BT signs exclusive OnLive rights
By Alexis • May 14th, 2010 • Category: Industry News
- Photo: OnLive
Remember cloud computing gaming service OnLive, which aims to replace physical consoles and games with an entirely digital, Internet-based service? They have just signed a deal with BT, making the UK ISP the exclusive distributor of the service in the UK.
Distribution and equity
With this exclusive deal, BT also acquires a 2.6 per cent stake in OnLive. BT will offer the OnLive service to its customers as a part of bundle deals. Outside of that, BT promised to release more details about the service and the partnership later this year.
Entertainment the game
BT Retail CEO, Gavin Patterson, has said that entertainment would be ‘the heart’ of what the company offers its customers in future. Outside of cloud gaming and on-demand video content, it is difficult to assume what these entertainment features will be, but one step at a time, we suppose.
OnLive
Steve Perlman, who is OnLive’s CEO, thinks this partnership is a major boon for OnLive. ‘The UK market is extremely important to OnLive,’ for the service, he said.
Where to next
- Photo: Infinity Ward
We’re still undecided about whether OnLive will work or not. The compromise of decent video quality for speed may be too much to give up in an age where many people’s sentiment is ‘HD or nothing’. On the flipside of that, in maintaining decent resolution, what of the inevitable latency the games will experience? The last major concern – and this is a big one – is the pricing. Though the basic service is priced reasonably, one still has to purchase the games – which you will never own outright since they sits on a server – as well as foot the bill for the data service.
These factors make the concept of a cloud gaming service seem a little too ahead of its time, even though it is where everything will eventually head. Perhaps BT and OnLive will prove us wrong. But we recommend against discarding your trusty PS3 and Xbox 360s too soon.
Tags for this article: bt, OnLive, ps3, Xbox 360
