OnLive is now free

by: Nathan - posted: 10/5/2010 1:45:00 AM

Anyone interested in a free membership to OnLive? If you missed the opportunity to sign up to be a founding member of OnLive to get the first year for free, and/or if you shied away from the monthly subscriptions to use the service then this is really good news. It is now free to install and use the OnLive service from any PC or Mac in the US which includes the unlimited free demos of games, their spectating and social network structure, or you can get a full game on the service at their discounted rates so you can save your progress. Oh and there are hints that the MicroConsoles will be ready by this holiday season AND OnLive will be coming to Belgium and Luxembourg. Who's next in their quest for world gaming domination?
Don't forget that they've got a WiFi connection Beta right now too. So even if your stealing bandwidth from your neighbors you can hop on and play.

It’s official: There will be no base monthly fee for the OnLive Game Service going forward. WOOT!

Free Instant-play Demos, Free Massive Spectating, Free Brag Clip™ videos, messaging, friending.

No credit card needed, unless you decide to buy a 3-day, 5-day or Full PlayPass. And ongoing access with no monthly fee. Of course, we’ve had a promotion waiving the monthly fee for the first year, so this announcement is confirming what we had hoped—that we can continue without a monthly fee beyond the first year. Although we wish we could have confirmed no monthly fee from the get-go, pioneering a major new video game paradigm is hard: we had to first grow to a large base of regular users before we could understand usage patterns and operating costs. Now that we’ve reached that stage, we can confidently say a monthly fee is not needed, which deserves a double WOOT! WOOT!

We’re excited because this opens the door for the OnLive Game Service to be used by everyone whenever they feel like it, whether for playing a full game on OnLive, or for just instantly playing a demo before buying a game for a console or a PC. Or, even for people just wanting to spectate games in the Arena or friend other gamers. Whatever interests you in gaming, OnLive provides it instantly, without complexity or hassle.

And…stay tuned for some exciting announcements coming this holiday season:

• MicroConsole™ TV Adapters and OnLive Game Pad Controllers in manufacturing now: Founding Members get first dibs.
• Just Cause 2 contest going on now. Follow @OnLiveCommunity for more contest news.
• More international announcements coming. Check out recent ones: www.onlive.be and www.onlive.lu.
• Improved video quality and lower latency.

Come one, come all. Just Play!

—Steve Perlman, Founder & CEO