BT hopes to launch OnLive in late 2011

By Tom Bramwell Published 7 June, 2010

More launch details later this year.

OnLive may be set to launch in the US next week, but the cloud gaming service won't be available in the UK until late next year according to partner British Telecom.

"We'll announce further details about our launch plans later this year, but we would hope to make it available by the end of 2011," a spokesperson for BT told PC Retail.

Earlier this year BT announced that it had signed the exclusive rights to bundle OnLive with broadband packages in the UK.

BT also bought a 2.6 per cent share of OnLive.

OnLive allows users to play the likes of Mass Effect 2, Borderlands and Dragon Age over the internet.

The games are hosted on beefy remote servers, so in theory the only major system requirement for players is a fast internet connection.

Announced at GDC last year, the service attracted scepticism - notably from our own Digital Foundry channel - for its bold claims about image quality.

We learned more about how it worked earlier this year, but it won't be until next week - 17th June to be precise - that it launches in the US and we can put it through its paces.

Happily enough, Digital Foundry will be in the US for E3, so we'll bring you our in-depth technical analysis of the service as soon as we can.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (38) Latest comment 8 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Jeepers #1 2 years ago

    Hmmm... BT are involved.

    This will fail.

  • LHH #2 2 years ago

    BT arn't that bad!

    But they better hurry up and install their fibre network if they want to roll out OnLive (the future of pc gaming lol)

  • Eraysor #3 2 years ago

    But will it work? I hope so. I'd be pretty pleased with never having to upgrade my PC again. Although, when 3D tech rolls in, won't they have to double the amount of data being sent? That's going to be pretty difficult.

  • YobRenoops #4 2 years ago

    Excuse the shouting here:

    BT ARE NOT INVOLVED THEY JUST HAVE EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS TO BUNDLE THE SERVICE!

    You can have OnLive on any service.

    I wish oh wish people would read the original press release (as a BT employee).

  • YoshiMcTaggis #5 2 years ago

    Forgive us, you being a bt employee makes any promises you make hard to believe, given the company's record.

  • jag10 #6 2 years ago

    onlive would be the worst thing for gaming ever (MW2 map packs).

  • Vice.Destroyer #7 2 years ago

    Thanks for that, Yob. You will probably shake your head at this, but do you know, I didn't realise that OnLive was also available to me as a Sky Broadband customer. Boy, is my face red.

  • YobRenoops #8 2 years ago

    @YoshiMcTaggis. What, in the company's record, should I be concerned about? What promises to you have they made that have been broken? Pray tell me how the corporation has so wounded you?

  • YoshiMcTaggis #9 2 years ago

    Woo I got one!

  • andywilkie35 #10 2 years ago

    Pfffft late 2011?

    And I agree with Jeepers, BT are toilet, I don't care if they're involved or not, they're a bunch of shyster fuckpigs.

  • lockload #11 2 years ago

    Late 2011 WTF!

  • azazel_fallenangel #12 2 years ago

    I work s a contractor in the telecoms industry, and the only company to cause more grief than BT is H3G. BT fuck up on such a regular basis, it isn't even funny. Flew to Chicago not long ago, to find they hadn't put in the rack I was installing my equipment into, and hadn't told anybody.
    In fairness, it's a different side of the business, but that is their problem, so many braches and departments, and they never talk to each other properly.

  • YobRenoops #13 2 years ago

    @andywilkie35 Explain? I'd like to know more.

  • JetSetWilly #14 2 years ago

    A "fast internet connection". Isn't the average UK speed ~3-4Mbps? Would it really run within that, at peak times?

  • YobRenoops #15 2 years ago

    @azazel_fallenangel This is very true. Particularly the Global side (which I think you had dealings with). Lots of little Empires there. Hopefully people are beginning to see Openreach as much more connected now.

  • Murton #16 2 years ago

    "The games are hosted on beefy remote servers, so in theory the only major system requirement for players is a fast internet connection."

    A shame BT don't supply one then, advertise "up to 20mb" yet their average speed is less than 4mb Also. BT have been taking criticism for years now for their overly aggressive traffic shaping that effectively cripples video streaming services such as iPlayer, which they claim bottlenecks the network and adversely affects the service of other customers, yet they plan to deliver this? I honestly only see one way this is going to work and that's to give the OnLive traffic preferential treatment in a similar fashion to their BT-Vision traffic, which will lead to a another significant reduction in the quality of service received by regular broadband customers, who are already getting a shitty deal due to BT's outright refusal to keep up with modern telecoms tech.

  • X3Entente #17 2 years ago

    i want onlive to fail so badly. Thats not a luddite attitude. It wont enhance anything, this business model would erode consumer rights and integrity of games in general. The millions of dribbling imbreds that bought the mw2 map packs will end up shifting the industry from producing £40 games, that are satsfying 8,30, even 70 hour plus experiences with a clearly defined story arch, to pumping out shitty episodic weekly dlc that are poorly stitched together, have no conclusion and represent like 15 mins of gameplay. And they will hold standard features like mulitplayer hostage and people will blindly pay it not knowing are caring that they are being ripped off, and they would bring everyone else down with them.

  • TheTrueSpin #18 2 years ago

    Ok BT... how exactly are you going to stream me my games when you can barely get my e-mails to me some days?

  • JensonJet #19 2 years ago

    BT have slowed down my internet speed... because I use it too much!

    What a wonderful idea... perhaps the motor industry should take up this idea and purposely break your car if you drive too many miles. How about the electricity company removing all your lightbulbs if you use too many hours of electric light in the evenings. Or maybe the BBC can restrict the hours I can watch BBC1 if I watch too many hours of it in a week. Or perhaps the people that fitted the flooring should come over and lock me out of a room for walking too much around the home. Or maybe the clothes store could lock up any clothes I wear should I be seen in the same clothes for more than a couple of hours in a day. Or maybe BT are just a bunch of c**ts!?!?

    Fortunately by the time this tech rolls out, I'll be free of what should be already be a null and void contract with those rip-off merchants, then I can choose to ignore OnLive with my new internet supplier!

  • Jazzy_Geoff #20 2 years ago

    BT are awful. The worst customer service I have ever experienced. Absolute cretins. Not going to go into details.

    Also the £120 connection fee is a fucking scandal in the majority of cases

  • butler` #21 2 years ago

    HAHAHA BT

    21cn gogo

  • BishBashRoss #22 2 years ago

    Anything that takes the power from the consumers homes and puts it in the hands of big business is bad for gamers in the long run.

  • JamieR #23 2 years ago

    I'm happy with steam.. I don't want to both pay for games and then pay a monthly subscription to have access to them that is wank.

  • Dylbot #24 2 years ago

    HAHAHAHAHA

    No.

  • TeaFiend #25 2 years ago

    I have been a bit upset in the past when BT have taken control of my phone number, signed me up for an expensive package and asked for a fee for them doing this. Without being asked. Several times. And then fought hard to make me not swap back to the service I had before by wanting to charge me to leave.

  • makeamazing #26 2 years ago

    To be honest i was glad to get rid of BT... I was an early adopter of ADSL with BT, in the days where they installed a cable for it, only to be told that they would no longer support it because any problems i might have could be caused by that very line. I lost internet for 30 days once, with it all being "My fault", until yet again they found fault at the exchange. In fact 99.9% (ok actually 100%) of all faults i had were because they had updated the exchange, and ever time i had to go through the stupid support script of removing drivers and reinstalling (in the end i would tell them i had done it).

    As someone else has said, non of the various departments talk to each other.

  • Fab4 #27 2 years ago

    BT were cunts with my mum when my father died and she wanted their internet connection cancelled...so they are cunts...period.
    Edited by Fab4 at 07/06/10 @ 14:48

  • jellyhead #28 2 years ago

    2011?! I'll have forgotten all about it by then. Not that i'm interested anyway. Pay for my games and then pay to be able to play them? Erm, no thanks.

    Besides, with the money i'd spend on subs and the games with onlive i could save up and buy bits for my PC and i'd have a PC at the end of it. OnLive - D. must try harder.

  • JDFreeman #29 2 years ago

    I had awful service from BT , their tech skills were non-existent. Their customer service was appalling. Even if they are not directly involved their indirect involvement is enough to put me off.

  • Philbz #30 2 years ago

    BT... What a waste of space, this is doomed if they have any association with Onlive. BT are one of the worst companies, all-round dreadful!

  • Shikasama #31 2 years ago

    So...people don't love BT then?

  • Shikasama #32 2 years ago

    So...people don't love BT then?

  • Madder-Max #33 2 years ago

    BT = Big Turds.

    /bows

  • brseg #34 2 years ago

    BT or no BT, just cant see onlive working (for reasons in your DF article). Moreover, isnt this a solution looking for a problem? I never met anyone who asked for this service. If you really want top-of-the-range rendering quality, go buy a good PC. For everything else, consoles are fine. My connection drops quite often and is about 4Mb, theres no way this will work except for a tiny select group of people.
    Edited by brseg at 08/06/10 @ 09:54

  • Nephirion #35 2 years ago

    This would work well in Japan I suppose but here in the UK many parts can't even get 2mb.

  • Sunyavadin #36 2 years ago

    " BT hopes to launch a working internet service in late 2011"

    Fixed the typo for you guys!

  • Marshall2008 #37 2 years ago

    LOL, prices are crap and the thought of BT trying to do this with them in the UK is laughable.

  • GI-Joel #38 8 months ago

    Hello BT, My connection is not working and I cant game.. (Indian call center) " Please reboot your router, its not our end its yours"