Thread: OnLive Release and Pricing Info

I finally tried it out. I was pretty impressed overall with the service. I tried it out on a different computer that is really old and pretty slow. It's an old Dell desktop that is a 2.00 ghz (single core), 512 RAM, integrated Nvidia Gforce2 Ti. It's really a slow machine; it struggles watching the Ustream of the lobbycast.

I didn't play around much with it. Checked out some guy playing NBK 2K11. Looked ok. Tried out Batman Arkaslyum demo. Pretty intense video wise. Got lots of CPU warnings. Same lag, which would be from the machine. But considering, it looked good graphically. It was playable for the most part if you can live with some major lag.

I did have to port forward UDP 16380-16405. I don't know what in the world is with OnLive, but they use a lot of outgoing ports. I literally had to tell my firewall to let out traffic out on the machine. I don't understand why these services don't just use ports 80 and 88 like Roku did; it's the common browsers ports.

I did find a nice site related to the service though. OnLiveFans.com. I haven't search all over it, but they do have a tech help section.

I have fiddled around with OnLive some. The good news, I was able to get to work over WiFi on my mac mini; basically you just have to connect the ethernet cable to something that will pull an IP, and will still use WiFi for internet. I just connected my IBM Laptop. There is no internet connection over the ethernet cable; I don't have internet that comes into the laptop by Wifi to share it's internet or bridged the two LANs. Once OnLive is up and running, you can disconnect the cord. Kind of lame, but works.

The only thing I haven't gotten to work yet is the wireless 360 controller. I have the USB dongle; I got two when they first came out. It's suppose to work. I got it to recognize it once, but the gamepad was unresponsive, and derecognized once I hit the DiNovo Mini.

I've been impressed thus far with the service. Please note, I'm using a Mac Mnin (2009) that's a 2.66ghz Core Duo 2, 4G RAM, Nvidia 9400 integrated graphics card. I'm using a work around for Wifi connection. I use Comcast ISP broadband



Overall, pretty impressive. Graphics looked good. Audio seem fine. I"m not use to using keyboard/mouse input controls. And the DiNovo Mini was not designed for gaming, so I can't really comment on the control response. Seemed fine to me, and what it was like when I tried playing games using keyboard/mouse many years ago. I noticed a few dropped frames during cut/opening scenes, but I did not think it spoiled the experience. I've experience way worse on XBL.

I tried out Lego Harry Potter and Batman Arkasylum GOTY edition. They played well. They were hard to play for me because of input device being used. I watched some other people playing games, and that run well too. This is where the drop frames was more noticeable, but I think that may have been because of the WiFi work around. I didn't bother me, but I could see where gamephiles or videophiles would take issue.

The demos I've played are pretty interesting thus far. Basically, you get to play the full game for thirty minutes. Kind of cool. Could stink something fierce for those games with long intro cut scenes that are unskippable.

Right now, there are only thirteen games available. Most of the games are available on Xbox 360 or Playstation 3. They're cheaper. The games were $30 to $40 to purchase I saw. Most of the games had the option to rent for three or five days; Aassassin's Creeed 2 was not rentable; but it was noted they would keep the game on the service till at least June 2013. The rent fees for three days seem to range in the $3 to $5 and five days was $5 to $9.

The one thing of concern is the service can be a major bandwidth hog. If ISPs start enforcing cap limits on data transfer or ever charge for overages, it could be expensive. Here is picture of the traffic on the network I have the mini on for the day:



the only thing on that network is the Mac Mini and two Roku boxes. I didn't get the OnLive to connect till late in the day. It's real obvious when it was connected since there is very noticeable jump.

Overall, it's very interesting service. This has the beginning to be something very special, and the future. I could see some huge online multiplayer games or MMOs on the service like WOW or MAG. They fact you don't need a powerful PC, and the upcoming microconsole, could make it very accessible to gamers beyond the PC; I don't see it hitting the popularity of a Wii in game. It's tech I can see being used else where.

The only thing I could see being a hindrance is the economy of the service. For me, on the promotion, it's not a bad deal. First year is free, then it goes to $5/month. I believe the service is $15/month, which comes out to $180/month. For PC gaming, it's not bad to able the latest greatest games and the highest qaulity video/auido. Upgrading the newest hardware gets expensive fast. As for console gamers it will get expensive fast. Assuming this generation of consoles last ten years, that's $1,800 for game access. That's a lot for than the $400 or $500 that day one price on the current generation of consoles. Apparently they'll have lower pricing for longer subscription plans. I really think, at least right now, to capture the console gaming market, they'll need to be in $50/yr or lower range. PC gamers maybe not since some already like $15/month for WOW.

The other issue is going to be some people's need to have physical media. At first thought, I'm not excited about spending $40 dollars for a game that I don't having to physically handle or I may not be able to play forever if I choose to. Then again, when was the last time I tried playing an Atari 2600 game?

Thanks for your thoughts on the service. I played some while at E3 and it was really seamless. I agree on the pricing though. It might take some adjusting to really get it to take off. Very cool concept though and I'm really glad they were able to make it work!

the service works well from what I've seen. I didn't fault the service for any lag or drop frames. Remember, they don't want people using the service, at this point, over WiFi because of the additional time it takes to communicate to the services. Never mind firewalls, radio interference and so forth. Of course, at E3, they're going to have that set, to their best abilities, for optimum network performance.

I think once I can get a gamepad controller working, I'll be able to give a better observation of how well it works.

I got the wireless Xbox 360 Gamepad working with OnLive, thanks to some help from OnLiveFans.com. I missed some files that needed to be removed from the third party drives. Worked like a charm.

I played the demo of Batman and SC Conviction. Played well. Controller was very responsive; what I would expect from the console version. Kind of interesting if the game has a demo, it's the full game, but whatever you can fit into thirty minutes. Not all games have demos though. One game, Dirt 2, is only a demo right now.

I tried to play a game that had multiplayer to see if it support game chat, which I assume it would, and how well it worked. Used the demos for Unreal Tournament III, and Conviction, but couldn't find a match to join. Don't know if no one playing on my server or not on the demo.

As for the performance, graphics looked really good. I think Conviction looked a little better on OnLive than the 360. I can't say about Batman. It is the game of the year edition. I only played the demo on the 360. Looked really good nonetheless. Here and there, I see some pixelation when I boot OnLive and it's loading it's splash screen, but that's more a bandwidtch and buffering issue than an OnLive.

I still hold the same views on pricing. Most games are priced to the PC version that you would find in retailers. Conviction was $60. Thought that was a bit ridiculous. On that note though, I did see the official OnLive Blog, they did a 30% off special on 4th of July for all games. So it looks like there are deals to be had if you're willing to wait. At some point, I'll probably get a game, but right now, all the games I would buy I either have on the 360 or PS3, and not at a price I would be willing to pay. There is a thread on the why or why not purchase games, and some people talked about their confidence the system will be there in the future; others want something that is exclusive to OnLive or PC because they'll buy console version is possible.

Nonetheless, I'm still quite impressed.

I did a small video on the OnLive service using my phone. The video is small, probably looks like poop, but it'll give you an idea how well it can work. It should be noted I'm using this on a Mac Mini (2009: 2.66ghz, 4 gig RAM, NVidia 9400 intergrated graphics card) over WiFi (which I have to use a work around since OnLive has it disabled), an Microsoft wireless Xbox 360 gamepoad with the Wireless Gamepad receiver dongle for PC. In addition, the Mini goes thrugh HDFury, and a Component video switch before hitting the TV.

The video shows OnLive loading, a little bit of Lego Harry Potter, part of "upcoming" game video, some viewing of another gamer playing, and one brag clip.

I just tried this out since it was free for a year. I was rather impressed with it. I need to give it a try on my 5 year old laptop to see what it does on there.

Saw a post on Facebook that OnLive and AT&T are extending the first year free, 4.95/mn second year deal to Labor Day, September 6th

OnLive If you missed out on the opportunity to sign up for our Founding Members Program, we've got great news for you. Our friends at AT&T are extending the promotion through Labor Day, September 6! Sign up today to get the first year of membership FREE and experience the magic of instant gaming.

An interesting interview with the OnLive CEO on CNET

You may recall a post from a few weeks ago where Dan Ackerman and I reported on our experiences with OnLive, the cloud-gaming service that launched on June 17. We both had good things to say about OnLive. We were impressed that it lets you play PC games on computers not normally meant for gaming, Macs included. We were also pleasantly surprised by the connection speed and the in-game responsiveness, two things about which many people remain skeptical.

Though OnLive made a strong first impression, we still have lots of questions about its ability to handle an increased user load, the future of its MicroConsole set-top box, video quality and other topics. And what ever happened with Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2? Steve Perlman, OnLive's CEO, answers these questions and others in the lengthy interview that follows.
OnLive's home screen


(Credit: CNET)

Rich: What are some of the challenges you've faced since the launch?

Steve: We got hit with a far bigger wave of people wanting to get on than we expected. We're running at our fall projected subscriber numbers, so adjusting was a bit of a challenge. We were hoping to have a gradual ramp because it takes time to get servers deployed, but we managed to catch up. It was a little uneven in some regions of the country. We were able to bring in some people a little sooner than others just because we didn't have servers everywhere. We still have spot shortages here and there. Dell's been a terrific partner, they make most of our servers for us, and we've been able to keep up. OnLive has been up and running 24/7 since our launch date. We haven't had any downtime, and people seem to be happy with it.

Some things like when you bring up your brag clip list, those 10-second gameplay clips people can make and upload to OnLive, we just never expected to have that many so it takes a couple of seconds before you see them on the screen. That doesn't affect your gameplay at all, but it's a user interface that we have a fix rolling out for.

Rich: Most journalists have reported on a smooth OnLive gaming experience, but in our post commenters were still skeptical about OnLive's ability to handle player load, whether it's with current users or as membership scales up. Is that simply a matter of adding more servers?

Steve: Yes, it is. And attaching more broadband connections so it's bringing in more fiber. To give you a simple example, before E3 we had three data centers. Now we have three data center clusters. We ran out of room and literally ran out of floor space in our data centers, but there are other collocation centers nearby that we're in and we just literally emergency-moved racks to those colos and brought in fiber and turned it on, and that was it, more users are on.

It's different than other online systems. Others, as more people get on, sometimes they slow down because of the way they're sharing resources and one person waits for another person to get off.

Rich: Like World of Warcraft, for example?

Steve: Yes, sometimes they have peak load situations where everyone gets slowed down. We designed OnLive so that you have your own private world, essentially, where the route that you get from your home to the server is always optimized, and it's never set up with contention. Contention is when you have several people sharing the same connection, and as you get more and more people piled on there then you get overloaded. We designed OnLive from the get-go so that we did not have contention routing, rather there are private routes for each individual connection.

Rich: Have you received any angry calls from ISPs wanting to know who you guys are, and why you're killing their bandwidth?

Steve: We have relationships with all of the major ISPs. AT&T is an investor, but we have relationships with the Comcasts and the Coxs of the world. One of the things that we did with OnLive which is quite different is that you usually think of Comcast or a Verizon on the end that connects that your home, there's another end to that wire which is where they connect to either the backbone of the Internet or directly to data centers. It's very rare that a service asks them to connect directly to data centers, but we did that to give people optimal routes. Because we do that, the ISPs actually know exactly what bandwidth they're providing to us and how much we're using.

Rich: Are there any ISPs OnLive has not partnered with? What happens to the routing for users on those networks?

Steve: We have peering relationships with most of the major US ISPs, but of course it is impossible to directly connect with every little ISP. When a user connects from a small ISP, we try to route to it from each of our major ISPs, and choose the route that has the lowest latency and best reliability. Given how many routes we have to choose from, we almost always get highly optimal routes.

Rich: How many users does OnLive have right now?

Steve: We haven't announced, and we won't be announcing our subscriber base, but we're far beyond what we had projected. What can I say, we're surprised. A lot of people were skeptical whether this could work, and we figured skepticism equals cautiousness in signing up. It didn't turn out to be the case, perhaps skepticism may be equal to curiosity.

Rich: Can you provide an overview of the OnLive business model?

Steve: We provide the service for free, you can get demos for free, you can try things out, you can go and then rent things, you can buy things. We haven't done it yet, but it's easy to make it so that a Web site can link right into a game. The nice thing about it is that you can have more than one purchase path. Maybe we refer you to Steam or to DirectDrive to go and purchase the download.

We're super happy if people want to use us a demo service, as a rental service, as a purchase service, as a social network, we have folks that are just watching games instead of TV. Some people have said the only way you're going to use OnLive is if you're buying games, and it's just a little bit silly.

Anybody that's a serious gamer plays games in more than one place. If you're a hardcore gamer and you've got a big rig and you want the highest quality graphics than OnLive is not the place where you're going to play your high-end game. Then again, to not have a huge download in order to trial something before you make the purchase decision, why not? Just click OnLive and give it a go. If you like it, terrific. Download the thing from Steam or order a copy on DVD.

Rich: The service is free for now, but we've heard about a couple of different monthly fees after AT&T is done subsidizing the first year of membership.

Steve: It's not going to be that expensive. As a start-up we have to be completely cautious about what we promise in terms of monthly costs. In March, everyone wanted to know the worst-case number, so we said $14.95. We knew it was going to be less than that. And now it turns out that usage patterns are through the roof.

If you take the worst-case scenario, then we'd have to charge $14.95. It assumed that everybody was getting on at the exact same peak hour. The number of servers we have is based on peak load, not the load through the day, but we had no way to know what the peak was going to be. We had some idea from beta, but in beta we had a different catalog of games. We were worried that once we had new games, everybody would be piling on at the same hour of the day. It turns out that isn't the case.

We have a much more spread across peak load, and one of the reasons has been the variety of different gamers. Some games are casual, we have driving games, we have first-person shooters, we have puzzle games, the audience for each of those different games has its peaks at different times during the day, but the same servers of course are used for different games, so that spreads the load over the day. It means our worst fears about worst case peak loads turned out to be unfounded, and we're able to charge a much lower price. [currently said to be $4.95 a month]

Rich: Another concern we've heard from our readers and from others was the fact that they don't own a local version of the game, either on a disc or downloaded. Some people also felt that the three-year minimum for OnLive hosting a game wasn't quite long enough.

Steve: If someone goes and get the three-year PlayPass and that's not enough because they really want to own the physical copy, then go for it. We hope you enjoyed the demo. Or maybe the thing for them is that you've got a weekend to blow, or some kids visiting for the weekend and they want to get a three-day PlayPass. That may be the same person that otherwise would have rented it at Blockbuster. So we're very happy to accommodate different kinds of people.

We have to put a stake in the ground somewhere. We could put five years, we could put two years. It's less of an issue about the licenses evaporating, and more of an issue of whether or not we continue to maintain the operating systems and the graphics cards to run those games. If a game is tied to a particular Nvidia or ATI card, or if it's relying on a particular version of Windows with different drivers, we can't be sure that those will continue to be available as our servers age and need to be replaced. If it's a popular game that can't run on old hardware anymore, the publishers can do an upgrade for the game. Also, servers usually do last longer than three years, so chances are we'll keep running them. But we have a legal obligation to disclose what might happen. I think the probability of us pulling a game in three years is on the order of 0.1 percent. It's also highly unlikely that a game server will evaporate after three years, but we have to allow for that possibility.

We do expect these games to be available indefinitely. But there's nothing I can do to give someone comfort who really wants to own the physical media. If we told them it was around for 10 years, they'd still say we're not so sure the company is around in 10 years.

Rich: What kind of plans do you have for user data tracking, or even in-service advertising?

Steve: We can have games that are ad-supported. We can also have games that are supported as some kind of promotion related to a product.

Say someone has a car that they're selling and they want to promote the new antilock brakes, they might have a driving game that plays instantly. OnLive is delivered through browsers, and it can run as an executable, and it can also be delivered through apps through cell phones or tables, or integrated into consumer electronic devices. We showed it at E3 working on iPads, iPhones, and on Android devices, and of course on the MicroConsole to the TV. You'll see OnLive built into TV's, and you'll see OnLive built into set-top boxes.

As far as having embedded ads in Web sites, a lot of people run OnLive from their desktop, but a lot of people will connect to the service from the OnLive Web page. It should be pretty obvious that it's easy for us to embed a link in a Web page that makes a game run. The reason we haven't done that yet is we've been paddling as fast as we can as far as the basic service.

You will see in time Web pages that people can just click on a link and they instantly play a game, but there are other alternatives. If you finish a 30-minute demo in the OnLive service, for example, we can include a link to download the game, maybe in partnership with Steam or Direct2Drive, or maybe with the publisher itself. Then there will be another option to refer to GameStop or Amazon, or Toys R Us, which would either tell you what store has the thing in stock or has a used copy of it, or you can buy it directly.

Rich: What about collecting user data?

Steve: We anonymize the information we collect. If you give permission to our customer service for tracking bugs, they can associate data with your account. But for our own analytical purposes we have randomized information. We don't know what a particular user is doing, we just know that this aggregation of nameless, unidentified users are doing something. We can tell you how many people played Red Faction: Guerilla, and how many of them got to the third level, for example.

We have a privacy policy on our Web site (http://www.onlive.com/legal/privacypolicy) that maps that whole thing out. We want to be very careful from the outset to make sure we're very respectful of people's privacy. Obviously the information we collect in the aggregate will help determine the number of servers we provide, but I don't think anyone cares about having their information collected in the aggregate.

Rich: You mentioned the tablets and phones earlier, can you talk about your plans for those devices?

Steve: We want to make it available, the priority is PC and Mac, we have to get those stabilized, get Wi-Fi working, and then you'll see the MicroConsole coming out this fall. We'll figure out what the right timing is for the iPad, the iPhone, and the Android. Nobody can promise that Apple is going to permit an application to run, and we haven't submitted it yet. I'm optimistic they will, but if not, it will be available on the Android. It works very well on both the iPad and the iPhone, with the caveat being that these are touch-screen devices, so the games need to have different controls in order to play them. You'll be able to do all of the community things, you can spectate games, you can chat with people online, but when it comes to playing the games, the publishers need to make some modifications to the controls for the touch interface.

Rich: What about building OnLive into TVs and set-top boxes?

Steve: I can't disclose any details about our partnerships or timing of their products. Of course, it's up to them when they'll do their announcements and release their products. But, what I can say is that OnLive does not add any additional cost to a TV that is already designed to connect to the Internet, other than of course, you need a gamepad to work with the TV.

Rich: Why isn't OnLive allowing Wi-Fi right now?

Steve: I literally apologized to people about Wi-Fi. It was a very difficult decision because it does work with OnLive. The way OnLive works is that it adapts to every single connection and it's constantly readapting. If we have the complexities of people's home Internet service, and then we compound that with the interference that's happening with wireless, it's very difficult for us to diagnose what's going on. And our customer service people had not had enough experience talking with users in order to handle those kinds of problems. So we decided to go slow.

It turned out to be a smart move. We have people not signing up because we don't have Wi-Fi, and if they had there's no way we could have met the demand. We would have had to turn people away. So waiting on Wi-Fi ended up putting a damper on growth that actually saved our butts. But what we are doing now is collecting statistics, we're helping diagnose problems in people's homes, and once we wrap our heads around that, we can open up Wi-Fi. By the fall, no worries, you'll be able to connect with Wi-Fi.
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Rich: OnLive's Web site also says you're weighing when to upgrade the video quality from 720p to 1080p. What indicators are you using to determine when to make that upgrade?

Steve: It's based on what we measure to be people's actual connections in their homes. Part of it is going to be what the make up of our subscriber base is. Before we launched we were going entirely by statistics based on what the percentage of penetration is on broadband connections. Now every time we connect we do a measure and we can roll that up and see what percentage of users have adequate broadband.

We have beta users now that are running at 1080p. It works fine, it looks great, but it is a question of deciding when we have an adequate level of support.

Rich: What kind of signal strength will a user need to support 1080p? Do you anticipate a scenario where some users will play on 1080p content, while others will remain on 720p?

Steve: The bandwidth required for 1080p is about double that for 720p [[currently 5Mbps]].

Once we release 1080p, if a user's connection speed, display resolution, or computer performance limits them to 720p, then we will automatically scale the video down to 720p. Beyond that, if the user's configuration will only support say, 1,600 pixels wide, we will scale to that resolution. We already are doing that today if a user's computer is only 1,024 pixels wide. And the bandwidth requirements will be reduced accordingly.

Rich: Have you determined a price for the MicroConsole yet?

Steve: We have not settled on the business model yet for it. It is far less expensive to make than a console, but we are looking into potentially bundling it into other packages. Once we have a better idea about usage patterns on the PC/Mac OnLive service, we'll be able to make an informed decision on how best to price it. Needless to say, we want to get it out as inexpensively as we can.

Rich: Can it support motion control?

Steve: It does support motion control. It supports pretty much any USB PC controller. It also can take an input from a video camera for video conferencing. And of course you can have processing in that camera which could go and interpret that motion.

It's a question of when the publishers create games that use these interfaces, and then we'll make sure OnLive works with that. But anything you can connect to a PC or a console you can hook up to the MicroConsole as well.

Rich: How about 3D?

Steve: Yes, if you have a 3D TV and glasses. It will initially be limited by publishers providing us with 3D games, but over time, more games will be 3D.

Rich: I've noticed that of the games currently listed on OnLive, there's nothing listed that's come out within the last three or four months.

Steve: Splinter Cell: Conviction. Lego Harry Potter. We released it a minute after its public release. Someone actually finished it 30 hours later.

Rich: What about Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2? There's a mention on the Web site but they're not currently available.

Steve: We've had some games that we've had some trouble ironing out the final compatibility details. We just released the games from 2K Games. We had Borderlands, but we just released MLB 2K, and NBA 2K last week. The standards we have to meet for general release of games are different than the standards that we need to meet for things that are in beta. In terms of 2K gamers there was one small privacy issue that had to be fixed. There's other games that we're about to release as well. We tried as best we can to get the list correct for what was going to be available at release. And I think we had four games that weren't quite ready and so far two of those four are up, and we're working on getting the other two up.

Rich: I noticed that Mass Effect 2 has a Windows PC-only clause on there. Knowing that that's an Xbox exclusive and Windows exclusive, can I assume it's something other than a technical reason keeping it from Macs?

Steve: If you load Boot Camp on your Mac, you can play Mass Effect 2. If you don't use Boot Camp, we can't let you run it. We don't have any other games in the pipeline that are restricted, so that's the only one. All the other games we have in the pipeline run on PC and Mac, and going forward, the publishers all know that they should not sign a contract that restricts the PC version because of the existence of OnLive.

Rich: Will muiltiplayer always be restricted to OnLive players only?

Steve: Not necessarily. One of the things we love about OnLive multiplayer is that it's one of the first times you've had PC and Mac multiplayer for fast action games. Of course the MicroConsole and other devices can do multiplayer. What people don't realize when they're playing multiplayer on OnLive they're playing with beta testers, and people testing it on the iPad and the iPhone, so we're already offering multiplatform multiplayer, but as far as playing with other networks, we're completely open to that it's just a question of finding the right relationships.

One thing to keep in mind is that the games we run on OnLive are slightly different than the versions running on PCs or on consoles. Sometimes the differences are nonmaterial, and it means we can do multiplayer, but sometimes it is material, where some of the features, or other things are different. With slightly older games, we've rolled in a few of the bonus packs, or the downloadable content. It sounds like a minor thing, but this is the nuts and bolts of being compatible. In principle, we don't have any issue with expanding the multiplayer, it's just that the devil is in the details and it's such a whirlwind right now that it just hasn't come up as one of the first priorities.

I think as you get to know OnLive you're gong to find that we have a very inclusionist agenda. We're not trying to create a walled garden. It may appear a little bit walled right now just because we have to have a certain amount of control to make it more reliable and to figure out all the customer service issues and so forth. We'll soon be enabling you to post brag clips on Facebook or on YouTube. We also want to let people spectate from Web pages. Our goal is to facilitate what you want to do. Our goal is not to go and somehow corral you into always using OnLive. It's a very big market. We want to be additive, we don't want to try to cut out a piece of it.

I thought it was pretty nice trailer. It was released on the public launch back on June 17th

So I was able to get into the deal that AT&T is running so I signed up for a year. Now that I'm signed up I have to rent games, right? I couldn't find any that I could simply demo so I'm not sure. I'm Peench at OnLive.

most games have demos. If you look to the right where is says "playpass" you'll see a tab for demos. The sad part, you missed getting Batman for $20. I'll shoot your FR later tonight.

I figured I would chime in on more of my OnLive experience. Since OnLive put Bakman Arkham Asylum on sale for $20, I have a better idea on it.

Remember, I'm using a late 2009 Mac Mini (2.66ghz, 4gig RAM, intergrated Nvidia 9400 video), connected through WiFi (using work around since OnLive has it currently disabled) on OSX Snowleapord 10.6. I'm also using a wireless Xbox 360 gamepad with the USB wireless gaming receiver dongle. Installing the software was easy. For mac, do not have any third party drivers for the MS gamepad because OnLive has it built into the client and they can cause conflicts and controller won't function or be detected.

I've been very impressed with OnLive. For something so new, it runs really well. Granted, I think it may help I live less than hundred miles from the closest data center in Palo Alto. I also have Comcast's Blast service which is suppose to give me up to 20mb down, and 3mb up. I'm find most of the time I don't even noticed the game is being streamed. If my internet speeds drop enough, I will see a drop frame (doesn't effect the game experience) to a totally pixelatted screen like if you get a poor digital TV signal or bad DVD (that does take you out of the experience). I find the later does not occur very often. Batman looked really good. It's definitely on par with PS3, maybe better by just smidge; it's been over a year since I played that demo. The audio sounds good, although I can't say if it's 5.1 like the console games since my receiver's alogrithms are set to output everything at 7.1, and the input is showing PCM, which can be anything from stereo to 7.1. My Mini does do digital out with a toslink cable, so it can do 5.1/7.1 with no problems (no HD audio). The games I've played have been very responsive. The game I've played most, Batman, I haven't had an issue with the controller feeling unresponsive or lagging. Here is a video I shot to give a better idea (sorry video qaulity is poor, but I had to shot it with a BlackBerry Curve 8350i):



My biggest issue is not so much with OnLIve, but Comcast. Because of how much data traffic is going on, I'm loosing my connection to my ISP. I usually get a two to five hours of gaming when this occurs. I have this issue with bittorrents as well. Here a graph of the network the Mini resides:


The big use, is OnLive. The smaller hills are Netflix streaming with Roku boxes. And yes, part of Sunday there was a Netflix movie being streamed and I was on OnLive.

According to my Smootwall, my data transfer is:

Current: 0.0 bit/s / 0.0 bit/s (Out / In)
Today: 439.4 MB / 22.0 GB (Out / In)
Month: 108.9 GB / 323.2 GB (Out / In)

The only issue I have with OnLive, at the moment, is the lack of games. They currently only offer thirteen games. It's a good variety too, from action, first person shooters, platforms, and stuff you find on XBL for casual gamers. Again this is only at the moment, and in time the library will grow as they add the needed servers, and developers approve what games can g on there. I read EA will be releasing some games in the near future. On a side, OnLive may be adding a subscription where some games are included; it's assumed no new releases, but older games.

The only thing I haven't been able to try out yet, and not from lack of trying is any kind of multiplayer. I've tried to find a games with Splinter Cell, NBK2K10, Unreal Tournment 3, Dirt 2 (although I'm fully certain this is even has online multiplayer) and haven't found one game. This may be an issue that I did not buy or rent one of those games. I'm curious how voice chat works, match making, and the general features for multiplayer games.

They have some interesting "social" aspects as well. They do have friend lists. Since I don't have any at the moment, can't say how it exactly works. I think it may be like the early days of Xbox Live where you friend has a simple profile, you can send messages, and send game invites. THe new features is the Arena. Interesting concept in that you can view other people playing games. This could be a good way to check out a game, especially if it doesn't have a demo. If someone is watching you, you get small pop up, like Xbox Live and Playstation Network telling you so. Doesn't say when they leave. Personally, it doesn't bother me, but I would prefer to be able to shut off that notification since I don't care who is watching. I only care which one of my friends is on and what they may be playing. The other feature is their brag clips. They're just ten seconds videos. To create one, with the gameplay, you just hit the "b" and "xbox" buttons at the same time, and it clips the last ten seconds. This has great potential if possible to make longer and edit a bit. It would be really popular if one could upload to video service like YouTube. It's not really my thing, but I could see it bing very popular.

Overall, it's a positive experience. OnLive has a lot of potential. I will admit I was very skeptical on the service and how well it would work. I have been nothing but very impressed with their tech and how well it has worked. I don't remember being this impressed since the Dreamcast from previously being on the Nintendo64 or using an old computer to play PC games that could barely handle 3D rendering.

In the interview above, I think the CEO summed it up well who would be ideal for OnLive. I don't think this may be a good fit for the hardcore PC gamer, especially those who have serious machines for it. Hardcore consoles gamers may be a bit of a hard sell since there is no physical copy of the game, and some of the games, such as Conviction, costs just as much as the Xbox version or more, since OnLive is charging is $60. I think the idea of buying games isn't so much an issue, it's going to be how much they charge for the service. In my opinion, if they can keep it at or very close to $50 a year, they'll get a lot of more serious gamers. I don't see the service replacing one's prefer method of gameing--console or gaming PC--but may be a nice compliment to that gaming experience.

I think it is something to check out if you can get into the Founder Member's program with AT&T covers the first year subscription and second year is only $5/month ($60 for the year). Since this is no new, less than two months old, I can't necessary recommend it to everyone.

added youtube video of OnLive start up and about five minutes of game play of Batman Arkham Aslyum. Hopefully this can give you an idea how responsive the games within the service.

Here's another video, way better quality than I can create comparing video quality of PC, PS3 and OnLive

I haven't had much time to play OnLive much, but they just did an update Tuesday, I think, that added rumble response with, at least, the 360 gamepad. Pretty cool. I play a small bit with it, but my battery died after about five minutes of gameplay, and I don't know how much gameplay Batman uses the rumble.

I'm sad. I haven't been able to connect since I first signed up. All I get it a latency error and then it quits. I've had TW reset my modem, I've reset my router, I've tested and re-tested and while my ping isn't great (80ms), it isn't horrible either, but I still can't connect.

I think your ping time is your issue. if they're talking latency is too high, they're talking about log. 80ms may not be bad, but it isn't good either. And it can be bad by OnLive's eyes.

I got a laugh last night from OnLive. I got a second invitation for a founding member email, LOL. I must have signed up more than once I suppose.

I'm still impressed with the service. I've played Batman Arkham Asylum, Mafia II, Kayne and Lynch 2, and Prince of Persia. I've only completed Batman. Tried a bunch of demos. Runs really well if you meet system requirements.

Minimum Recommended Requirements:

* PC: Windows® 7 or Vista (32 or 64-bit) or XP (32-bit)
* Mac®: Mac OS X 10.6 or later
* Processor: Dual-core CPU
* Screen Resolution: 1280x720 (currently, all OnLive games are HDTV resolution)
* Internet Connection: Wired (not wireless) 5Mbps connection located inside the contiguous United States
* Gamepads: Wired Xbox 360®-compatible gamepads

I've read some people think they graphics are behind the current generation of consoles. I'm not really questioning those with the latest gaming PC rigs and with newest hardware. I think the graphics, bandwidth willing, is on par with consoles. The consoles picture quality is just a bit more crisp.

One nice thing is that if they get a game release for a new game to the street, such as with KL2 and Mafia 2, they do get a bit of head start over the retailers. They can release at 12:01 am PST where retailers have to be open for it. So games such as Mafia 2 and KL2 just aren't going to have that kind of demand unlike a Halo, Modern Warefare/Call of Duty, or Madden. So it does give one the opportunity, if the developer/distributor allows, to play a demo (30 minutues) to see if you like the game, and get either buy it OnLive or a retail version.

I'm still waiting for my internet connection at my house to get sorted out so I can actually connect. I'd love to be able to try it out! Thanks for keeping the comments and info coming!