OnLive Adds Borderlands to $10 per month, 50 Game Bundle

[Scott Bullock]

OnLive Adds Borderlands to $10 per month, 50 Game Bundle

OnLive's game-streaming service is picking up, and has brought a new game into the fold.

Today, OnLive announced the addition of the 2009 hit Borderlands to its immense PlayPack Bundle. Though the rpg-shooter was already available for purchase or rent on the service, its inclusion in the bundle effectively drops the game's price to $0.20 per month, a steal by any standards.

You will still be able to purchase and use all the add-on content, such as The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned and Claptrap's New Robot Revolution, and all the various bits that come with the DLCs. For those with OnLive but still on the fence about the Bundle, you will now be able to demo any of the games included (including Borderlands) for free.

For those who don't know, OnLive is a service used to stream games from outside computers directly to a monitor, TV, or computer. When a game is purchased or rented, all processing and computing happens on one of OnLive's servers, where the video is then compressed and sent to you via the interweb tubes. Your responses to the game (controller button presses and mouse clicks) are sent back to the server, and the whole process starts over again. Think of it like using a wireless mouse, keyboard, and monitor, with your CPU being miles away. This whole process allows computers that would not normally be able to meet minimum spec requirements to run high-end games, and can be used to replace home consoles.

Borderlands is joining a slew of over 50 other games in the PlayPack, which provides unlimited access to all the games in the PlayPack Bundle for $9.99 a month. Some of the other games in the PlayPack include BioShock, Just Cause 2, and World of Goo.



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[omicron1]

I have three reservations about OnLive that keep me from investing in it.
First, my laptop does not get reliable enough connection speeds to use it for even slow singleplayer games.

Second, there's not really a "killer app" for the system - everything on there that I'd want, I have already elsewhere.

And finally, I worry that it's going to close down soon. The number of sales, special offers, and lures for new subscribers seem like an act of desperation to me, and I don't want my games vanishing because not enough other people bought in.

So, sadly, unless they can manage to recruit Good Old Games' entire portfolio for this service, it makes little difference to me.

 

[artanis_neravar]

I thought it was a dumb I idea from the beginning, mostly because i like owning my games

 

[JoJo]

I quite like this idea in theory, but in practise most of the games they currently offer don't interest me that much and I don't have that much time for games at the moment anyway so I like to be able to spread them out a bit rather than relying on a monthly time limit or pay again.

 

[TheEvilCheese]

If I had a reliably fast internet connection to their servers I'd be all over that.

Unfourtunately... Being able to play offline is kinda important to me

 

[RvLeshrac]

The problem with OnLive isn't OnLive, but rather the quality of internet access available in the US and Canada. OnLive will consume the largest available bandwidth cap in just a dozen hours.

 

[Worgen]

Ive never been a fan of the concept of cloud gaming since I like to own and it really depends allot on connection speed and stability and Ive never had a connection that was as fast and stable as I would demand to do that sort of thing

 

[josemlopes]

I have three reservations about OnLive that keep me from investing in it.
First, my laptop does not get reliable enough connection speeds to use it for even slow singleplayer games.

Second, there's not really a "killer app" for the system - everything on there that I'd want, I have already elsewhere.

And finally, I worry that it's going to close down soon. The number of sales, special offers, and lures for new subscribers seem like an act of desperation to me, and I don't want my games vanishing because not enough other people bought in.

So, sadly, unless they can manage to recruit Good Old Games' entire portfolio for this service, it makes little difference to me.

You dont have to worry about the third problem, you dont buy games in here, you only rent them. You rent all of this games for a month for 10$, thats what you do with Onlive.

 

[NezumiiroKitsune]

Awesome line-up, but I live in the UK, have an abysmal internet connection speed that is unreliable and my download cap is 90GB a month, which would only take a few days worth of full HD gaming to deplete (assuming the size of the files streamed were similar to FLV). I know that that isn't what this is about, OnLive yes or no, but I'm just saying I would definitely get up in this services business if I could in any way. I would love to be able to play Metro 2033 on my laptop =D

 

[Vern]

I just tried the free trial of Borderlands, and I was pretty impressed with how well it worked. It actually looked like it was running on a somewhat decent system, and the fact that it was streaming to me live was very impressive. However that falls apart when I know I can play Borderlands on my own PC, I can customize the graphics to fit it, it looks better, and plays faster, with no lag. The onlive service has noticeable lag when compared to playing it on your PC, but it's really nowhere near as bad as I thought, it was pretty smooth and I could certainly manage headshots, but against playing an installed local version it doesn't hold up. Doesn't seem like a bad service at all, but it's not really a service I'm interested in. If I want to play a PC game, I buy it and bask in the customizable goodness.

 

[monstersquad]

Ooh, if only they had this for my 360, I'd be on it so fast.....

 

[Scars Unseen]

Let's see...

Games as a service? Check.
Creates an unmoddable PC platform? Check.
Eats bandwith like a starving man at a buffet? Check.

Who is this platform good for again?

 

[Baldr]

Ohhh htis is still going, hmm without AAA current releases i see it falling out of favour quickly, nice idea though.

They do have AAA games released from time to time on release days, but it is the big publishers like EA and Activision yet to make any decisions about the service or rumors has it that EA pulled out of Onlive to start their own service.

Not to mention Valve, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony also already working on streaming services and Blizzard has Battlenet.

It just leaves Ubisoft, Take Two, and THQ to release good AAA for the service.(and of course Japanese publishers)

If you don't like Onlive or think it going to go away, your definitely in for one sad future.

 

[airrazor7]

-snip-

That's interesting. I guess I need to check it out for myself but when did Onlive change their pricing model? They used to charge a subscription fee upfront before you could even access their services and then they would charge full retail value for lifetime access to their streaming rentals, until they decide to toss the game off of the server in a year or two.

They do have AAA games released from time to time on release days, but it is the big publishers like EA and Activision yet to make any decisions about the service or rumors has it that EA pulled out of Onlive to start their own service.

EA is actually working with the other games-on-demand service Gaikai. They helped to demo Gaikai's service with the Dead Space 2 demo. I tried it and it worked really well. I didn't notice any lag and it looked just as good as an actual PC copy (on a decent PC) or console version. If I compared the Gaikai demo side by side with the demo on the 360 or PS3 I wouldn't be able to tell the difference (unless the consoles were connected to an HDTV). Also, trying out the demo was simple, versus the hoops Onlive put most people through. You fill out a five second survey and you're instantly starting, not loading, but starting the demo. I tried this on a computer that was in a library on a college campus.

 

[viranimus]

Yes... this needs to die a quick and painful death.

There is absolutely no good reason for this to even exist and it will only serve to hurt both the industry and the consumer IF it takes off.

Onlive, you are a horrible idea with an even worse implementation, Please do the honorable thing and stop.