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BT hopes to launch OnLive in late 2011

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.