iGame Radio

OnLive is a new gaming service that has just been announced this week. Developed by WebTV founder Steve Perlman and former Eidos CEO Mike McGarvey, OnLive is a streaming videogames service that will enable digital distribution of first-run, AAA games from publishers like Electronic Arts, Take-Two, Ubisoft, Atari, and others, all at the same time as those titles are released into retail channels. And best yet, those titles will run on any Intel-based Mac or PC running XP or Vista, regardless of how powerful the computer.

Isn’t it nice to be remembered??!

The system will also stream through your television through a small set-top box. Players will be able to use custom wireless controllers, which I guess means you have to purchase what they sell you (which sucks) and VoIP headsets (which I will guess will fall into the custom category as well). Players also won’t be downloading games (thus the streaming aspect) but will be streaming them with little to no lag from high-end servers. One wonders whether we are talking cloud servers with push technology during play. Minimum threshold for the Internet connection would be 1.5 Mbps, going upwards from there to 5 Mbps for hi-definition. Which means you could start seeing this in some gamer cafes and such.

They haven’t released info on a payment structure, but CNet surmises a subscription model. This would be a duh, and I’ll add to that that they’ll also probably add in microtransactions too. I can’t imagine that they wouldn’t add in tiny payments for things such as additional clothing, levels, music, etc.

CNet says that the service is currently in a closed beta, set to go into open beta this summer. However, if you go to the site right now you will find that there is a countdown of 5 hours…to what? I guess we’ll find out in 5 hours.