Onlive is not going away any time soon

Written by Erik Kubik, kube00 Monday, 12 September 2011 05:00

Onlive has recently done several things to further establish itself. I’ve had the service for a year and now more then ever, I am fully onboard with cloud gaming.

At PAX Prime this year, Onlive handed out thousands of Onlive micro consoles for free to PAX goers. That’s a $100 item for free! Some at PAX said Onlive must be trying to make one last impression before going under. I don’t think so. Onlive knew exactly what they were doing. It's their best marketing move yet: give gamers the console for free and I’d say at least 60% of the people will check out the service if they haven’t already. I am sure some of them will buy games.

PAX also highlighted Onlive’s planned support for tablets, which is coming this fall. For gamers this means we can play Onlive on our iPads/Android tablets. Gamers can use their tablet with their TV as the controller for Onlive. They can also play Onlive’s games right on their tablets. This is fantastic, combined with Onlive’s cloud saving, gamers could play on their laptop upstairs and pick up where they left off on their tablet in the bedroom. Gamers will also see Onlive integrated into some Vizio TVs and Blu-ray players in the future. I am sure smart phones are next.

Finally, its been a year since I first tried Onlive and the library has been expanding constantly. There are over 130 games and several big publishers on board: Ubisoft, Take-Two, THQ, Epic, Warner Bros and Eidos. The sales have been great. The Labor Day sale was fantastic. So much stuff was 75% off, and better yet, Batman Arkham Asylum was $0.99. You cannot beat that price anywhere.

Then there is the debacle with Gamestop over Square Enix packaging Onlive vouchers for a free copy of Deus Ex: Human Revolution. This is a great promotion of a service, let’s give fans who buy the PC game a free copy via Onlive as well. Gamestop pulled the plug on the promo by removing PC copies of Deus Ex HR from the shelves. What does this mean? Honestly, I think it means more people are going to come over and check out what Onlive is about. Gamestop recently announced moving forward with its own game streaming service. Could Gamestop be scared of what Onlive is capable of?

So what are you waiting for? Give Onlive a try, whether its on your tablet, PC, Mac, or the micro console. Trust me you will not be disappointed.