OnLive goes into public beta testing

By Oli Welsh Published 3 September, 2009

Cloud gaming service takes first steps.

OnLive founder Steve Perlman has announced that the ambitious "cloud" gaming service, which runs games remotely and streams the video to your home over the internet, is ready to begin public beta testing.

OnLive has started sending out invites to people who've registered for the beta, and registration is still open. However, you need to be resident in the US and aged 18 or over to be eligible. Initial testing will be done through PCs and Macs.

Perlman says testing will be done across a wide range of locations, internet speeds, broadband services, computer hardware, displays and input devices to make sure OnLive works in as many different situations as possible.

Our own Richard Leadbetter disputed that OnLive could work as promised when it was revealed at the Game Developers Conference in March this year, prompting a rebuttal from Perlman. So it will be interesting to see how the service peforms in the real world, to say the least.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (29) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • BabyJesus #1 2 years ago

    Meh, fuck off Onlive.

    I hope it fails, because cloud gaming is bad for gaming and for anysort of slim chance that we have of having future physical products.

  • reelbigkris #2 2 years ago

    If it does work, lets hope they get pricing perfect. Digital distribution concerns me on a matter of levels when old games like "meet the Robinson's" on the x box 360 GOD service cost £20!! cloud gaming, i am rather skeptical of it on a grand scale, lets hope my doubts are crushed!

  • LetsGo #3 2 years ago

    Onlive is bad for gaming? Are you mad?

    Don't get me wrong, I can't see OnLive working in the forseeable future but if it did, it would be amazing for gamers all over the world.

  • LazyDan #4 2 years ago

    Will not work as it was displayed initially.

    If there is something workable they have produced it will have dropped a lot of the functionality they intiially promised - lag free 1080p gaming on non gaming machines to be precise. It'll be people playing Peggle with lots of input lag rather than Crysis at full res with no input lag whatsoever.

  • BabyJesus #5 2 years ago

    It's bad for gaming because It was proposed that you spend money relative to the time spent playing. I hear "Wait thats a good idea!" no its not, say you get an RPG or you have a COD Fan it is pretty possible they will be paying more than they are paying now.

    B) It does away completely with retail, no more physical copies ever, no more console ever(you don't pay your monthly fee? No games for you), the servers are fucked? Oh sorry no games for you! No more second hand market.

    You will be dependant on Onlive (or any of these sort of things that are bound to pop up) for everything.

    I believe you are the one that is mad, or at the very least short sighted sir.
    Edited by 1 at 03/09/09 @ 09:04

  • StooMonster #6 2 years ago

    Do not want.

    Hate the idea.

  • Cpt_McOneball #7 2 years ago

    Am I the only one that just once to play Crysis on my laptop?

  • OldK1ngCole #8 2 years ago

    I agree totally with BabyJesus that this can only be bad for gaming, giving the publishers complete control of pricing and also distroying the second hand market at the same time.

    @ LazyDan - they never said 1080p only 720p.
    Edited by 1 at 03/09/09 @ 09:09

  • Fab4 #9 2 years ago

    One thing I would miss with OnLive is mouthy Americans talking about having tea with the queen or the state of my teeth....god, I hope it works ;)

  • reelbigkris #10 2 years ago

    @baby jesus

    This is good for the PC market... While it would be an unfortunate disaster for those in the console market due to the amount of casual gamers out there, the PC audience generally have an internet connection to reap the benefits of this service. Digital distribution has proven very popular with services such as steam, direct 2 drive etc. While I am new to the PC market, i find that the selection i have in physical game stores is limited to either very new and recent titles, or budget games.

    My shop has one bay dedicated to PC games, in comparison to the 3 bays of ps3, 4 bays of 360, 4 bays of wii, and 4 bays of DS. Cloud gaming is an amazing feature for the pc as, over time you will have access to a greats election of games, and will never have to worry about spending hundreds of pounds on updating your pc to play the most recent titles. Onlive gives the PC market an option to break into the casual market and allow those who end up buying a new pc every 3 - 4 years (like me) the opportunity to play new releases.

    I understand that pay to play will be a problem, however im sure that there will be a system that will refund your rental cost and allow you to put it towards the full game if you wanted. you can purchase games fully as well by the way.

    The only downside that i agree completely is that if the servers are down, it would appear that it will restrict your gaming. I imagine that they will have certain back up precautions to try and prevent server problems.

    I think ONlive is a great idea, and is a cheaper alternative to paying more and more money to upgrade my pc for new games. but, lets see if it even works?

  • Bazfrag #11 2 years ago

    Lazydan +1
    Edited by 1 at 03/09/09 @ 09:16

  • PearOfAnguish #12 2 years ago

    "it would appear that it will restrict your gaming"

    Yes, it will restrict you by preventing you from playing at all.

    This is an idea that puts more power into the hands of publishers. No more second hand sales, no more discounted games. If Activision feels like charging £100 for Call of Duty 10, you wouldn't be able to buy it cheaper at Play. Look at how they've treated digital distribution services, we were promised instant downloads of games at a lower cost because there are fewer overheads, instead you often end up paying vastly more than the games cost at retail.

    Anyone who thinks this is in any way good for our hobby has not thought it through.

  • mkreku #13 2 years ago

    I could see this work for games like Fallout (turn based). But for action games like Crysis? Or racing games? It just feels like the input lag will be too much of a problem.

  • jimboton #14 2 years ago

    I'm thinking if we can use Onlive in tandem with Natal all that added lag might be useful to add a little challenge to this generation's piss easy games! that would be good, wouldn't it? come on, we can be positive and optimistic about the article if we try!

    Seriously though, I like to own both my games and my game machines, I'm afraid this doesn't appeal to me in the least.
    Edited by 1 at 03/09/09 @ 09:25

  • Freek #15 2 years ago

    It all depends on the pricing, because working through a subscription service could mean the end cost of gaming might actually increase depending on how many games you play.

  • PearOfAnguish #16 2 years ago

    "Onlive gives the PC market an option to break into the casual market"

    Hmm..I think the PC has already broken into the casual market. The casual market probably wouldn't exist without it, in fact. Can you really see casual players adopting this? Maybe if they integrated it into Sky boxes and made it really simply to use, but I don't see many paying a monthly sub just to have a go on Bejewelled or Bookworm Adventures. It's cheaper and easier just to play Flash games.
    Edited by 1 at 03/09/09 @ 09:32

  • Mkwone #17 2 years ago

    I like the idea, but until we know how it works in the real world it's just too early to tell.

    I don't have a problem with digital distribution, between Apples App store, the PlayStation store and Xbox's marketplace i've spent a fair ammount, all of which owning companies could pull the plug at any time and we loose out, but these don't seem to be under question.

    The factor for me is pricing if it's competitive brilliant, otherwise we're screwed.

  • LetsGo #18 2 years ago

    Ok... forget the point that it won't work.

    Let's play devils advocate and say it does work.

    How can anyone hate the idea of playing any game on any system on your TV without any other hardware?

  • VicViper #19 2 years ago

    @LetsGo

    Well I suppose its sounds like a good Idea and I no huge affection for my consoles in terms of having a piece of hardware making noise and putting up my electricty bill. Still having something physical does add (forgive the pun) weigth to ownership of something and I pefer to own what I just bought ala Steam as opposed to only renting my game.

  • pervertron #20 2 years ago

    Ooh - yes that's right, all those naughty publishers actually wanting to get paid! How evil.

  • Bagpuss #21 2 years ago

    pfft....comeback in 2050, when the UK should have sorted out a half decent fibre optic network....

    Until then.......gimme the hardware.

  • MrScruffier #22 2 years ago

    I could be wrong about this, and maybe publishers will rip us off, but I think the point of this is to make a huge step into the casual market. If this stuff is successful presumably one day it will get co-opted into sky boxes, virgin media boxes, etc. It seems to me like the whole point of it is to remove the need for people to spend hundreds of pounds on what is still, though we often forget, expensive and fairly specialist equipment. If everyone with sky has access to games then they stand to make a lot of money, right? But only if it's cheap, or people who otherwise wouldn't play games won't become users, and I think it's them that they're interested in ringing money out of, more than you. Of course they could think of ways to ring money out of us too I'm sure :) but I don't think they're ringing their hands thinking of all the extra money they can get from current participants, they're ringing their hands thinking of all the millions of extra participants they can get, which as the wii/ds have shown is lucrative if nothing else.

  • Sunyavadin #23 2 years ago

    Ooh - yes that's right, all those naughty publishers actually wanting to get paid! How evil.

    There's a difference between getting paid, and ripping people off.
    Competitive pricing forces down retail costs of games. Retailers generally settle on a price between £10-15 lower than the publisher's RRP. A price at which the retailer, take note, STILL MAKES A REASONABLE ENOUGH PROFIT.

    Look at prices when buying downloadable copies right now. Usually at least twice what it costs in a store for a copy that costs them NOTHING to manufacture. Do you think for a second that without retailer competition they would charge anything less than the RRP the shops undercut them on today?

    *edit*
    Not to mention the economic impact of killing off a huge chunk of the entertainment retail sector, one which has just surpassed the film and music sectors. As well as the impact cloud systems would bring to the hardware industry too, as less people bought the expensive, fast hardware.
    Edited by 1 at 03/09/09 @ 11:27

  • sneetch #24 2 years ago

    Edit: this came from http://ww w.onlive.com/service/how_onlive... btw

    "OnLive connects you to game servers through the Internet, instantly sending your controller actions upstream and the results back downstream at blinding fast speeds"

    Pretty impressive, I'd have thought that any communication would have been bounded at the speed of light but they've managed to make it "instant" somehow... using mana particles maybe? ;)

    I have severe doubts that this service will be viable, they'll claim that any delays are unnoticeable but it always makes me suspicious when someone tries to tell me that I can't notice something.
    Edited by 1 at 03/09/09 @ 11:35

  • hiddenranbir #25 2 years ago

    It will use PC and Mac? Like Remote Desktop!?

  • PearOfAnguish #26 2 years ago

    presumably one day it will get co-opted into sky boxes, virgin media boxes, etc

    This would seem to be a far more sensible use of the technology, rather than targeting console and PC gamers with unrealistic promises of lag-free remote gaming.

    using mana particles maybe?

    Or perhaps Tachyons. OnLive responds to your commands before you press anything.

  • penhalion #27 2 years ago

    Basically you need to be five doors down from the server to qualify for the beta. Then it's going to be a press blitz as they convince gullible journos that it actually works without star trek levels of technology and the con is on!

  • sneetch #28 2 years ago

    @PearOfAnguish
    using mana particles maybe?

    Or perhaps Tachyons. OnLive responds to your commands before you press anything.

    Of course! Makes perfect sense although they probably have to reroute all power through the main deflector dish in order to do it. I'm sure quantum is involved too.

    How do you reverse your controller's polarity?

  • Sunyavadin #29 2 years ago

    It will use PC and Mac? Like Remote Desktop!?

    If it works anything like my University's remote desktop system... I'll be surprised if you can play minesweeper on it...