OnLive Not a Subscription Service?
When it launches, OnLive will require users to pay a $15 monthly subscription in addition to whatever games they rent or buy from the streaming cloud service. However, they may not be required to for long.
That's because OnLive is busy developing OnLive Game Portal, which will enable users to buy or demo a certain selection of games. It sounds like the Game Portal will essentially be OnLive Lite - it won't provide as many titles and features as the subscription OnLive service. Here's how OnLive CEO Steve Pearlman put it in his blog post:
"The OnLive Game Portal is for gamers looking for direct access to OnLive games without being required to subscribe to the features of the full OnLive Game Service. Through the OnLive Game Portal, gamers will be able to play select games directly on a rental basis as well as game demos for free; subject to available OnLive service capacity and whatever usage limits are associated with each given demo. Rentals will be priced on a per-game basis. There is no service fee for the OnLive Game Portal."
While OnLive as a subscription service will launch on June 17, there is no release date yet for the OnLive Game Portal.
-calimer