Tech Olive

In a recent Forbes profile of Steam CEO Gabe Newell, he brought up the new PC gaming streaming service OnLive and said that while the technology is great, it’s ultimately inefficient and expensive. However, OnLive Exec Steve Perlman says that his service’s streaming costs are reasonable and are in line with what Netflix charges for their streaming. He continues by firing back at Valve, saying that Valve’s audience is “limited to people who have a high-performance computer.”

Say what you will about Steam, but there’s no stopping them at this point. According to Forbes, Steam controls around 50- to 70-percent of the digital PC gaming market and its profits continue to rise.

[Forbes]

It looks like the guys over at OnLive are taking things seriously now. They are now the sole owners of the technology that streams PC games to gamers with less-than-magnificent hardware, which means any other service similar to OnLive now has the risk of getting sued. OnLive CEO Steve Perlman filed for the patent back in 2002 and after eight years, it’s finally in the books. Perlman also mentioned that he would be more likely try to reach some sort of agreement with another rival instead of pulling an all-out suefest, which is good to hear. For more information on the patent, you can view it in its entirety here.

via [VentureBeat]

Even though OnLive was giving out free one-year passes to anyone who signed up for their service, you would’ve eventually paid $14.95/month thereafter. However, OnLive is now getting rid of the monthly fee for good, so the service will be free for now on. There’s no credit card required unless you want to buy a game and playing a demo won’t require a credit card either.

So if you were turned off because of the monthly service fee, this might be the time to reconsider. Also, take a look at our full review of the OnLive service if you want to know what you might be getting into.

[OnLive Blog]

When OnLive was first announced last year, I was quite intrigued by how it worked. If you happened to be left in the dark, OnLive is a cloud-based gaming service, which streams games to your computer. This means that every frame and every button command you press all goes through the internet tubes to Onlive’s servers and back, without using much of your computer’s resources. This means that users who want to game, but don’t have a super-awesome gaming rig will actually have a fighting chance with this new service. However, does OnLive fit the bill? Does it perform admirably? Does it prove as a worthy alternative for poor gamers? Come with us to find out!

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The streaming PC gaming service known as OnLive will make its official debut on June 17th. 23 games will be available on launch day including titles like Assassin’s Creed II, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Borderlands, Dragon Age: Origins, Just Cause 2, Mass Effect 2, NBA 2K10, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, and Splinter Cell Conviction.

Obviously, other games will become available in the future. Currently on deck are games like Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, DRIVER San Francisco, F.E.A.R.3, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, Red Faction: Armageddon, and more. For the full list, head over to OnLive’s website.

As a special offer, OnLive has teamed up with AT&T and is allowing anyone to sign up for one free year of OnLive service with the option to get a second year for just $4.95. However, they are only picking a handful of people, so not everyone will get a year’s worth of service for free. Sign ups end July 15th.

[Press Release]

If you haven’t already heard of OnLive, it basically works by streaming the content (the game, in this case) to your TV, PC or Mac, on demand, through your broadband internet.

OnLive is flaunting itself as “The Future of Video Games”. Wrong. I don’t care what anyone thinks, look at history. Did streaming Netflix to your console or PC replace the movie industry’s retail market? No. I get very annoyed when a new company or product comes out and claims itself to be “Revolutionary” (iPhone) or “The Future” (Wii) and turns out to be a little more than interesting. Complaining about it won’t help though. We’ll see what happens.

OnLive is expected to launch this winter. For more detailed information, read OnLive’s press release.