OnLive MicroConsole to be Free?
There has hardly been any news since the first reveal of OnLive to the world at GDC 2009 in San Francisco. When Steve Perlman, the CEO of the games-on-demand service and one of the inventors of Apple’s QuickTime technology, took center stage at the press briefing to introduce the gaming community to his newest project OnLive — he was met with both praise and criticism. Some people thought this ambitious “cloud-gaming” service was the future of gaming, while many others thought there is no way this technology will work with the functionality of today’s Internet capabilities. But with all these questions, most people always seem to ask the same one; how much will the consumer have to spend in order to use the service?
A few days ago, a video of Perlman was uploaded onto youtube, where he went back to his old school Columbia University and discussed his next endeavor. While nothing to new was unveiled, he did briefly mentioned something interesting about the MicroConsole. If you are unfamiliar with OnLive, it is a gaming service that lets players stream videogames using the Internet. The player has a couple of options to do so. One, they can download a 1MB program that lets them play a game directly to their computer, without downloading. The second way is to somehow get their hands on the MicroConsole and play the games the same way, but on their television.
For most people, I figure the MicroConsole is the most attractive way to play these games. Sitting on a coach and playing the latest game on a 60″ TV with their home theater surround-sound system seems far more engrossing, than gazing on a computer chair in front of a desk. So the question was asked — how much would this MicroConsole cost? In April, IGN took a stab and felt the box should cost no more than $100 when it is released. While Perlman didn’t give a definitive answer on the actual price of the unit during his session at Columbia, he did reveal there isn’t much in the box to make it expensive. In fact, he said the plastic on the outside of the MicroConsole is actually more expensive than the gadgets inside. So what does that mean? Well, for one it could be free to consumers and he did mention that people who sign a contract for x-amount of years, could feasibly get the unit for free. This would be a business structure similar to what wireless phone companies do.
“It’s [MicroConsole] so inexpensive, that the case actually costs more than the chips inside of it. So we are in a position where we can give it away if you signup to a subscription if you want to or charge very little.”
When I first heard about OnLive, I thought of Netflix. For over a year now, Netflix has offered movies to stream online and if you subscribed to the online rental site, you could watch as many films online as you wanted too, without a cap. So I was wondering, could OnLive offer something similar? Will they offer a subscription, where users could access as many games as they wanted too, without having to purchase each one separately? It seems like they are at least considering that route.
While that type of business model has already been used in the past with sites like GameTap, this would be the first time you could do it on a setup designed for a TV. On top of that, Perlman has promised when new releases hit store shelves, OnLive would have them available on the same day — something that GameTap didn’t do. I do however, have a hard time believing new releases like the latest Grand Theft Auto or Madden would be free with a subscription, I do see “older” entries being free if the player does have some sort of monthly bill from OnLive. It will be interesting to see when we have a full announcement. Unfortunately, we have NO CLUE when that will be.
January 1st, 2010 at 9:36 pm
Well I think the publishers will do their own test projects to see the reactions before they release games like Bioshock 2 on the first day. I think we need a major shake up in the game industry. I don’t know of too many mediums that have different formats only playable on certain players. A PS3 game can only be played on a PS3 and so on but blu-ray can be played on Samsung, Sony and other blu-ray players for example. We need to get away from this business model where the companies who support the media have their own vested interest to keep it away from competing platforms. Games should innovate and compete within. You don’t expect musicians to play various instruments because the studios are marketing the guitars and drums do you?
January 1st, 2010 at 10:25 pm
Very Cool idea indeed, but most people have a 360 or PS3 so what would be the point in getting this? We can get all Multi Platform games on either 360 or PS3.
I just wanted to see how much the Membership is going to be, and more features. The one feature I like so far is where you can watch people play–if ya saw the onlive demo thing.
And the controller looks Meh
January 2nd, 2010 at 2:36 am
and people still have not asked the most important question.
1 how fast does your net need to be, to play these games with absolutely NO! lag?
2 how much download usage would be used up playing crysis for 2 hours?
if it requires ADSL2+ speed internet and a high download usage than no one is going to use it.
where i live in AU 90% of the country does not have access to ADSL2 were stuck with cable.
and the highest download limit for cable is 30GBs and that will cost you 140 bucks a month.
i really like the idea of onlive, but if that means upping my internet account to 120 bucks a month, and having all my download usage spent on playing games than no thanks!
January 2nd, 2010 at 7:07 am
You paid monthly fee’s and they will send you the the box for free it what the last video i watched said
January 2nd, 2010 at 8:14 am
I doubt it will be free, anyways OnLive wrote on their blog that they will release OnLive this year around winter http://blog.onlive.com/2009/12/24/happy-holidays-from-onlive/
January 4th, 2010 at 9:36 pm
As excellent of an idea this is, I feel it success is doomed. I don’t believe gamers are willing to take the risk of converting over to OnLive. Although I hope I’m wrong.
It would be really cool to see this progress and evolve and I’m really hoping it will! I know I’m not buying it when it’s released, but if I hear good things about and notice OnLive growing and improving itself, I’ll likely look into it.
We’ll see in time I suppose.
January 14th, 2010 at 1:21 am
ONlive seems like it’s not soo much about your internet connections because your controller input is sent to their servers where the game is actually being played and the download on your behalf would be the video of that interaction. So probably at the most you’ll be using a 5mbps internet connection for 720p HD resolution. But like Netflix peak hours will probably effect set resolutions. A free MicroConsole would be awesome and a nice selling point. And if their getting the Windows gaming library then Xbox might want to either get a cut or overtake them because it will be like having an 360 without having the possible hardware issues.