News Onlive rental pricing revealed

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2010/06/21/onlive-rental-pricing-revealed/1

 

Wait, "unlimted" lasts until June 2013? You mean it's a 3 year pass. Just call it a 3 year pass!

I know we're paying a premium for having access to their servers/having access to high end graphics on low end PCs but this pricing system....sucks....

 

Really not looking that good to be honest. Have to say coupling that with the subscription, it looks like any sane gamer is going to steer a million miles clear of this.

 

This has to be literally the shittest idea ever.

$15 per month -an xbox 360 is cheaper than a 12 month subscription and, in my opinion, the concept is already ruined by this point but then the games (which you can't keep) cost the same as they do for the consoles.

It was unlikely to be good idea and it seems that our general cynicism has proved correct.

 

for as much as their pricing system is good or bad, what i'm curious about is if it WORKS?

 

FAR FAR FAR too expensive! especially those games (Batman) where you don't get an "unlimited" option (which, as sotu pointed out is really 3 years)

FAIL.

 

A years subscription buying lets say 4 new games: $180 + $180 games (AC2/Borderlands/JC2/Splinter Cell conviction) = $360

Not worth it at all.

 

In fairness, it might be worth waiting to see what the free games are that come with this subscription. There are some free games right?

 

Yeah this is just totally not worth it at all a semi decent pc costs about the same over the lifespan of the machine.

More to the point it's supposed to take the strain off the system by just streaming it but really none of those games wont run on my pc which was built for 370 over 2 years ago so until I see Crysis and Stalker and other such games I won't even be curious.

I wonder how it handles crashes I mean no game no matter how good the system is doesn't crash every so often.

 

Well, they do have to provide the computing power to have everyone's games running on their systems. Did anyone honestly expect that to be cheap?

I could see hotels offering game rentals using a service like that, but for end users it doesn't seem like a viable option.

 

Interesting concept yet it failed apparently. WTF @ pricing?!

 

The Pricing is mental, and they'll have trouble advertising in the UK 'unlimited' and then trying to state that it means 3 years...

I can hear the lawsuits gearing up already...

 

That pricing is obscene. Three years of subscription fees would pay for one of the buyers guide 'affordable all rounder' pc, which would probably play all those games at least as well as Onlive, considering all the technical problems I expect they run into.

That's assuming you've got a monitor or HDTV you can plug into and doesn't take into account electricity cost or maintenance/malware and all the other crap normal people run into.

But you would save on the games, as they are way cheaper off Amazon or play. Then after three years, you can do the same thing again.

 

I read someones experience of OnLive yesterday (one of the B-T staff were reading it). OnLive don't run games at max settings, they choose what they feel is a good balance of quality and performance. And this was FEAR 2...I ran that maxed out on my old rig, Add in a crappy resolution and the fact that 'buying' games is nothing more than extended renting, on top of a subscription fee and I couldn't be any less interested in using OnLive. I'd rather buy an exepensive PC and play games how they were intended. At max and with no lag/latency.

 

You're assuming the service actually LASTS for three years...

 

This is not a good start to a service that has a lot to prove to tempt people to use it.
Most people will vote with their wallets and stick with buying games from retail or from services like Steam.
At this rate I can't see it lasting the 3 years that their "unlimited" service offers.

 

I assume most games will be capped at 30 FPS as well?

 

Pobably something like that. Here it is, just in case anyone missed it on the front page

http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/06/Thoughts-on-OnLive

Certain aspects of it sound appealing, but in my humble opinion the downsides far outweigh the benefits. Espeically to a PC/game enthusiast.

 

This is ment to appeal more to console players than PC gamers I think, Who are probably stupid enough to believe the hype about this. All it means is that when I'm trying to game online some console git will be dicking around

 

Frankly for those prices you might as well go out and buy a console and the games yourself. $40 for Assassin's Creed II? Who are they trying to kid? You can already pick it up secondhand and have true unlimited access for less than half that price.