Comments on: Any game in their marketplace, OnLive – £1

By: Deacon

Deacon — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 12:12:33 +0000

This just happened to me! – I am not happy at being charged £35 for Space Marine, when everything I read told me my first purchase would be £1.

They had better reimburse me pretty damn quick, as that’s some seriously f***ed up advertising right there.

Has this happened to anyone else ? I’m waiting on a response from OnLive…

By: Adam Hepton

Adam Hepton — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 13:59:58 +0000

In reply to Adam Hepton. My connection can very generously be described as, "unreliable at best", as well. Very surprised. works well on a netbook, too, which was very surprising to me.

By: Adam Hepton

Adam Hepton — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 13:58:21 +0000

Just to redress the balance, I think its worth pointing out that I have suffered very few network drops so far, and I’ve had a very enjoyable couple of half-hours playing trials of games. no, the visual clarity is not the same as if you bought it outright, but I can certainly see the value in the service for trying out a game without gbs of download – if it had more of a catalogue, I’d even be prepared to pay a small fee a month just for that.

By: Andrew Mills

Andrew Mills — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 08:40:32 +0000

Word of warning: DO NOT subscribe before you buy a game £1! It removes the option to buy the game for a quid but doesn’t warn you about this (except deep in the support screen) :facepalm:

I’m not too fussed at the £6.99 fee as its on company expenses and will serve a purpose over the coming months, but not warning people of caveats in promos clearly is a big no-no for me.

By: Preciousgollum

Preciousgollum — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 00:28:24 +0000

In reply to nomelette. It's certainly concerning when OnLive is so determined to hang on to your credit card details and you have to input fake info (difficult in itself) to wipe-away your details.

By: nomelette

nomelette — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 23:47:12 +0000

The servers are hosted in the US so it’s going to be a little dodgy whatever.

Also, it’s worth mentioning that in the t’s&c’s it states that they are under no obligation of keeping the membership free. I don’t know how worrying that is, but it’s something to ponder on i suppose.

By: preciousgollum

preciousgollum — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 13:45:42 +0000

In reply to Jonathon.

I didn’t think I would, I just thought it might be worth a go… a saving-grace for my utter disappointment over the service. There is no-way I am playing Deus Ex HR on OnLive, even if I did only pay a pound, I’d rather buy it again from some other source.

I wonder how Batman AA works on OnLive, considering that Games For Windows CD-KEY is needed to save the game. Unless that functionality has been removed (which I suspect) then it means that there might be CD-KEYs out there somewhere…

By: Jonathon

Jonathon — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:59:18 +0000

In reply to me. You are 100% not going to get a cd key or anything like that... I don't know why you think you would.

By: preciousgollum

preciousgollum — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 11:53:30 +0000

Having just tried a little of the original Deus Ex (free with DX:HR:AE) using OnLive my retinas have gone on strike. I have recently played Deus Ex using the ‘antiquated’ file-based loading system so I am FULLY AWARE of the difference. OnLive can’t even provide for a 10 year old game that ancient laptops, or even hampster-powered computer, can run ever so gracefully. I know the age of the game does not make any difference to the image-bandwidth but c’mon…

What a shame.

By: preciousgollum

preciousgollum — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 11:36:51 +0000

To sum-up my concerns with OnLive, it isn’t the Tech that’s the real concern (although it is my immediate problem and feels totally Alpha) but the business-model that the tech is there to serve.

I feel a resurgence in the dot-com bubble…

By: preciousgollum

preciousgollum — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 11:32:35 +0000

In reply to me.

I shall, although it is only a hypothetical situation and does not appear to be likely.

Seriously though, I came into OnLive from a wave of scepticism to a hint of optimisim when I realised that Deus Ex HR was encouraging people to use the system as a legitimately alternative way to play their game, even when purchased through retail.

To clarify, I have an 8mb connection that often runs from 600-800kb real-speed, above average for the UK. I can see OnLive as this system that haphazardly provides content which is completely impractical when relating it to either a Console or a £500 PC built to run games and does not provide any form of valid alternative that would ever trump the two options.

Consoles are cost-effective and easy for the more casual user and a PC provides control and value for money because of cheap software, open platform and user-control. Where does OnLive viably fit into this equation?

I find the platform to be actually worse than my initial skepticism all those years ago and it appears as if Mr Pearlman, as I hava always inferred from interviews, is interested in convincing publishers to drop retail-games to a much greater extent than he is concerned about providing any sort of quality.

The arbitrary cut-off point for a game purchase is (August?) 2014, meaning that OnLive is fully obliged to reomve even full-priced games that have been purchased, never to be playable again. I cannot think of any other Digital seller that commits to such a thing. It is very concerning that GAME have decided to sell OnLive stuff.

I don’t mind spending the pound to use the service and I don’t expect to have an alternative way to play DX:HR with the current ‘license’ that I have as I went into OnLive expecting to spend money on a cheap, throwaway item and in this case my expectations have been met.

By: JC

JC — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 09:09:38 +0000

I’m struggling to find a game that I don’t already own / isn’t a steamworks title so I’d prefer to get it via that!

By: me

me — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 04:59:22 +0000

In reply to preciousgollum. please, leave a note here if you get a steam activation key from onlive.

By: preciousgollum

preciousgollum — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:04:09 +0000

Both the Image quality and control responsiveness are truely terrible.

I bought Deus Ex Human Revolution AE for a pound and unless I can somehow get the CD-KEY and register it on steam (fingers crossed) then it is a pound poorly spent.

I cannot believe that game developers would support this platform when it shows off their hard-work in the worst possible light -II think i’ve seen better quality youtube videos.

The future of games will most likely be the ability to stream from the cloud but streaming from the cloud should NOT be the only option.

By: Kelduum Revaan

Kelduum Revaan — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 23:03:49 +0000

In reply to Aradiel. Forever, as its a 'first hit is cheap' thing, and the subscription option covers 100 or so older games in their catalogue. Apparently no sub at all after the purchase (barring internet etc).

By: thorin

thorin — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 22:35:31 +0000

I wish I had an UK credit card….
I hope that soon arrives to Spain.

By: Aradiel

Aradiel — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 22:34:00 +0000

I’m confused – isn’t it a subscription service? Do I get full access to the game “forever” for £1, or is it £1 for a month, or is it £1 but I have to pay the subscription fees (even though the page does say registering is free)?

This makes no sense to me…

By: Jonathon

Jonathon — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 22:12:53 +0000

If you are with BT you get the playback for free, and the bandwidth won’t be counted for the time you have it which is a nice bonus for bt customers… like me 🙂

By: Aaron

Aaron — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 21:13:02 +0000

I’m on a 20mb connection and not having any issues. Seems a good service, although there is noticeable blockiness at times which is enough to make some fonts difficult to read.

By: Tony Heugh

Tony Heugh — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 21:08:04 +0000

My connection isn’t up to this so let me know how you go.