onlive-beta posts

The OnLive streaming PC/Mac game service continues to add new features for its users. Today the OnLive blog site announced that PC, Mac and users of the OnLive Microconsole hardware can listen to many of OnLive's library of games in SRS 5.1 surround sound. More info on how to enable this new audio support can be found at this OnLive web page.

In related news, the mobile phone maker HTC has announced that it has invested $40 million into OnLive's business. That likely means that OnLive's PC games will soon be playable on Android and Windows-based mobile phones made by HTC. There's no word yet on when that might happen.

Last month the OnLive streaming PC/Mac gaming service announced its PlayBack service with a number of games that users can play for just a $9.99 monthly fee. Originally the service was to start on January 15 but today OnLive sent over word that the PlayBack service will still be in its free beta phase through January 31. The free beta was also open just for users of OnLive's MicroConsole hardware but the Playback beta, and all of the games in its lineup, is now available for all OnLive users.

The library of games that will be made available on the PlayBack service will also continue to grow in the next couple of weeks, according to OnLive, with titles like Lego Batman, Unreal Tournament 3, World of Goo, Prince of Persia and NBA 2K10 joining the lineup.

The OnLive streaming PC game service was the first out of the game when it officially launched last June, letting PCs, Macs and more recently televisions stream and play even graphically high end PC games with relatively small hardware requirements. Now VentureBeat reports that OnLive has officially secured a patent on the technology behind its cloud-based streaming PC game service.

U.S. patent No. 7,849,491, which was first filed by OnLive CEO Steve Perlman back in 2002, was officially granted just last week. That could mean that any other rival streaming game service, which includes Dave Perry's Gaikai, could be sued by OnLive for violation of its technology. The article, however, states that Perlman would more likely try to reach some sort of agreement with any other stream-based rival.

Speaking of Gaikai, the last word we had about that service was that it was scheduled to go live, well, tomorrow. However Perry did say at the time that he wasn't making any promises on whether he would stick to that date.

At the moment, the OnLive streaming PC/Mac game service is only available to US users. However, OnLive is promoting the fact on its blog site that you can take your Wifi-enabled notebook and play games on the service even if you are out of the US ... maybe.

At the moment, OnLive has three data centers in the US and these are the only ones that users of the service can access to play OnLive's library games. If you go beyond the limits of the OnLive servers with your notebook you obviously won't be able to access OnLive. As the blog entry states, "The best way to see if OnLive works for you outside the U.S. is to give it a try. And, you can look forward to the performance getting steadily better (and the range increasing) in the coming months. So if it doesn't work now, definitely try again later."

OnLive will be opening up servers outside the US in the coming months which users in the US will be able to access as well ; it has already announced agreements to set up the service in the UK and Belgium.

Since launching last June the OnLive streaming PC/Mac gaming service continues to be the only way for many gamers with low hardware specs to play high-end PC games. Today the company revealed three new announcements for its service. First, the Founding Members program, which was scheduled to end on Labor Day, has now been extended to December 31. This means you still have a chance to use the OnLive service for free for one year with an optional second year at $4.95 a month.

Second, current OnLive users will get to purchase all of the games currently on the service (all 28 of them) at 50 percent off their normal prices this Labor Day weekend. That includes recently released games like Kane and Lynch 2 and Mafia 2. Finally, later in September OnLive will begin to support PCs and Macs with WiFi connections via a beta program. WiFi will be demoed for folks who attend PAX Prime this weekend.

While the OnLive streaming PC/Mac gaming service is scheduled to launch here in the US on June 17, it looks like it will be a much longer wait for our friends across the pond. Several weeks ago, OnLive announced a deal to bring their service to the UK via the BT cable broadband service.

However in a new article on the PCR web site a statement from BT states that OnLive is currently scheduled to go live in the UK "by the end of 2011." BT still hopes to announce more details on their OnLive launch later this year but it's pretty clear that the service will have to depend on the success of its US launch for the next 18 months.

The streaming PC/Mac gaming service OnLive is just two weeks away from its US launch and now the company's CEO is hinting that the service might cost less than the $14.95 monthly fee that was previously announced. The hints were given as OnLive was being demoed today at the The Wall Street Journal's D8 tech conference.

According to News.com OnLive's CEO Steve Perlman stated that the company now expects the service to cost less per month than what they had originally planned because overall costs have come down. Details of the new pricing plan have yet to be revealed with Perlman quoted as saying, "We have some surprises."

If you were hoping for a last minute invite to get into the beta for the OnLive streaming game service, well, you are officially out of luck. Big Download has learned via OnLive's PR rep that the beta period for the service is now over as the company prepares for its scheduled launch on June 17.

As we exclusively reported first on Sunday, folks who were lucky enough to be among the first 25,000 to pre-register for the full OnLive service can now get that first year for free along with a free game. Everyone else will have to pay $14.95 a month to access the service. OnLive's PR rep was keeping things close to the chest as far as other announcements that might come prior to June 17 but we suspect something will be revealed on the first day of E3 2010 on June 15 where OnLive is scheduled to have a large exhibit on the show floor.

When the OnLive streaming PC/Mac gaming service announced their plans to launch in the US on June 17 for $14.95 a month it also announced that the first 25,000 people who pre-registered for the service would get to use it for free for the first three months. Now it looks like that deal has been sweetened considerably.

We naturally signed up for the pre-registration offer last March and on Saturday night we got an email from OnLive announcing that we were eligible not for three months but for one full year of free service. In addition the free first year does not require any further obligation to use the service after that year is over. They will also give out coupons to each person who pre-registers that will allow them to get one free game that uses OnLive. All in all it's a pretty sweet deal. Folks who get this offer in their email boxes have to register with the service by June 3. You do have to put in some credit card info but it won't be charged. If you are not among the first 25,000 who pre-registered, well, you are out of luck as OnLive is apparently not taking any more sign-ups before the June 17 launch.

Even as the OnLive streaming PC game service is prepping for a scheduled June 17 launch date in the US, the company is already planning its expansion worldwide. Today OnLive announced a new deal with UK-based telecom BT that will see BT bundle OnLive with its own broadband service. UK users can still use OnLive with any ISP by ordering the service directly.

Princing and a launch date for the UK version of OnLive have yet to be revealed. However the OnLive web site hints about further expansion into Western Europe. The company's CEO Steve Perlman states, "What's great about Western Europe geographically is that so many countries are within a 1000 mile (1600 km) radius, which is within the latency limit for a single OnLive data center." He adds, "This means that all gamers in Western Europe can play multiplayer games together through OnLive. It will be pretty amazing."