OnLive launching June 17 for PC and Mac, $15 per month service fee

by Randy Nelson on Mar 10th 2010 1:47PM

OnLive has announced that its cloud-based game streaming service will launch in the 48 contiguous US states on June 17, 2010. The service will initially be available to PC and Mac owners for a monthly service fee of $14.95. Each game purchase and rental will carry a charge on top of the base subscription.

Steve Perlman, CEO of OnLive, confirmed that the final version of the OnLive "experience" will be demoed at E3 2010, which kicks off just two days before the service goes live. As for the whereabouts of its "micro-console," Perlman could only say that it will launch at a later date to be announced in the coming months. He offered a quick look ahead at some planned upgrades to the service, the biggest of which is 1080p support at 60 frames-per-second "as the bandwidth becomes available."

OnLive is going to waive the first three months of its service fee for the first 25,000 people who register for the service. Those who want to get a leg-up on being a part of that group can pre-register on the company's site.

Tags: onlive

Reader Comments (126)

Interesting...

15 dollars saves you money on your power bill, upgrading computer parts, and purchasing full pc games(renting). Makes a silent htpc a gaming machine, or mobile gaming through laptop.
Very Interesting.

so wait... 15 a month PLUS a rental fee per game? What are they going to rent at? Another 10 bones? Sounds like it would cost more than its worth to keep paying that kind of money just to rent games.

The 15 bucks allows you the privilege to access the games you purchased and access to their video game rental system. Watch out Microsoft and Sony.

Having games sit on my shelve gives me the privilege to play them anytime I want as well for, what it sounds like, a lot cheaper.

Oh noes, my internet went out. Luckily I can still play my games! Or, better yet, if you're traveling, how are you going to play your games then? Or when you're at a friends house?

OnLive.... pfft you can keep it.

It sounds expensive, but keep in mind that the games you are getting are significantly improved over their retail counterparts.

For example, games delivered over the OnLive service feature TEN TIMES more controller latency than the same console/PC game. I'm not exactly sure what controller latency is, but ten time as much is a heck of a value.

yeah, if your internet goes out you're fine... unless you own one of many games with draconian DRM. which is pretty much all of them.

even worse, if you own an ubisoft game you have to worry about your internet connection as well as THEIRS. awesome.

$15 per month
Plus Rental Fees
Plus Purchasing the game

Plus if you ever stop subscribing you lose all access to games you purchased if you purchase them ......

So its sorta like steam if steam was subscription and horrible.

Gaikai better undercut them when it comes out.

Haha kudos to copa your comments made me laugh :)

Copa I just want to hug you right now. Ha ha ha ha ha!

Was interested now I'll stick with my 360.

12 months of Gamefly = $220 (for 2 retail games at a time)
12 month Onlive = $180 (for nothing)

it is definetely a difficult decision...

It's not a completely different concept than buying a console. You pay a couple hundred dollars up front for the hardware, and that gives you the opportunity to pay them more money for the games. With OnLive, instead of paying for new hardware, you're paying for a service that lets you play on whatever PC you already have. It might not be a service for you or me, but I can see how some people might prefer that.

Purchasing 1 game a month for 1 year = $720

I love Gamefly

"Oh noes, my internet went out. Luckily I can still play my games! "

Tell that to a 360 owner.

ya and they haven't said how much the device costs just to stream the games and... everyone has different internet connections so might go over their monthly bandwith usage for streaming 1080P games so they would have to pay for that too i''ll just stick to my 360

I am a 360 owner. I don't get your point. My console works just fine whenever my internet goes out...

You confuse me.

@MystileArmor
I think he is talking about PS3 owners.

Cody, games work fine on the 360 when the internet goes out...unless you were talking MP games...which wouldn't work with any system or computer for obvious reasons.

People here are complaining that a SP game you have bought for onlive won't work when the interweb is broken - and that is a good point against it.

@Mystile

The games will work offline unless it's a new ubisoft pc game.

"'Oh noes, my internet went out. Luckily I can still play my games! '

Tell that to a Ubisoft pc gamer. "

Fix'd.

first 3 months for the first 25k people? lame....

yea I'm not seeing this doing shit....

Agreed, they've priced themselves directly out of competition. When I can get gamefly for the same price (or less) per month, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to sign up for a service like OnLive.

It looks like my prediction about publishers not wanting to play ball with OnLive was true. 15 bucks needed to be the all inclusive price per month for ALL games if it was going to have a chance of success. 15 plus a rental fee per game is outrageous, and I can't see anyone paying it. I'd imagine they had to do it though, because publishers probably wanted more money for access to their games than OnLive initially counted on.

Thats assuming that even 25k people will be interested in this bs...... I'd do it if it was just the monthly service....but plus rentals... f that lol.

I wonder if the first 25000 people get a free Phantom Lapboard?

Well that's a sour attitude

"Waiver of Service Fee includes free access to OnLive’s Game Service including game demos, video profiles and community features, but does not include playing full versions of games, which are to be purchased or rented separately."

I have to pay the monthly fee, plus the rental/purchase fee for games?

Yeah.. no thanks.

this is DOA

Only three extra keystrokes, and you could have gone with "this is OnDead"

pretty much this.

DOA Extreme Beach Volleyball?

I wish...
I mean, uh, um

Hey man, have you ever been onlive, onweed?

Ha ha ha! Best part of that movie! (+)

I still don't believe that they will be able to supply the demand.

haha, $15 a month - that's funny.

Oh.... they're serious..... well then..... ahem.....

Yea, I was all for Onlive when it was first announced. I just can't justify that price tag though.

It'll be interesting to see how this works out... but I have to say my expectations are extremely low. It's not a bad idea, but I don't think the infrastructure to support it is there yet.

thank you but no thank you , i'll keep my 15.00 dollars + game fee in my pocket & continue to buy the actual games. pay for xblive & recive free psn, than pay for this untested concept,just not my cup of tea to play games i don't own or rely on somelse system to play them on. plus i would hate to be in some online play & boom server crash. no thank you .

12 months x $15 = $180, you could get a second hand 20gb 360 for that pretty easily. It also won't carry on costing you $15 a month, it will look far better, and be much more enjoyable to play due to the lack of input lag.

Depends on the game cost whether or not this is worth it.

Please, God, let it fail.

I really like owning physical media, physical consoles and competition is what keeps the world spinning. If there's no consoles to upgrade and no computer components to purchase -- I can't see the gaming market growing at all...

what the....

removing physical discs/consoles doesn't mean removing competition. digital services compete for consumers as much as brick and mortar services.

and as an example of a successful and reasonable digital distribution service, itunes store would like to have a word with you.

just because THIS particular digital distribution service looks like it will suck doesn't mean ALL such services will suck.

$15/month and the price of rentals and purchases?

Why not just rent or purchase games locally and cut out the middleman?

Call me crazy...

They might be one of the twelve people who want to play crysis on their netbook

Comment threads never fail to supply the loud people with no ability to visualize anything that hasn't been around for a few years. All of you must really enjoy eating your words. I'm sure you've done it many times before and will continue to.

[Ed: be respectful] What if you invest all your time and money into OnLive games and the service tanks? Then what? What if the game you love so much (old time classics) have to make way for the newer games? Then what?

What if in 10 years from now, you want to play some of the games you've purchased? You just gotta hope they're still in business. Think about it, if Microsoft isn't going to support Halo 2 anymore (which relatively isn't all that old), you really think you're going to be able to play any of your old games, ever? At least you can still play Halo 2 offline. With this service, once it's gone it's gone.

Who could think paying 15 a month for ACCESS to a service, then having to pay a rental fee or still having to buy a game be a good idea? And on top of that, if you stop paying 15 a month you doing get to keep playing the games you bought. Or if you keep paying, and your internet goes out or they have issues on their part you're SOL.

There are too many problems for this to become big. Things that become a huge success usually start out small time and free-ish then start charging big once they get more support.

I enjoy my words with a side of fava beans and kiante

I absolutely f*cking love that we have OnLive fanboys already. That is a level of absurdity that only the Internet can provide.

"Visualize this, asshole:"

for some reason i heard that being spoken by cartman from south park.

| 1 | 2 | 3 | Most Recent | Next 50 Comments

Sorry, you must be logged in to leave a comment.

Breaking News

HAWX 2 spreads its wings September 7

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days

Microsoft defends Kinect pricing 140 comments
Fable 3 gameplay footage from Comic-Con is very, very upsetting 121 comments
Review: StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty 118 comments
Street Fighter X Tekken (and vice versa) revealed at Comic-Con 105 comments
PS3 Netflix adds search option 99 comments

OnLive launching June 17 for PC and Mac, $15 per month service fee

Reader Comments (126)

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 1:49PM Ahmedz said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 4:50PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 1:52PM Sidebuster said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 1:58PM MicahR said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 2:01PM MystileArmor said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 2:05PM copa said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 2:06PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 2:08PM Scuffles said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 2:15PM MrAlex said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 2:23PM NightElve said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 2:33PM Jerk Face said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 2:36PM Usr666 said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 2:45PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 3:21PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 3:33PM Sponge said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 3:48PM Co said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 4:03PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 3:59PM MystileArmor said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 4:20PM daytripper said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 4:25PM Duke said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 4:34PM Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 5:47PM alexmlowgmailcom said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 1:53PM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 2:58PM BananaBoat said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 3:09PM emperorzeroxx said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 4:00PM arkweld said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 11:36PM Brodo said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 1:53PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 1:54PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 2:07PM copa said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 2:08PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 3:02PM Acosta02 said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 1:54PM MarkezJM said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 2:34PM Jerk Face said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 1:54PM SewerShark said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 1:55PM whatthegeek said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 1:57PM fadeoutagain2784 said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 2:10PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 1:59PM wormania said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 2:00PM Uncontrol said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 2:02PM Dark Archon PSN Archonik XBL Dar said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 4:12PM Puertoricarious said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 2:02PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 2:08PM Prince David said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 2:08PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 2:15PM MystileArmor said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 2:16PM Sidebuster said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 2:16PM Scuffles said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 2:42PM Jerk Face said

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 2:42PM BrianH said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

HAWX 2 spreads its wings September 7

Featured Stories

Source: Best Buy offering $300 FF13, Splinter Cell Conviction Xbox bundles next week

Joystiq Podcast 147 - Halo: The Creek edition

Mario musical Super Claudio Bros. jumps on DC

The most popular postsin the last 7 days

Engadget

WoW

Massively

Big Download

Autoblog

Urlesque

Games.com Blog

UGO.com

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days