OnLive, the long-awaited games streaming service, is launching in the US today. It’s not coming to the UK until late next year at the very earliest, so this Stateside outing could prove a useful litmus test to see whether OnLive’s claims of lag-free cloud gaming are accurate.
OnLive has over 20 games available to play at launch, including Assassin’s Creed 2, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins. These games are rendered by OnLive’s servers, then streamed to your PC or Mac via the cloud – the idea being you don’t need a beast of a computer to play graphically advanced titles.
However, there have been some doubts about how well the service will work, with lag between the user pressing buttons and the game actually responding being the most commonly mentioned potential pitfall. After all, the player’s input has to be sent to the server, then the server has to react and stream back the video – critics say this will make OnLive unsuitable for fast-paced games. OnLive says the critics are “ignorant” and that the service works. This US launch will prove whether or not its claims hold water.
Opinion: Why OnLive could be obsolete by launch
BT, which owns a small stake in OnLive, is trying to bring the service to the UK in late 2011, which seems a very long way away to us. As our own Ben Sillis pointed out a couple of weeks ago, this delay means that OnLive UK is in very real danger of becoming obsolete before it even goes live – giants like Sony and Microsoft are working on their own cloud gaming services.
OnLive in the US will be free for the first year to a limited number of first come, first served customers, then a $4.95 (£3.35) per month for an optional second year.
Out TBC | £TBC | OnLive blog
