Onlive is the next big thing READ

If you don't know what Onlive is then you should go find out more because I will only give a brief explanation of what they do. When you get an Onlive account (somthing that can prove to be difficult) you download an Onlive program from them that runs on your computer and it plays games. Now if your worried that your computer can't play the games that is the problem Onlive fixes for you.

Onlive uses soley the internet in order to play the games. (better make sure have a good connect then, only problem so far) When you connect you connect to their servers and your computer just becomes a monitor when their computers are doing all the work of playing the game for you. Seems pretty cool and it works, I had the service at one time and played a few free demos and I thought that it was awesome.

Now I deleted my account because of the costs. Now I signed up to the website and got the service free for a year (how lucky was I right) but when I got into the cost of things they were bringing in the money. It cost monthly to use the Onlive service, plus you had to buy the games on their service. Now they even have some tricks. Some games you can only buy and play for a few days before you have pay again which can prove to become annoying if you want to always have that game at the ready. I left it because I said "I am already paying this bull crap to M$ why would I do it for you too?"

But the good news is that they are changing their services. It no longer cost to use the service, it only cost to get the games. Which means you pay for what you use. That seems like a revolutionary idea right? Why can't others do the same???

Really though go check it out, because reading this news now I know that I might go back since I have no gaming system anymore.

You do understand that you will never own a game and still have to have constant 3-5mbs connection to really enjoy this (Something very few have 24/7 speed with even if they pay for higher speeds). Onlive is nice piece of technology but still far ahead of its time in the US. I like to look beyond the statements. If anything, you can make the argument that the hardware is in a bad situation so they are stretching for straws by cancelling the monthly subscription to try to get people to buy something. I just don't see it thriving as time goes by.

Onlive would really, really like you to buy those games so they can have your money before they shut off their failed service in a couple of months.

Pass.

In my country I have 2mb/s. The average family has 1 mb. I don't see it working here and I don't want to pay for a game every now and then.

All I said was check it out. Some people don't want to buy a system or they like their pc and want to play games on their pc. When I used it, it was pretty fast and I had other people on the internet the same time I was on and I running on broadband.

Someone also said that they would shut down soon and that is something that I don't believe. They are coming out with something close to home console. All you do is plug a tiny box into your tv and then into your modem and you play games as if you had a computer. That seems like it would catch on quick. With nothing haveing to be saved on your console all you would have to do is bring that box with you and a controller and you could play anywhere as long as you have internet at that location.

It's not a bad idea and sounds totally doable. I'm not much of an early adopter though. I prefer to wait until some more kinks are ironed out. I will look into it though. Thx for the heads up.

One of the really neat things about Onlive is you actually support both the publishers and Onlive when you rent a game, which isn't true for Blockbuster/ Netflix/ used games. And the prices are reasonable for the 3-day passes, generally only about $5.

If you're a PC gamer, game renting was never really an option before this. If you only wanted to try out a game or play through its single player component, your only choice was to commit an illegal act of piracy. If you're one of the better people out there, then you'd have to wait for a Steam deal to bring it under $15 or hold out until used game prices were low enough for you to justify picking up the game.

As it is now, Onlive is no threat to Steam or actual game ownership. There are many limitations, not least of which include bandwidth, graphics capability, library selection and limited support past 3 years for game purchases.

But what it does, however, is potentially bring PC gaming to everyone with a good internet connection. It let's everyone try out modern games for a low price. That's really cool, in my opinion.

One of the really neat things about Onlive is you actually support both the publishers and Onlive when you rent a game, which isn't true for Blockbuster/ Netflix/ used games. And the prices are reasonable for the 3-day passes, generally only about $5.

If you're a PC gamer, game renting was never really an option before this. If you only wanted to try out a game or play through its single player component, your only choice was to commit an illegal act of piracy. If you're one of the better people out there, then you'd have to wait for a Steam deal to bring it under $15 or hold out until used game prices were low enough for you to justify picking up the game.

As it is now, Onlive is no threat to Steam or actual game ownership. There are many limitations, not least of which include bandwidth, graphics capability, library selection and limited support past 3 years for game purchases.

But what it does, however, is potentially bring PC gaming to everyone with a good internet connection. It let's everyone try out modern games for a low price. That's really cool, in my opinion.

I think we will see this in the future. But not now. I'm not going to play fee and then have to buy the game. Theirs the internet speed issue for a large amount of people

[QUOTE="SakusEnvoy"]

One of the really neat things about Onlive is you actually support both the publishers and Onlive when you rent a game, which isn't true for Blockbuster/ Netflix/ used games. And the prices are reasonable for the 3-day passes, generally only about $5.

If you're a PC gamer, game renting was never really an option before this. If you only wanted to try out a game or play through its single player component, your only choice was to commit an illegal act of piracy. If you're one of the better people out there, then you'd have to wait for a Steam deal to bring it under $15 or hold out until used game prices were low enough for you to justify picking up the game.

As it is now, Onlive is no threat to Steam or actual game ownership. There are many limitations, not least of which include bandwidth, graphics capability, library selection and limited support past 3 years for game purchases.

But what it does, however, is potentially bring PC gaming to everyone with a good internet connection. It let's everyone try out modern games for a low price. That's really cool, in my opinion.

sayyy-gaa

From what they showed yes you can. As the game is kidna like a hd streaming video.

[QUOTE="SakusEnvoy"]

One of the really neat things about Onlive is you actually support both the publishers and Onlive when you rent a game, which isn't true for Blockbuster/ Netflix/ used games. And the prices are reasonable for the 3-day passes, generally only about $5.

If you're a PC gamer, game renting was never really an option before this. If you only wanted to try out a game or play through its single player component, your only choice was to commit an illegal act of piracy. If you're one of the better people out there, then you'd have to wait for a Steam deal to bring it under $15 or hold out until used game prices were low enough for you to justify picking up the game.

As it is now, Onlive is no threat to Steam or actual game ownership. There are many limitations, not least of which include bandwidth, graphics capability, library selection and limited support past 3 years for game purchases.

But what it does, however, is potentially bring PC gaming to everyone with a good internet connection. It let's everyone try out modern games for a low price. That's really cool, in my opinion.

sayyy-gaa

The list of games it does have right now is here (along with prices): [link]

They really need to put up more PC exclusives. And some of the games aren't available for rent either. It's got a long way to go to buildup a decent library.

The biggest catches to the service are 1) internet requirements; needs at least a 3 Mbps connection to play games at 720p, and at that resolution you can expect Onlive to use anywhere from 1-2.5GB/hour of bandwidth.

and 2) Full Playpasses. Onlive only guarantees support for game purchases for up to 3 years. After that, they reserve the right to remove the game from its library; whether or not they actually will do that, we don't know. But it's still a catch because full game purchases don't guarantee perpetual ownership.

Those are the negatives people will concentrate on, and those are certainly major negatives. However, if used properly (esp. for rentals) I think it could still be really cool. The Witcher 2 ends up not coming to consoles? If it comes to Onlive, you'd be able to try it out for $5 -- no PC upgrades required.

But that's dependent on their game library growing. It's growing very slowly...

[QUOTE="SakusEnvoy"]

One of the really neat things about Onlive is you actually support both the publishers and Onlive when you rent a game, which isn't true for Blockbuster/ Netflix/ used games. And the prices are reasonable for the 3-day passes, generally only about $5.

If you're a PC gamer, game renting was never really an option before this. If you only wanted to try out a game or play through its single player component, your only choice was to commit an illegal act of piracy. If you're one of the better people out there, then you'd have to wait for a Steam deal to bring it under $15 or hold out until used game prices were low enough for you to justify picking up the game.

As it is now, Onlive is no threat to Steam or actual game ownership. There are many limitations, not least of which include bandwidth, graphics capability, library selection and limited support past 3 years for game purchases.

But what it does, however, is potentially bring PC gaming to everyone with a good internet connection. It let's everyone try out modern games for a low price. That's really cool, in my opinion.

sayyy-gaa

Yeah. The concept is based on cloud computing. Basically, what happens is that the game itself is running on a remote server and it's streamed to your PC - just like you would watch a video on YouTube. The downside is that you need a fast connection and I heard that the resolution/graphics settings aren't very high.

Anyway, I agree with SakusEnvoy. Being able to rent PC games is definitely a great concept. I'll definitely check out the service if it ever launches in Europe - especially now that it's free (which it really should've been from the start, but whatever).

[QUOTE="sayyy-gaa"][QUOTE="SakusEnvoy"]

One of the really neat things about Onlive is you actually support both the publishers and Onlive when you rent a game, which isn't true for Blockbuster/ Netflix/ used games. And the prices are reasonable for the 3-day passes, generally only about $5.

If you're a PC gamer, game renting was never really an option before this. If you only wanted to try out a game or play through its single player component, your only choice was to commit an illegal act of piracy. If you're one of the better people out there, then you'd have to wait for a Steam deal to bring it under $15 or hold out until used game prices were low enough for you to justify picking up the game.

As it is now, Onlive is no threat to Steam or actual game ownership. There are many limitations, not least of which include bandwidth, graphics capability, library selection and limited support past 3 years for game purchases.

But what it does, however, is potentially bring PC gaming to everyone with a good internet connection. It let's everyone try out modern games for a low price. That's really cool, in my opinion.

UpInFlames

Yeah. The concept is based on cloud computing. Basically, what happens is that the game itself is running on a remote server and it's streamed to your PC - just like you would watch a video on YouTube. The downside is that you need a fast connection and I heard that the resolution/graphics settings aren't very high.

Anyway, I agree with SakusEnvoy. Being able to rent PC games is definitely a great concept. I'll definitely check out the service if it ever launches in Europe - especially now that it's free (which it really should've been from the start, but whatever).

start up costs had to come from some where. They also wanted to make the service free they just couldn't right from the gate. Glad that they are now though. I am in college now and I don't have a system anymore and I feel this would be great on my laptop and can get a decent connect on campus.

So i just tried it out and i'm impressed i was playing just cause 2 at 40 fps on a 2.2 ghz 2 gb ddr3 and 256 mb graphics card. It wasn't the best looking but being able to run that on this computer is just awesome.

This was a few freezes for a sec. But that may be my computer being overloaded. I will be trying it tommorow on my desktop.

I think if onlive plays it right they could really open the pc market up to everyone

I really like the concept. I wish it would take off.

But the news of OnLive abolishing monthly fees gives me the feeling it's on its last legs. Microsoft's GFWL? The only subscription services I've seen work well are XBL and World of Warcraft.

I've already got a gaming PC, and I'm not really down with streaming. If it helps other people, all the more power to them.

I really like the concept. I wish it would take off.

But the news of OnLive abolishing monthly fees gives me the feeling it's on its last legs. Microsoft's GFWL? The only subscription services I've seen work well are XBL and World of Warcraft.

I've already got a gaming PC, and I'm not really down with streaming. If it helps other people, all the more power to them.

Sharpie125

I agree usually when stuff goes from paid to free. It means they aren't doing well.

I hope it stays around, its something i would use. I have wanted to play pc games but i don't have the money to build a pc. But the problem is thats the only real sell onlive has. Is to the people who don't want to spend money on a gaming pc. Thats were it hits its flaw. It really can't compete with a decent gaming pc.

Plus it seems you really need to be hardwired in if you want constent preformoncec on a average internet connection.

But the biggest downfall and why i think there is a good chance this will fail is connection. You need over a 5mb conncetion, its probably better to have a 10mb. Than there's bandwith caps from some isp's. Plus the games don't look really nice unless they are running at 40-50 fps. 30fps just doesn't look nice. 50-60 fps is nicer than the 30 on consoles. But from what i have seen overall it just doesn't look that better than the games on consoles. What they need to get is pc excuslives.

OnLive is fail...end of thread...

OnLive is fail...end of thread...

Ryuketsu2043

xbox is fail

ps3 is fail

do you see how I have said the same thing that you said but flipped it???