Cloud gaming service OnLive is removing monthly subscription fees from its business model, the company announced on Monday. During the first year of its launch, OnLive had run a promotion that waived the monthly fee and now says that they can continue doing so in the hopes of attracting more people to the service.
“Although we wish we could have confirmed no monthly fee from the get-go, pioneering a major new video game paradigm is hard: 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, which deserves a double WOOT! WOOT!” says OnLive Founder and CEO Steve Perlman. “We’re excited because this opens the door for the OnLive Game Service to be used by everyone whenever they feel like it, whether for playing a full game on OnLive, or for just instantly playing a demo before buying a game for a console or a PC.”
OnLive is now offering free instant-play demos, free Massive Spectating, free Brag Clip videos and free social networking tools such as messaging and friends lists, and says that no credit card is needed unless purchasing a 3-day, 5-day or full PlayPass.
