OnLive Cloud Gaming Service Kills Monthly Fees Permanently

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File this one under “smart business decisions.” Cloud gaming service, OnLive, has announced that there will be no monthly fees moving forward.

Company CEO Steve Perlman said in a recent blog post that OnLive had hoped not to have to charge a monthly fee to begin with—fees were waived for the first year while the service got off the ground.

“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.”

That’s good news for current OnLive users and will probably result in even more users over the long run. The service provides nearly-instant access to many popular computer games for close to their retail prices, but also allows users to play some of the games using a three- or five-day “PlayPass” at greatly discounted rates.

For instance, 2K Sports’ new NBA 2K11 game is available for unlimited play at $30, three-day play for six dollars, or five-day play for nine dollars. Games are currently available to play through PC and Mac web browsers. The company will be releasing a “MicroConsole TV Adapter” in the future, which will connect directly to a TV set to bypass the need for a computer.

More on Techland: OnLive Battles Negative Buzz About Its Cloud Gaming Service