render those games are those in Dell’s data centers (OnLive signed a contract with them) and are across the United States. The range of severs means anyone in the mainland US should be able to play OnLive games without any major lag. In fact, Perlman said the most lag comes from the user’s keyboard and mouse. “Most of the latency is not in the Internet; it’s in the last mile,” Perlman said. “Twenty-five milliseconds or more in your monitor, and in your mouse, even up to 50 or even 80 milliseconds.” For those without a keyboard or mouse, OnLive also works on tablets, such as Apple’s iPad.
Minimal requirements for all games include Windows XP or Mac OS X (all games will work on OS X, sans Mass Effect 2), a dual core processor, and either a 32 bit or 64 bit computer.
Expect friendly support for your TV with a micro-console coming later this year.
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