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OnLive's $99 HD console vies for holiday spend

Relaxnews
Friday 19 November 2010 01:00 GMT
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The OnLive microconsole, a small gadget that offers web-based gaming in high definition quality, is now available to order prior to a December 2 release date.

The $99 microconsole comes with a control pad and a choice of free game from OnLive's library of recent retail releases.

One of the big differences with this new contender is that its games don't take up precious shelf space or hog a hard drive.

Instead, everything's done offsite by OnLive's powerful servers and sent down high speed net connections to the microconsole, which then decompresses the HD stream for display on an HDTV, 3DTV or monitor.

It's already available for Mac and PC with free access to game trials, the option to rent or buy, and subscription rates in the works.

While OnLive's library is reasonably current, it isn't yet able to offer the most popular of the newest games - Black Ops, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Fallout: New Vegas - though Brotherhood and the next Deus Ex are on its list of upcoming titles.

So interest is more likely to be based on the service's futuristic potential and the microconsole's ability to cut out expensive hardware or console upgrades.

OnLive will need to fend off competition from Gaikai, a rival service which started free testing phase this month, and from the Steam Network, which dominates the PC and Mac download market with deep discount sales.

http://www.onlive.com

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