We were on vacation then! -Family Guy

But yeah, maybe those who claim following the law blindly is the only way to live should read all the old laws on the books which are still active but not followed anymore & follow them all.

I recall you stating this before. As you're the only person that I know that likes OnLive would you be willing to share why in more detail (I know you've said it's a "good deal" I just don't know why you said it)?

I'm actually opposed to the way it's structured now (for some of the plans) but if you could pay 15 bucks a month to access a much wider variety of games and the hardcore folks could buy the ones they really loved still (I mean buy to own, physical or some online service, like GOG;) ) then I think it might make a ton of monetary sense for a lot of people.

With that said, of course I don't want my only choice to be OnLive just like I don't want my only choice to be Steam.

We can complain about how Onlive works all day, but in the end I'm playing Arkham City right now, and ten minutes ago I wasn't, and the only difference now is that I'm short a dollar in my wallet.

Would I ever use it regularly? Nope. Would I use it for extremely good deals like this one, and the occasional free trial of a game I want to buy on Steam? Yeeeep.

I can see how this system works for you, but honestly you can build a PC that can run modern games for a few hundred pounds. Yes, it's still £1 vs £200-300, but the deal is definitely a lot sweeter.

And that PC can also be used to play HD movies/internet gaming & streaming/etc.....alot of bang for the buck and utility.

If the only sign ups Onlive can attract are at ridiculously below cost prices, they will go belly up before 2013. Good luck in getting your "guaranteed access" from a bankrupt company.

This is my thinking also. Their upkeep costs must be massive. They are certainly higher than those of Steam or GOG (per customer, not total). Steam and GOG only store data and need to keep their servers running for data transfer. They can even outsource this to companies around the world. The occasional drop in connection is no biggy for them.

Onlive however must maintain high quality, high volume connections at all times, or their liable for refunds. Additionally, they must keep massive "gaming rigs" working to do all the processing of the games. All this takes up a lot of maintanace manpower. Which can't be outsorced to India or China, because their servers have to be local.

So, they need high revenue to stay aflot. But they can only stay competetive with low prices.

I can't see how it should work.

Crazy sales have the potential to get people in the door and actually evaluate the service. I was pretty negative about Steam until they offered the Orange Box for $10 the first time. I gradually grew addicted to the service one crazy sale at a time until they eventually gained legitimacy in my eyes. I doubt I'm the only one.

The reason they can offer such good deals is due to licensing - companies actually give them money every time a trial version is played.

Really the strategy at the moment is to position themselves as strong in figures (X games sold, X trials played, X user accounts created, X playpack subscribers) to properly market their compression tech.

They're moving into businesses next, using their compression technology in remote desktop clouds. Then as far as I know the next stage is to get their tech into TVs.

OnLive is all about the real-time compression, games are just the best way they can see to market it currently. HD video streaming with no buffer time is is pretty much the future for video distribution, and they're trying to position themselves to corner the framework for the market before it really exists.

OnLive is quite good if you have a wired connection. It was awful with the wifi connection, but once I got myself a proper Ethernet cable, I was playing Homefront for free (with that Thanksgiving promo) and I didn't have a single problem. I'm convinced OnLive is using some voodoo power harvested from the dead bodies of African refugees or something to compress the video the way they are though.

720p=quite good? No mod support=quite good? No bloody options tweaking=quite good?

DOES NOT COMPUTE.

It's like i'm being taken over by pod people.

I completely agree, in what universe is 720p "quite good". And it's not even 720p, it is 720p with awful compression artifacts the moment the image gets darker.

Mod support is a planned feature they're working on, actually.

Well, you knew that was coming. You guys think of their streaming rental model as a detriment, they think of it as a premium serrvice. So in OnLive's eyes, the full price for the game is fair, just like buying retail, and the subscription is the premium service. So they view themselves as Steam+. I doubt they will remove access to a game unless a licensing deal requires it, and Idareesay they will compensate consumers affected. I actually predict big things for these guys.

If they get a deal with Samsung for tvs, or AcerLaptops, they could go far. They will need to revisit the subscription pricing though, I think.

It's like some deranged 70's dream coming true: a terminal for a very big and remote mainframe in every home.