OnLive announced on Friday that it has slashed the price of its CloudLift service in half, which now costs $7.95 USD instead of the $14.95 price tag. This should open the doors to an even wider audience looking to stream their favorite PC games on their favorite devices.
So as it stands now, OnLive has two subscription models: CloudLift for streaming games you own via Steam, and PlayPack that provides an all-you-can-play buffet for $9.95. Games included in the PlayPack include Batman: Arkham City, Darksiders II, LEGO Harry Potter (both editions), Borderlands, The Witcher 2 and dozens more.
What's interesting about the new CloudLift service is that you can purchase games directly from OnLive, and what you get is a code to unlock the game on Steam. The game is yours to keep until the end of time, and because your Steam account is connected to OnLive, that game is made available to stream.
That said, gamers with low-end machines can still purchase PC games and then stream then via OnLive. They need to have a Steam account, and activate the game, but downloading is not necessary. Once gamers upgrade to a new machine with better hardware, the game will still be in their Steam library. Of course, the game will still be listed on CloudLift as well.
Unfortunately, not all Steam games are supported by CloudLift… at least, not at the time of this writing. There are only around 27 right now, including Saints Row 4, LEGO The Hobbit, Dead Island Riptide, Darksiders II, Batman, Batman: Arkham Origins and so on.
For publishers and developers, OnLive is a great way to expand their audience to gamers in the low-end market. For more information about OnLive and the CloudLift service, head here.
