...What's that? You say that they did something similar with Red Faction: Armageddon and this is more promotional stunt than heartfelt apology?
Man, people were a lot more trusting in the 90s.
Pre-order Duke Nukem Forever, get free OnLive MicroConsole
by Justin McElroy 
on May 11th 2011 4:00PM
46
...What's that? You say that they did something similar with Red Faction: Armageddon and this is more promotional stunt than heartfelt apology?
Man, people were a lot more trusting in the 90s.
Reader Comments (46)
Posted: May 11th 2011 4:11PM ORTHROK said
pre order terrible game, get free junk
Posted: May 11th 2011 4:27PM BacteriaEP said
@ORTHROK
No way. I have the microconsole and it's surprisingly great. I have a modest 20mb/s internet connection and even the FPS games run great.
I'm honestly more impressed with OnLive than I ever thought I would be and I was one of the people who stepped into the Beta briefly and never looked back.
Reply
No way. I have the microconsole and it's surprisingly great. I have a modest 20mb/s internet connection and even the FPS games run great.
I'm honestly more impressed with OnLive than I ever thought I would be and I was one of the people who stepped into the Beta briefly and never looked back.
Posted: May 11th 2011 5:14PM Marco le Polo said
@ORTHROK
Yea I just realized I tried out Arkham Asylum about 2 months ago on Onlive and I seriously just realized that the video was being streamed to me. I thought it was my computer rendering the graphics.
lol OnLive is pretty awesomesausage.
Reply
Yea I just realized I tried out Arkham Asylum about 2 months ago on Onlive and I seriously just realized that the video was being streamed to me. I thought it was my computer rendering the graphics.
lol OnLive is pretty awesomesausage.
Posted: May 11th 2011 5:39PM TheOtherJames said
@BacteriaEP
A modest 20 mb/s? You have a funny definition of modest.
Reply
A modest 20 mb/s? You have a funny definition of modest.
Posted: May 11th 2011 6:35PM (Unverified) said
@Hords
@Krash411
@BacteriaEP
Bah. Though I am supposed to have a 3 mb/s connection, it usually only turns out around 300 kb/s. With traffic, it can go as low as 100 kb/s.
Reply
@Krash411
@BacteriaEP
Bah. Though I am supposed to have a 3 mb/s connection, it usually only turns out around 300 kb/s. With traffic, it can go as low as 100 kb/s.
Posted: May 11th 2011 10:30PM DV8ing1 said
@(Unverified)
This is where a lot of uneducated people get it wrong. Most internet service providers and even most network hardware use the mb/s measurement which is NOT the same as mB/s or MB/s.
mb/s =megabit per second which is 1000 bits of information. 8 bits equals 1 byte
So in reality you are getting your speed divided by eight when measuring with megabytes and such. I have a 20mb/s connection and the most I'll ever be able to download is 2.5MB/s. Granted a fair amount of ISP's use their classification as a minimum measurement and you may get speeds slightly higher.
Reply
This is where a lot of uneducated people get it wrong. Most internet service providers and even most network hardware use the mb/s measurement which is NOT the same as mB/s or MB/s.
mb/s =megabit per second which is 1000 bits of information. 8 bits equals 1 byte
So in reality you are getting your speed divided by eight when measuring with megabytes and such. I have a 20mb/s connection and the most I'll ever be able to download is 2.5MB/s. Granted a fair amount of ISP's use their classification as a minimum measurement and you may get speeds slightly higher.
Posted: May 11th 2011 4:12PM eat it said
Is it possible to buy games through the micro console?
I've been trying and trying to take advantage of one of these but I have two old laptops. neither one of them will run onlive. so I can't pre-order them.
so I am forced to buy a console by itself, but I'm afraid I still won't be able to buy games.
it seems really odd because isn't the micro console aimed at people like me? people that have terrible computers.
I've been trying and trying to take advantage of one of these but I have two old laptops. neither one of them will run onlive. so I can't pre-order them.
so I am forced to buy a console by itself, but I'm afraid I still won't be able to buy games.
it seems really odd because isn't the micro console aimed at people like me? people that have terrible computers.
Posted: May 11th 2011 4:20PM Gun Barrier said
@eat it
I think it's aimed at people that prefer playing with a game-pad on their T.V.
Reply
I think it's aimed at people that prefer playing with a game-pad on their T.V.
Posted: May 11th 2011 4:21PM Trogdorwhore said
@eat it
It's basically a mini pc with OnLive, you can plug in a keyboard and mouse, so yeah, you can buy game directly through the microconsole.
Reply
It's basically a mini pc with OnLive, you can plug in a keyboard and mouse, so yeah, you can buy game directly through the microconsole.
Posted: May 11th 2011 4:21PM bittermang said
@eat it
Yes, it is. The Microconsole is like a physical version of the client you run on your desktop. Once you sign in, the experience is identical to using OnLive on the desktop, just you're using the gamepad instead of a keyboard.
Reply
Yes, it is. The Microconsole is like a physical version of the client you run on your desktop. Once you sign in, the experience is identical to using OnLive on the desktop, just you're using the gamepad instead of a keyboard.
Posted: May 11th 2011 4:24PM ColorblindMonk said
@eat it
Strange, 'cause I can play Onlive with a netbook. Not that well, of course, but it should run. :\
Reply
Strange, 'cause I can play Onlive with a netbook. Not that well, of course, but it should run. :\
Posted: May 11th 2011 4:28PM Captaindrek1 said
@eat it
I wanna say you can, but you only "own" the games for awhile.
Like they have a thing in their contracts/user agreement which allows them to take the games off the service after three years. But they say popular games will last longer.
I dunno seems kinda like long term rental for the price of a pc game....
Reply
I wanna say you can, but you only "own" the games for awhile.
Like they have a thing in their contracts/user agreement which allows them to take the games off the service after three years. But they say popular games will last longer.
I dunno seems kinda like long term rental for the price of a pc game....
Posted: May 11th 2011 4:12PM trunas said
Throw in one year free subscription with that free microconsole and u have a deal my friend! No?!........fine then I'll just play it on my xbox or ps3.
Posted: May 11th 2011 4:49PM PointlessPuppies said
@trunas
Subscription to what? You do realize OnLive did away with subscription fees MONTHS ago, don't you?
Reply
Subscription to what? You do realize OnLive did away with subscription fees MONTHS ago, don't you?
Posted: May 11th 2011 6:12PM trunas said
@PointlessPuppies
No I guess I missed that annoucement, thanks for telling me and down voting me for not being up on everything game related, lol. You know it's gets hard keeping up with everything when u work, go to school, married and have kids....Sounds like a good offer then for those who want to try it out!
Reply
No I guess I missed that annoucement, thanks for telling me and down voting me for not being up on everything game related, lol. You know it's gets hard keeping up with everything when u work, go to school, married and have kids....Sounds like a good offer then for those who want to try it out!
Posted: May 11th 2011 4:16PM BLEH is my middle name said
I keep seeing this picture, so I have to ask. Am I the only one who thinks that the Duke has a nice ass?
Posted: May 11th 2011 4:16PM Theguyoverthere said
does it matter when did you pre-order?
Posted: May 11th 2011 4:25PM RyanS said
Yes, you are.
No, it's not healthy.
No, it's not healthy.
Posted: May 11th 2011 4:45PM shabby329 said
gahhh i just did the red faction deal yesterday! i would have preferred duke over re4.... o well
Posted: May 11th 2011 5:12PM Captaindrek1 said
Then go for it.
As long as your internet is fast enough shouldn't be a problem.
Reply
As long as your internet is fast enough shouldn't be a problem.
Posted: May 11th 2011 5:21PM QuePasa87 said
Eh, they can keep it. I just want the game.
Posted: May 11th 2011 5:21PM QuePasa87 said
360 game, that is.
Posted: May 11th 2011 5:24PM iceveiled said
I loved me some duke nukem in the mid 90's when he was relevant so I'll probably be picking this up.....when amazon is getting rid of them at $10.
Posted: May 11th 2011 5:39PM skbkoy65 said
How much is the pre order
Posted: May 11th 2011 5:45PM CrumbBum said
I know phase 1 of the OnLive strategy is to achieve critical mass, but I really doubt the long term viability of their business unless they radically change their pricing model.
Giving away this unit (even if it is only ~$40 for parts + manufacturing) is only rational if they anticipate extracting lots of money from participants over the lifetime of the service. Given their pricing structure and the cost of bandwidth & hardware, I will be surprised (but delighted) if this device is anything other than a piece of history in two years.
Giving away this unit (even if it is only ~$40 for parts + manufacturing) is only rational if they anticipate extracting lots of money from participants over the lifetime of the service. Given their pricing structure and the cost of bandwidth & hardware, I will be surprised (but delighted) if this device is anything other than a piece of history in two years.
Posted: May 11th 2011 5:58PM PointlessPuppies said
@CrumbBum
Yeah, just like people "predicted" OnLive would die within a year, if not less. It's already doing better than expected, I think it's prudent to drop the whole "OnLive will die in approximately [insert arbitrary time here]" charade.
Reply
Yeah, just like people "predicted" OnLive would die within a year, if not less. It's already doing better than expected, I think it's prudent to drop the whole "OnLive will die in approximately [insert arbitrary time here]" charade.
Posted: May 11th 2011 7:24PM Tachyonic Cargo said
Or here is some of the ones I loved:
OnLive is not real, it's vaporware.
OnLive, the next Phantom.
Nice concept, but it will never work.
The technology will never work.
OnLive is not real, it's vaporware.
It's impossible to stream dynamic gameplay over the internet.
All the games will be laggy as hell.
The business model will never work.
OnLive is not real, it's vaporware.
The company is fake and will never launch the service.
The company is fake and will never launch a product.
The company is fake, and will never catch on.
OnLive is not real, it's vaporware.
No game publishers are going to support it.
No way this is the future of gaming.
Oh, did I mention for the 20 bazillionth time, that OnLive is vaportware?
And the list of dire "predictions" for OnLive over the past two years, by people who were mostly uninformed about anything, just kept going on and on and on. And to date, every last one of those end of the world "predictions" have been proven wrong, wrong, WRONG.
So for two years now, half of everyone and their grandmother has been "predicting" the fail of OnLive. And it's still here and doing better than ever. But you know, people kept making all the same "predictions" about Steam when it first came out too - look how that turned out. My guess is that just like Steam, in another two years, OnLive will still be alive and kicking and doing better in two years time than it has done to date. And all things considered, it has done a phenomenal job to date. The collected executive staff helming the company has an unprecedented amount of experience pioneering new tech, and launching successful startups. Not saying that with all that experience under their belt, that it is impossible for them to fail. Just saying that experience of launching and running a new company is what most of them do for a living. If they did not believe that they could make OnLive's business model a success, they would not be involved with it in the first place.
Oh and by the way, the OnLive gaming service is not Phase 1 of their strategy, but actually Phase 2. Phase 1 was MOVA, an already successful fx-driven motion capture studio that is a subsidiary of OnLive. There are already a increasingly long list of videogames and films you have already seen MOVA's fx being used in, and probably had no idea that it was related to OnLive.
Second stream of revenue to help float the costs of running the parent company?
CHECK!
Like I said, these guys are very good at what they do. And right now they are doing OnLive. And I've got a good feeling that OnLive is only just getting started.
Reply
OnLive is not real, it's vaporware.
OnLive, the next Phantom.
Nice concept, but it will never work.
The technology will never work.
OnLive is not real, it's vaporware.
It's impossible to stream dynamic gameplay over the internet.
All the games will be laggy as hell.
The business model will never work.
OnLive is not real, it's vaporware.
The company is fake and will never launch the service.
The company is fake and will never launch a product.
The company is fake, and will never catch on.
OnLive is not real, it's vaporware.
No game publishers are going to support it.
No way this is the future of gaming.
Oh, did I mention for the 20 bazillionth time, that OnLive is vaportware?
And the list of dire "predictions" for OnLive over the past two years, by people who were mostly uninformed about anything, just kept going on and on and on. And to date, every last one of those end of the world "predictions" have been proven wrong, wrong, WRONG.
So for two years now, half of everyone and their grandmother has been "predicting" the fail of OnLive. And it's still here and doing better than ever. But you know, people kept making all the same "predictions" about Steam when it first came out too - look how that turned out. My guess is that just like Steam, in another two years, OnLive will still be alive and kicking and doing better in two years time than it has done to date. And all things considered, it has done a phenomenal job to date. The collected executive staff helming the company has an unprecedented amount of experience pioneering new tech, and launching successful startups. Not saying that with all that experience under their belt, that it is impossible for them to fail. Just saying that experience of launching and running a new company is what most of them do for a living. If they did not believe that they could make OnLive's business model a success, they would not be involved with it in the first place.
Oh and by the way, the OnLive gaming service is not Phase 1 of their strategy, but actually Phase 2. Phase 1 was MOVA, an already successful fx-driven motion capture studio that is a subsidiary of OnLive. There are already a increasingly long list of videogames and films you have already seen MOVA's fx being used in, and probably had no idea that it was related to OnLive.
Second stream of revenue to help float the costs of running the parent company?
CHECK!
Like I said, these guys are very good at what they do. And right now they are doing OnLive. And I've got a good feeling that OnLive is only just getting started.
Posted: May 12th 2011 2:00AM CrumbBum said
@Tachyonic Cargo (and PointLessPuppies) - both completely legitimate points. Clearly OnLive have phenominal engineers onhand to develop industry pioneering technology. It is easy to say anything isn't possible and they have proven this is.
The challenge I didn't articulate very well is that their costs have to be high. To compare OnLive to Netflix (admittedly it may not be an apples-apples comparison):
1) Netflix only needs servers capable of serving up bits. OnLive has roughly this same bandwidth need, but also requires consumer hardware. Video cards (at least the ones I've bought :)) do not maintain a heat profile or QOS of traditional server hardware. More flaky hardware in your datacenter will increase costs to stay running.
2) Unless they developed an incredibly deep platform, OnLive servers are likely running a client-targeted OS. Windows server has many notable differences than client in order to reduce downtime and streamline management. Notably: video card drivers are not installed by default, since they are traditionally the least reliable piece of the system. Again, I haven't seen their datacenter, but if they are running client OS in their farm, they are now further from best practices of running a cost-efficient datacenter.
Netflix manages to be a profitable company by extracting ~$8/month minimum. They have the benefit of tremendous scale due to their established customer base. My comment about "Phase 1" was just that they are trying to get enough of a footprint that the fixed costs are offset by the recurring revenue. I would imagine the margins are much thinner for OnLive without introducing comparable monthly fees or ad funding. This is the direction Hulu & Pandora have both gone, which are to their credit hugely successful at attracting users.
Again, this is all conjecture and, as a gamer, I love nothing more than to see innovation succeed. My point was just that it seems the technology may be easier to nail than the business model.
Reply
The challenge I didn't articulate very well is that their costs have to be high. To compare OnLive to Netflix (admittedly it may not be an apples-apples comparison):
1) Netflix only needs servers capable of serving up bits. OnLive has roughly this same bandwidth need, but also requires consumer hardware. Video cards (at least the ones I've bought :)) do not maintain a heat profile or QOS of traditional server hardware. More flaky hardware in your datacenter will increase costs to stay running.
2) Unless they developed an incredibly deep platform, OnLive servers are likely running a client-targeted OS. Windows server has many notable differences than client in order to reduce downtime and streamline management. Notably: video card drivers are not installed by default, since they are traditionally the least reliable piece of the system. Again, I haven't seen their datacenter, but if they are running client OS in their farm, they are now further from best practices of running a cost-efficient datacenter.
Netflix manages to be a profitable company by extracting ~$8/month minimum. They have the benefit of tremendous scale due to their established customer base. My comment about "Phase 1" was just that they are trying to get enough of a footprint that the fixed costs are offset by the recurring revenue. I would imagine the margins are much thinner for OnLive without introducing comparable monthly fees or ad funding. This is the direction Hulu & Pandora have both gone, which are to their credit hugely successful at attracting users.
Again, this is all conjecture and, as a gamer, I love nothing more than to see innovation succeed. My point was just that it seems the technology may be easier to nail than the business model.
Posted: May 11th 2011 5:46PM Patricio87 said
Haters gonna hate. what exactly makes an fps relevant? modern warfare generic shooter? Gimme a break. I'll take a risk with duke over cod always.
Posted: May 11th 2011 7:11PM dragunrising said
Red Faction or Duke Nukem preorder bonus? I honestly can't decide...:-/
Posted: May 12th 2011 8:57AM HedonisticKai said
@dragunrising
you cant decide??... you need some
BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS OF STEEL STEEL STEEL.....
Reply
you cant decide??... you need some
BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS OF STEEL STEEL STEEL.....
Posted: May 11th 2011 9:19PM Banksyliveraa said
I have a really fast internet connection and low ping but Onlive was just terrible. This whole thing just reeks of their desperation. Funny too because now a graphics card that can run ALL modern games costs around $70. Theres no need for Onlive. It needs to GTFO.
Posted: May 12th 2011 5:24AM Baroman said
Hold on... so would this also include people in England?? i would like to try Onlive tbf.... even if my connection is 3 mb/s lol.... 300 kbps woo :D
Posted: May 14th 2011 9:12AM jcm618 said
SCORE! People who haven't tried Onlive should give it a go if they have a moderate connection. I have a great connection and a shiiiity PC so Onlive has been a godsend. With my consoles, I can no longer play keeping up with cutting edge tech due to cost and Onlive overall has better looking graphics with my preferred mouse/keyboard setup. I have been fortunate to not have connection issues so it works beautifully. And to top it off, you can try it for free.
On a side note, there is a lot of progress to be made with multiplayer games in the way of server issues and the small community right now (Homefront runs well for me, but sometimes hard to find a full server), but let's face it, Duke has always been, and always will be, a single player experience.....now where did I place my gum?......
On a side note, there is a lot of progress to be made with multiplayer games in the way of server issues and the small community right now (Homefront runs well for me, but sometimes hard to find a full server), but let's face it, Duke has always been, and always will be, a single player experience.....now where did I place my gum?......
