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[IMG News]

OnLive has announced tomorrow, June 17, as the launch date for its web based games service. The company revealed a limited-time and limited-availability 1-Year Free Founding Member Program presented by AT&T, as well as its full lineup of launch titles and additional publishing partners. OnLive will begin activating accounts on PC and Mac platforms to qualified pre-registered users beginning June 17.

The OnLive Game Service is an interactive platform that offers access to video game content on a PC or Mac via a broadband connection through a web browser, and soon on an HDTV via OnLive's MicroConsole TV adapter.

"This launch is just the beginning for the OnLive platform. We'll be rolling out new features, capabilities and performance improvements, continually adding new content along with the latest releases, and extending the service to more people," said Steve Perlman, Founder and CEO of OnLive. "Today we're taking the first step toward a future where video game content is increasingly free from the restrictions of device and location, while showcasing the ability to instantly play the latest, most advanced games at the touch of a button."

To commemorate the launch, AT&T has teamed with OnLive to become the official partner of the company's Founding Member Program. This limited-time and limited-availability program for qualified users will include a 1-year free membership to the OnLive Game Service, with an optional second year at $4.95/mo. The Founding Member Program presented by AT&T will be accepting signups beginning at 12:01 PM PDT on June 15, 2010 and continuing through 11:59 PM PDT on July 15, 2010. To sign up or learn more about program details and ongoing membership terms, visit www.onlive.com/att.

At launch, OnLive is offering a broad range of the most popular games from top publishers for instant play. Twenty-three* titles will be available on June 17, including:

Assassin's Creed II (Ubisoft)
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Square Enix / Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
Borderlands (Take Two Interactive Entertainment)
Dragon Age: Origins (Electronic Arts)
Just Cause 2 (Square Enix)
Mass Effect 2 (Electronic Arts)
NBA 2K10 (Take Two Interactive Entertainment)
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Ubisoft)
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction (Ubisoft)

OnLive will also announce new titles as they become available on the OnLive Game Service. Games coming soon include:

Alpha Protocol (SEGA)
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (Ubisoft)
Darksiders (THQ)
Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Square Enix)
DRIVER San Francisco (Ubisoft)
F.E.A.R.3 (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
Homefront (THQ)
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days (Square Enix)
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
MLB 2K10 (2K Sports)
Red Faction: Armageddon (THQ)
Shaun White Skateboarding (Ubisoft)

OnLive will have many other great games across a variety of gaming genres. For the full and most up-to-date list of currently available and soon-to-be-released titles, visit www.onlive.com/games/featuredgames.

Representing virtually every category of publisher, from industry leaders to creative independents, the OnLive platform has benefited from a broad base of publisher support. Previously announced partnerships include Electronic Arts, Take Two Interactive Software, THQ, Ubisoft and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Today OnLive is proud to announce several new publishing partnerships with industry leaders Square Enix, SEGA, Capcom and Konami Digital Entertainment. In total, more than 25 publishing partners are now supporting the OnLive platform.

"The incredible support we've received from our publishing partners has been instrumental in helping us get OnLive into people's homes," said Mike McGarvey, COO of OnLive. "These partnerships provide us with the great games we require to deliver the Just Play™ experience which introduces instant access and play functionality for the first time."

Learn more at the links below.

Return to Full Article - InsideMacGames News

[Tacohead]

Mass Effect 2 is only available for the PC. I'm guessing due to legal issues because there's no technical reason why it wouldn't work. All the other games will be available for the Mac at launch though.

-PN

[Hansi]

That doesn't make any sense at all... source + reason?

[Tacohead]

Hansi, on 16 June 2010 - 09:17 AM, said:

That doesn't make any sense at all... source + reason?

The Source is OnLive themselves.

http://www.onlive.co...s/featuredgames

-PN

[Janichsan]

He's right (lower right corner):

Very odd.

[dimmer10]

From the FAQ:

Why am I only able to play Mass Effect 2 on a PC, but not a Mac? Will there be other Windows-only games?

Unfortunately, because of licensing restrictions, we can only offer Mass Effect 2 for play under Windows. So, if you do not have access to a PC, your only option to play it on a Mac is under Windows using Boot Camp or a similar system. We apologize for the inconvenience. OnLive has no other games in the pipeline that are Windows-only, and we do not expect to have any others.

So not that odd, really.

[Mister Mumbles]

dimmer10, on 16 June 2010 - 02:44 PM, said:

So not that odd, really.

Licensing restriction or not, that's still pretty odd. You're essentially playing the game through a streamed video feed. What does the platform you're on have to do with anything? Sounds downright stupid to me. I'm pretty sure that's some MS bullpopsnizzle right there.

[jgwdoc]

FEAR 3 and DX3 available 6/17?
Really? How is that even possible?

[Sneaky Snake]

jgwdoc, on 16 June 2010 - 03:38 PM, said:

FEAR 3 and DX3 available 6/17?
Really? How is that even possible?

They stuck another line in there in the middle of the games:

OnLive will also announce new titles as they become available on the OnLive Game Service. Games coming soon include:

[Matt Diamond]

Pegasus, on 16 June 2010 - 03:06 PM, said:

Licensing restriction or not, that's still pretty odd. You're essentially playing the game through a streamed video feed. What does the platform you're on have to do with anything? Sounds downright stupid to me. I'm pretty sure that's some MS bullpopsnizzle right there.

Licensing doesn't have to make sense, it's pretty much whatever all parties agree to.

It suggests that maybe it's being ported to the Mac by someone? Aspyr or Feral?

[The Liberator]

Matt Diamond, on 16 June 2010 - 06:59 PM, said:

Licensing doesn't have to make sense, it's pretty much whatever all parties agree to.

It suggests that maybe it's being ported to the Mac by someone? Aspyr or Feral?

…or maybe Bioware and EA just hate us?

Liberator.

[Ulrich]

Only for PC.
Save for the fact that it's going to be on OnLive, YOUR OWN DAMN CONSOLE! Not to mention, it's on PS3/Wii/360.

[Mister Mumbles]

Ulrich, on 16 June 2010 - 07:13 PM, said:

Not to mention, it's on PS3/Wii/360.

I would love to see this on Wii. Pfft. Yeah, maybe not.

Just looked at the OnLive site out of curiosity and this alone pretty much says it all for me:

Quote

Although OnLive has found that most computers with at least a 5 Mbps wired residential Internet connection are sufficient for HD-resolution, many factors affect network quality and computer performance, including other applications using computer resources, and other users sharing your network.

So expect to pretty much never have an ideal or perfect playing experience is all I get out of this. No, thanks.

[Matt Diamond]

Matt Diamond, on 16 June 2010 - 06:59 PM, said:

It suggests that maybe it's being ported to the Mac by someone? Aspyr or Feral?

After I posted this it occurred to me that Transgaming was a much more reasonable guess (they did the Dragon Age port.) So that's my prediction- either Transgaming will port it for the 2010 holidays, or they have been in negotiations to port it. [Edit: Just noticed Dragon Age IS on OnLive's launch list, so maybe I'm just blowing smoke here.]

I know the Cider games get a bad rap, but maybe OnLive over the average U.S. internet connection will make them look good in comparison. :-) But I shouldn't badmouth it before I've seen it I guess.

[Tacohead]

Good blog about OnLive from a Mac beta tester:

http://blog.wolfire....ughts-on-OnLive

-PN

[Mister Mumbles]

That was a very level-headed look at the service, and I admit I'm at least going to give it a try when I'll get the chance. Though I'm certainly expecting to have a higher latency than 14ms. It's also good to know that you can demo games. Now the question is, what's the pricing going to be for them? If they're too close to actual retail prices I doubt I'd be using the service for long.

[Eric5h5]

They're not even running games at full detail?  I thought that was one of the entire points of this idea.

--Eric

[Smoke_Tetsu]

I think a good point is the one about onlive and modding. Forget about high res packs for your old games much less add-ons, skins, etc.  with the games being more like pay per view movies than traditional personal computer games. Also the whole software as a service angle may seem like not such a big deal to many but companies like id software and 3D Realms releasing the source code to their older games was a big boon to the modding and even indie community as several projects have sprung up from that. nexuiz, eduke32, doomsday engine, and so on and so forth.

It is dissapointing btw that the games just run at default settings so far. I would have thought that they would all run with their details turned all the way up.

As for the resolution they are rendering at well knowing that quite a few people don't see the point in HD nor do many of them seem to be capable or willing to see the different HD makes I guess it would be fine for them. But there's no way I can get even 720p here over my connection and I typically like to run my games higher than that. So even if I can get the service it wouldn't be the ideal just from an image quality standpoint (much less input lag). To be perfectly honest even a cider game is going to be better for me in the real world.

By the way the whole thing about Mass Effect 2 not being able to be played on a Mac on onlive unless you reboot into Windows is terrible. If you are going to do that you may as well go one step further and play the native game in Windows. I think it could just as very well be the game Aspyr is hiring to help bring over to the Mac.

Oh yeah, LAN parties... or a household where more than one person may want to play games at the same time... good luck with that!    

[Thain Esh Kelch]

Just bumping this thread - The service is now without a monthly fee, which I kind of expected...

Charges for playing are:
3 Day PlayPass: $5.99
5 Day PlayPass: $8.99
Full PlayPass: $39.99

I might actually try it out now! To bad there's no Mass Effect 1..

[Hansi]

Euro version coming soonish: http://blog.onlive.c...-your-passport/