20th June 2010, 5:51 PM
http://gizmodo.com/5567770/onlive-stream...me-finally
I was willing to cut some slack to OnLive as a great option for people who love things like the Netflix service and would prefer not to pay for expensive computer upgrades.
Unfortunatly, as a small aside after talking about the connection, this guy outlines that the service is NOT Netflix. It's a ripoff.
First you pay $50 a year. This gets you... nothing. You have to "buy" or rent the games you want to play even AFTER the yearly fee. That is ridiculous. The service should simply be the fee. Yeah the fee would end up being higher, but if you're paying a fee at all, you should actually GET something out of it. All these users are initially paying for is the right to pay for more things. It would be like if Blockbuster had a yearly fee JUST to keep being a member of their store but you got nothing out of it, still needing to pay for each rental.
Secondly, the "buy" option isn't really "buy" at all. It's more like renting for the duration of your signup for the service. They don't send you a permanent copy, and if you ever leave, your "buy" is gone, needing to be bought again. The rentals are also ridiculously short periods of time. They're using outdated "rental store" models where you pay $5 to play a game for 3 days, or $7 for 5.
Whatever interest I had in this system I've lost. This is worse than Gametap's model. Yes you had to pay for each game there, but you didn't have to pay a yearly fee in addition to that. The account setup was at least free.
This service was originally promised as an alternative that might actually threaten the current model of everyone buying their own copy of the game's code and then buying their own hardware to run it on. This implementation will kill them before they even get off the ground. I think it'll end up going the way of the Gametap service.
If this sort of thing is going to have any chance whatsoever, they need to follow the Netflix model. Figure out a monthly fee that's both reasonable and covers whatever you need covered, and give permanent access to everything you have liscenses to for play for the duration of that user's account, until they cancel.
I was willing to cut some slack to OnLive as a great option for people who love things like the Netflix service and would prefer not to pay for expensive computer upgrades.
Unfortunatly, as a small aside after talking about the connection, this guy outlines that the service is NOT Netflix. It's a ripoff.
First you pay $50 a year. This gets you... nothing. You have to "buy" or rent the games you want to play even AFTER the yearly fee. That is ridiculous. The service should simply be the fee. Yeah the fee would end up being higher, but if you're paying a fee at all, you should actually GET something out of it. All these users are initially paying for is the right to pay for more things. It would be like if Blockbuster had a yearly fee JUST to keep being a member of their store but you got nothing out of it, still needing to pay for each rental.
Secondly, the "buy" option isn't really "buy" at all. It's more like renting for the duration of your signup for the service. They don't send you a permanent copy, and if you ever leave, your "buy" is gone, needing to be bought again. The rentals are also ridiculously short periods of time. They're using outdated "rental store" models where you pay $5 to play a game for 3 days, or $7 for 5.
Whatever interest I had in this system I've lost. This is worse than Gametap's model. Yes you had to pay for each game there, but you didn't have to pay a yearly fee in addition to that. The account setup was at least free.
This service was originally promised as an alternative that might actually threaten the current model of everyone buying their own copy of the game's code and then buying their own hardware to run it on. This implementation will kill them before they even get off the ground. I think it'll end up going the way of the Gametap service.
If this sort of thing is going to have any chance whatsoever, they need to follow the Netflix model. Figure out a monthly fee that's both reasonable and covers whatever you need covered, and give permanent access to everything you have liscenses to for play for the duration of that user's account, until they cancel.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)