On demand game streaming service OnLive has announced that they will be dropping the $14.95 USD per month subscription fee. The service launched a few months back in the US and was free for the first year via a promotion anyway.
The found and CEO of OnLive, Steve Perlman, announced via the OnLive Blog that the platform would become free, with the only need for a credit card being 3 or 5 day, or Full PlayPass options. These allow for streaming of games for the period specified, otherwise games will cost you to purchase or rent with no monthly subscription fees for the service.
Perlman also expressed the company’s desire to have the service be free from the beginning, saying,
“Although we wish we could have confirmed no monthly fee from the get-go, pioneering a major new video game paradigm is hard.” He continues, “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…”
The blog post noted that the company is also working on their MicroConsole TV adapter for accessing the currently PC and Mac only service through TVs via dedicated hardware and OnLive Game Pad controllers. Perlman says the hardware is “in manufacturing now” and to, “stay tuned for some exciting announcements coming this holiday season.”
[OnLive Blog via Kotaku]
