OnLive Revived With New CloudLift Cloud Gaming Service

MacRumors · Mar 5, 2014

Cloud gaming company OnLive was revived today with the announcement of two new gaming services, including CloudLift and OnLive Go. CloudLift is a subscription service that allows users to play digital games, such as those from Steam, on any device, while OnLive Go for developers is designed to bring MMOs to mobile devices.

With CloudLift, OnLive is able to link games purchased from Steam or other services to OnLive, uploading the games and their metadata to the cloud to be played anywhere on any PC, TV, or mobile device, continuing where a save left off.

Users only need to purchase a game from a distributor once in order to play it with the OnLive service, which streams the games as a video of game imagery from the cloud to the device. Games are delivered in 720p at 60 frames per second.

At the current time, CloudLift is limited to 20 launch titles such as The LEGO Movie Videogame, Batman: Arkham Origins, Scribblenauts Unlimited, LEGO Lord of the Rings, and Saints Row IV.

OnLive Go is similar to CloudLift, but it is designed to allow massively multiplayer games such as War Thunder or Second Life to be accessible on any device without having to wait for long installs. Players can access MMOs on mobile devices and can launch cloud versions of games while waiting for downloads on Macs or PCs.

OnLive's first Game Service was introduced in 2010, but issues with Internet connections, latency, and video compression caused it to receive unfavorable reviews. In 2012, the company was forced to lay off most of its employees, later being sold to Lauder Partners for just $4.8 million.

The company has now hired former IGN Chief Mark Jung as executive chairman and hopes to make a comeback with its new services and an expanded set of data servers. In an interview with VentureBeat, Jung said the company is aiming to deliver a higher value service to users.

"In this last year, we have been repositioning the company and redesigning our services for a positive business going forward," Jung said. "We have rearchitected it to deliver a much higher value proposition for the users."

The CloudLift service is currently available on Macs, PCs, and Android devices. OnLive has plans to bring connectivity to iOS devices, but the company told Pocket-Lint that getting the technology right around Apple's limitations is a difficult task.

"iOS is a big platform. We're not sitting here ignoring it," he said. "It's the same thing with Surface. We want to be platform agnostic. We continue to grow and we'll focus on growing across all of those."

OnLive's new CloudLift service is available for $14.99 per month, while OnLive Go is variably priced with Second Life gaming available for $3 per hour. Both CloudLift and OnLive Go require a solid Internet connection of at least 2 megabits a second.

OnLive is also offering its PlayPack subscription service, which provides users with 250 games, for $9.99 per month.

Article Link: OnLive Revived With New CloudLift Cloud Gaming Service

shurcooL · Mar 5, 2014

Omg omg omg! Very exciting stuff. It's been a long time that I ran out of games to play on there.

Moonlight · Mar 5, 2014

This is a great service with really bad pricing.

Sackvillenb · Mar 5, 2014

Bit confused about the pricing... the 14.99 vs 9.99... and it seems that sometimes you have to buy the game too? but it's theoretically a great idea, especially if it works well and if you have a good enough connection...

Looking forward to seeing how this pans out!

juminoz · Mar 5, 2014

$3/hour to play Second Life? I think I need a Second Credit Card!!

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nagromme · Mar 5, 2014

I don't know what the answer is, but there's something interesting here and I wish them luck!

2457282 · Mar 5, 2014

And yet another sign that dedicated consoles will not last in the mainstream for much longer.

Risco · Mar 5, 2014

Cuban Missles said:
And yet another sign that dedicated consoles will not last in the mainstream for much longer.

No it isn't.

Jessica Lares · Mar 5, 2014

So they've basically relaunched as the same product, with a different look.

They mention Steam, and then they go back to their limitations that were originally in their original offerings a few years back.

The SL Go thing is pretty cool though. Especially since you can buy one credit for $25 per 10 hours and use as you like.

It's expensive for us, because it's just as expensive for them.

leman · Mar 5, 2014

Make it $15/month, allow access to all games without needing to buy them first, pay 50% of revenue to game publishers based on game popularity - that would be really interesting! Right now, not so much.

Lefty21 · Mar 5, 2014

Cuban Missles said:
And yet another sign that dedicated consoles will not last in the mainstream for much longer.

What percentage of console gamers do you really think would subscribe to a service like this instead of buying a console?

I would wager it is less than 1%.

0098386 · Mar 5, 2014

Cuban Missles said:
And yet another sign that dedicated consoles will not last in the mainstream for much longer.

Why is that?

Game streaming services have been mainstream for 2 years but haven't gained any traction. People don't like 720p, they don't like input and output lag, they don't like loss of ownership.

roadbloc · Mar 5, 2014

Neat idea. But connection speeds are no where near ready to handle stuff like this. Dead on arrival.

no_name · Mar 5, 2014

They should integrate the service into AppleTVs as an app.

ActionableMango · Mar 5, 2014

There are some important differences, but none of them are compelling. I don't see why they will succeed this time when they failed before.

Jeaz · Mar 5, 2014

The tie-in with the steam library is very interesting, but for as long as it's a limited library, and not all Steam games, it still falls rather flat.

Really hope this does pan out, because I've got a solid enough connection with really low latency, so my experience with demos and so on have been quite nice.

NickTuesday · Mar 5, 2014

It would be one thing to relaunch and say, now every (purchased) game on steam is able to be played in the cloud.

But to ask people to pony up $15 a month to play about 9 games (additional purchases) is just downright ridiculous.

I just don't see the value in this. All of that time restructuring for this?

pearvsapple · Mar 5, 2014

Dead on arrival.

goobot · Mar 5, 2014

So can they put any games on here? Like Mario and halo even tho their owners would probably get pissed? I feel like no but it sounds like yes?

mw360 · Mar 6, 2014

leman said:
Make it $15/month, allow access to all games without needing to buy them first, pay 50% of revenue to game publishers based on game popularity - that would be really interesting! Right now, not so much.

I think publishers are perfectly happy charging $60 for 12 hours of gameplay. Earning max. $7 for a month? As you say, not so much.

leman · Mar 6, 2014

mw360 said:
I think publishers are perfectly happy charging $60 for 12 hours of gameplay. Earning max. $7 for a month? As you say, not so much.

Do you think many people would pay that? I doubt it. Earning $7 per month from 10 million gamers is much better than $300 per month from half a million..

haravikk · Mar 6, 2014

I'm glad to hear it isn't dead, this could also be very interesting for Steam Machines with regards to accessing Windows only titles, assuming they can get the technology to work reliably enough this time.

I did try OnLive in the early days and actually thought it was pretty good; not great for FPS titles, but I tried Space Marine (3rd person shooter) and it was actually very playable, and that was back when I was still struggling in vain to use a wireless network (now I have a wired one via Powerline adapters).

MrXiro · Mar 6, 2014

14.99 is too expensive... should be 7.99/month IMO

drewu · Mar 6, 2014

I am a bit of a novice when it comes to desktop gaming. Is it possible to use Xbox or PS controllers on an iMac? I just can't get used to the keypad mouse combo (despite the fact some friends much prefer its accuracy).

Nuttydev · Mar 6, 2014

drewu said:
I am a bit of a novice when it comes to desktop gaming. Is it possible to use Xbox or PS controllers on an iMac? I just can't get used to the keypad mouse combo (despite the fact some friends much prefer its accuracy).

The PS3 controller works over bluetooth, no extra software needed.

I have an OnLive box in a drawer that I got for free at a gaming expo. It's a nice idea but my internet is just too poor for it to work well.

OnLive Revived With New CloudLift Cloud Gaming Service

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