BT signs exclusive rights to OnLive

By Robert Purchese Published 13 May, 2010

Cloud gaming bundled with broadband.

British Telecom (BT) has signed the exclusive rights to bundle cloud-gaming service OnLive with broadband packages in the UK.

The deal saw BT buy a 2.6 per cent share holding in the company.

OnLive will have been in development for eight years when it launches this summer in the US. "BT will announce further details about its launch plans later this year."

"Entertainment is going to be at the heart of what we offer customers in the future," said BT boss - no, not Bob Hoskins - Gavin Patterson. "It's great for our customers - they'll have access to a huge catalogue of games, available instantly on their TV or PC without expensive hardware."

OnLive head Steve Perlman added: "The UK market is extremely important to OnLive and our video game publishing partners as we expand into Europe. We view BT as the ideal UK partner."

OnLive's ambitious goal is to let you to play games running remotely on beefy servers. Your client-side requirements are therefore scaled down to a PC with a strong internet connection. There's no need for expensive hardware to power the game on your end.

An idea like this requires substantial funds and servers in close proximity to users.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (51) Latest comment 2 years ago

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

  • bad09 #1 2 years ago

    I would never touch BT for Broadband ever again an absolutely awful company. Good job I'm not interested in onlive, seriously, I don't get it, what is the point of paying a subscription if you still have to pay to rent (and "buy";) from the system? If renting is your thing I would recommend Metaboli over this and if buying, why would you want to pay for streaming games anyway?

  • George-Roper #2 2 years ago

    Haha, brilliant, a gaming service 100% reliant on a good net connection.....and they go with BT.

    /golfclap

  • midnight_walker #3 2 years ago

    I'm with BT, and although I have to pay through the nose for their services, which I hate, they've always been great with me. Incredibly reliable BB and customer service has always been great. Don't know where the hate comes from tbh.

  • Apostle #4 2 years ago

    Shame, it looked quite interesting but there's no way I'm changing ISP to BT.

  • Cosquae #5 2 years ago

    Now if only BT would provide me with more than 1.5mbps on their 'upto' 20mbps service, it may make some sort of sense.

  • Hunam #6 2 years ago

    Marketing faillol?

  • darkmorgado #7 2 years ago

    @midnight_walker


    Count yourself lucky mate, I don't know a single person that is happy with BT. Most of my mates switched long ago after the hell of trying to use one of their homehubs and the resultant pisspoor service.

    And don't get me started on their overseas call centres...

  • mcmonkeyplc #8 2 years ago

    I bet BT package this with infinity (home fibre connection)

  • TheStatics #9 2 years ago

    Will be interested to hear what the people who have proclaimed Onlive as an investment scam have to say about this.
    Edited by TheStatics at 13/05/10 @ 08:55

  • bad09 #10 2 years ago

    @midnight_walker

    TBH you do seem to be a minority, apart from my own terrible experience I have heard nothing but bad things from anyone I meet who is with them.

  • LHH #11 2 years ago

    My BT connection has gone from 3Mbps to 6.2Mbps over the last year. I quite like their service as long as I don't have to phone their customer services, then my opinion drops but a large amount.

    Oh and forgot to say, OnLive can suck dick
    Edited by LHH at 13/05/10 @ 08:56

  • andywilkie35 #12 2 years ago

    I was with BT for two years - diabolical service, this'll be hilarious

  • etherfiend #13 2 years ago

    Until we see solid pricing around the costs of game rental and subscription to the service its hard to see if it will be worth it. Possibly for PC gamers that are always at the edge of latest graphics cards and CPUs (as over a 3yr period it could well cost them £1000-£2000 in hardware) but any early adopters for consoles will probably still be better off buying hardware & renting games from blockbuster or loveFilm.

    I'm keeping myself open to this cloud concept, but surely the more people that hop onto the cloud the more the service will deteriorate? That in turn will lead to more servers and to higher costs, and before you know it personal hardware will be the next big thing! This also relies on 'always on' meaning the same fate for those that use the always on drm without success...I can see a lot of unhappy gamers due to poor broadband infrastructure.

  • TheStatics #14 2 years ago

    My Mum and Brother are both with BT, they think the service is fine. I'm with Orange who are meant to be atrocious but I've never had a problem either. Maybe the BB gods have smiled upon my family!

  • 1Dgaf #15 2 years ago

    Most people will be fine with BT, or willing to tolerate because of a lack of knowledge about switching / the hassle of the process.

    If you put your yourself in the shoes of someone that doesn't know any better (i.e. a BT customer) the idea of the latest games, without a new PC and costly consoles, well, that's pretty enticing.

  • Caimbeul #16 2 years ago

    It willo still suck. BT should concentrate on providing a structure for >100Mb/s for every home as standard with a 500Mb/s for the hardcore.

  • YobRenoops #17 2 years ago

    Aaah all the BT hate. As a BT man all I can say is: People need to understand the limits of their copper connections. If you're on the end of a 5km line or Aluminium cable, don't expect tremendous service. The amount of routers plugged into extensions you see is ridiculous.

    Customer Service however...

  • YobRenoops #18 2 years ago

    quote: Caimbeul - It willo still suck. BT should concentrate on providing a structure for >100Mb/s for every home as standard with a 500Mb/s for the hardcore.

    They'll do that when your head comes out of the clouds.

  • ignatiusjreilly #19 2 years ago

    So presumably those on EG who insist OnLive is a venture capitalist scam see BT as another con victim?

    Possibly for PC gamers that are always at the edge of latest graphics cards

    I think those people who spend thousands getting the best possible gaming performance are not gonna be happy with the compressed and probably slightly laggy experience given by cloud gaming. I'd say these would be the last people to be interested.
    Edited by ignatiusjreilly at 13/05/10 @ 09:22

  • YobRenoops #20 2 years ago

    quote: Cosquae - Now if only BT would provide me with more than 1.5mbps on their 'upto' 20mbps service, it may make some sort of sense.

    They'd love to but you'll be on a crap line to the exchange. Probably long or bad quality copper. They don't choose to give you 1.5 Mbps. There are reasons.

  • YobRenoops #21 2 years ago

    @bad09 Pray tell of your bad experience. If its customer service well that's one thing. Speeds and availablity that will be another.

  • YobRenoops #22 2 years ago

    Let the minus-ing begin.

    How very dare I stick up for BT!

  • Ilinx #23 2 years ago

    Surely BT's investment could have been better spent rolling out some more fibre optics, no?

  • YobRenoops #24 2 years ago

    Ilnix - Check BTs reports today. They're spending another billion on top of the 1.5 billion on NGA (Fibre to Cab/Prem). Should reach 2/3 of country. Obviously this will be mostly towns and cities but do you know how much fibre costs...

  • Roarrr #25 2 years ago

    I've a BT connection and I've tried others but in my area it runs fine. 15.2Mbps realiable and when faulty, resolved quickly. Yes I could get it cheaper but I've had problems in the past with the ISP pointing finger at bt, who themselves then point back at the ISP and nothing ever gets sorted at all.

    I appreciate that it varys greatly on area but a BT connection isn't all bad, as many would believe.

    /avid tech user, not your 'doesn't know better' user
    Edited by Roarrr at 13/05/10 @ 09:37

  • irve77 #26 2 years ago

    I'm still not convinced that OnLive will work properly .. but i'm interested to see if i'll be proved wrong.

  • LetsGo #27 2 years ago

    You do realise as most of the UK are still with BT they will have the most complaints?

    Law of averages and all that jazz....
    Edited by LetsGo at 13/05/10 @ 09:41

  • altitude2k #28 2 years ago

    Everything > OnLive

  • YobRenoops #29 2 years ago

    JustSomeAtoms - BE are on ADSL2+ tech where as BT are mostly still on ADSL1. ADSL2 is up to 24MB (and Be's implementation is quite good with the Annex M) and ADSL1 is up to 8MB. You will get faster however yours is quite the delta. I'm guessing it'll be router related more than anything. Either that or you got diddled with the ADSLMax was RADSL'ing you.

  • RodHull #30 2 years ago

    Time to sell my shares in BT me thinks

  • Ilinx #31 2 years ago

    @yobrenoops - ah well, props to them in that case. I do understand how expensive laying fibre is, and the need to provide extra services (such as OnLive, presumably) to keep subs up, but I have to question whether the return on something like OnLive would really be worth more than simply getting more cable in the ground.

    I'm a BT customer too and although I live in the countryside and don't expect to see the shiny end of a fibre optic cable for many a year, I have been pretty happy so far (6mbps or so). I just hate the damn HomeHub :(

  • actionfitz #32 2 years ago

    "Entertainment is going to be at the heart of what we offer customers in the future," said BT boss - no, not Bob Hoskins - Gavin Patterson. "It's great for our customers - they'll have access to a huge catalogue of games, available instantly on their TV or PC without expensive hardware."

    or at least they would if UK broadband wasn't such an overpriced, pathetic excuse for a service.
    From my experience though, Virgins' cable service is even worse.
    Best provider i've had was O2... and they sublet form BT :/

    I wish I lived in Sweden... their internet craps all over ours.

  • YobRenoops #33 2 years ago

    Ilnix - To be honest I don't think its costing that much in relation to rolling out NGA. BT will be uniquely able to place servers in hub exchanges around the country to ensure minimal ping times. I mean to keep distances below 50 miles for example you'd need about 100-200 servers at 1000 a pop maybe. So definitely under 1/4 million. After that it just piggy backs on the copper network there.

    1/4 million will get you sod all on NGA. I've seen long lines on BB which have been costed over 100k and thats for just one single order for one person.

  • YobRenoops #34 2 years ago

    @actionfitz

    I think you'll find UK broadband is actually quite good. It's the rural areas that cause all the hassle and Customer Service leaves a huge amount to be desired. The quality of the connections isn't that bad for copper.

  • Bloobat #35 2 years ago

    Why does everyone hate BT? I agree Midnight_walker, it is a good service, i have never had any problems with my BB and customer service is good!

    Does this deal mean you get a free micro console and subsciption so you only have to pay for the games? If so count me in, I just wish BT would add fibre optic to my area, which is a city for god sake!
    Edited by Bloobat at 13/05/10 @ 10:17

  • Spooke #36 2 years ago

    another magnificent BT swindle, they really have excelled over the years at appearing to be competent at either communicating or technology whilst at all times being completely incompetent at both.

  • Cryternal #37 2 years ago

    BT's exclusivity is for bundling. But, you can sign up directly with onlive through any UK ISP. So, take you pick of whichever ISP works best in your area.

    [link url=http://blog.onlive.com/2010/05/13/onlive-coming-to-europe/
    ]http://blog.onlive.com/2010/05/13/onlive...[/link]

    "BT has an exclusive right to bundle the OnLive Game Service together with their broadband service offerings in the UK, although UK gamers will also be able to order the OnLive Game Service directly from OnLive to run over any UK ISP."

  • YobRenoops #38 2 years ago

    @Spooke

    I'll be sure to make the teams aware. I'm sure they're desperate to know your malinformed opinions.

  • YobRenoops #39 2 years ago

    @Cryternal

    Aaah. Nerd rage aborted. Stand down your mice/keyboards/chub.

  • Apollo #40 2 years ago

    BT recently pulled out of ROI leaving VF to take over. My speeds while exellent during the day, when no-one is on, fall away to 0.25 megs or thereabouts after 7pm and stay that way for the rest of the evening. My online gaming sucks now and there is no viable alternative. Irish BB is feckin' awful... : (

  • Spooke #41 2 years ago

    @YobRenoops be my guest, I've been trying to tell them for years.

  • Ilinx #42 2 years ago

    @yobrenoops - interesting figures and makes sense then.

    It would be good to know just how much the background infrastructure for OnLive does cost or how many servers would be needed to support however many players. Has OnLive ever revealed any of that info?

  • actionfitz #43 2 years ago

    @YobRenoops

    Nah mate, I don't find UK broadband to be quite good.
    We have, for the most part, sub 20 Megabit connections for which we pay an extortionate amount compared to the rest of Europe.
    Add to that the fact that most ISPs have download caps and 'traffic shaping' or 'Fair Use' policies that ensure that we can't actually use our connections at the advertised speeds for more than 20 min in one go or we get our speeds reduced to 25% of what we are signed up for (that last bit refers to Virgin customers).

    Basically it would cost a fortune for some company to foot the bill for what it will cost to give the UK a comparable network to what other European and some Asian countries have.
    So they will wait until the government (or us taxpayers) agrees to at least partially foot the bill.

  • KDR_11k #44 2 years ago

    And there you have it, OnLive is dead on arrival.

  • bad09 #45 2 years ago

    @YobRenoops

    Well of course customer service is just plain awful, but my problems went above that. My connection while using BT and their home hub was awful, constantly losing connection for no reason at all. I spent literally months and months constantly ringing them. Trying to understand them and trying to get them to understand me, having to unscrew and inspect/test sockets myself (yes myself), constantly going nowhere.

    Finally I got an engineer sent out (after much arguing and threatening to withhold payments until sorted) who could find no problems whatsoever, after which they even tried (and failed after I kicked off) to charge me for the engineer, and I STILL had connection cut outs.

    Do you know what the problem was in the end? BT themselves. I got so fed up I switched to Sky (down the SAME line), never had problem again...


    Edited by bad09 at 13/05/10 @ 12:00

  • makeamazing #46 2 years ago

    I moved to SKY from BT, as BT support was just appauling... after losing connections intermitantly (and it always being my fault - even though they had admitted changes at the exchange had taken place), I couldnt take it anymore... never had any downtime with SKY so far (and its been a year), the speed was faster and it was a hell of a lot cheaper... how can you go wrong :)

  • SpaceMonkey77 #47 2 years ago

    I'm with Virgin,and very glad I'm not with BT. This deal might seem nice for them, but them and On Live seem to forget that people like having control of their stuff, and having tangible stuff in general.

    I doubt Wii would be as popular or captivating if it was some down the wire service. Some will bite, but OL largely doomed to failure.

  • Machetazo #48 2 years ago

    "BT has an exclusive right to BUNDLE the OnLive Game Service together with their broadband service offerings in the UK, although UK gamers will also be able to order the OnLive Game Service directly from OnLive to run over ANY UK ISP."

    - http://blog.onlive.com/2010/05/13/onlive...

  • Collymilad #49 2 years ago

    Hah.

    BT.

    Crap customer service, wildly fluctuating BB speeds and they'll do anything possible to screw that little bit more money out of you.
    Edited by Collymilad at 13/05/10 @ 17:37

  • Murton #50 2 years ago

    Given that recent watchdog findings set the average speed received by BT customers at around 3.5mbps despite the level of service being advertised as up to 20mbps I can't see this really working.

    BT have also come under heavy fire for quite some time now regarding their treatment of traffic relating to the BBC iPlayer claiming that it stresses their network and impacts other users. Unless BT is looking at reforming it's current traffic management policies in order to allow for an acceptable level of service with OnLive I just don't see how this could possibly work out well for consumers.

  • callum9999 #51 2 years ago

    Admittedly BT aren't great - but they aren't bad. The people moaning about bad service is fair enough, but then I challenge you to find a single large company in the UK that doesn't get a lot of complaints. People are far quicker to complain than to praise a company.

    The only problem (so big I will never use them) I have with BT are their ridiculous charges. I'm with TalkTalk which is a fraction of the price and works just as well, if not better.