Skip to main content

OnLive offers free MicroConsole and bonus game with the purchase of Homefront

OnLive-Game-SystemOnLive is a cloud-based gaming service that delivers high-quality visuals and AAA experiences on any computer with a steady high-speed Internet connection, meaning that even your $100 netbook can be made to run a version of Batman: Arkham Asylum that looks and plays almost exactly like it would on an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.

It’s the rare “science as magic” tech promise that actually delivers, though OnLive is still struggling to find its place as it competes with giants like Microsoft and Sony and the well-established gaming communities that have formed around each. The company’s latest promotion attempting to sell you on cloud gaming is a good one: purchase a Full PlayPass — the OnLive equivalent of a full game purchase — for THQ’s Homefront (March 15 release) and get a MicroConsole for free, along with a Full PlayPass for another solid first-person shooter, Metro 2033. OnLive’s MicroConsole is a little box, roughly the size of an Apple TV device, that brings the service directly to your television, for $99.

Recommended Videos

Customers who purchase Homefront will get the MicroConsole free of charge, though the fine print reveals that your new toy won’t ship until after the deal ends on March 14. You’ll also have to pay taxes on it, as well as shipping charges. Still not a bad deal, $60 for roughly $200 worth of content.

Then again, the existence of such a deal causes some justifiable concern that your purchased items might not be available for as long as you’d like them to be. OnLive has offered several similar promotions in an attempt to get the MicroConsole into the hands of gamers so they can see for themselves what the technology offers. The fact that we’re still seeing such offers so many months after the service’s launch does not speak of good tidings for its future solvency.

Which is a great shame. If OnLive had launched five or so years ago, when the current generation of consoles was still finding its footing, there’s little doubt that OnLive would have been as robust a contender today as the Microsoft and Sony consoles. Unfortunately, the cloud gaming service entered the market after it had fully matured, meaning that a community would have to be built, at least in part, out of users stolen away from other platform.

With a small catalog of available games compared to the consoles and no exclusive content to speak of, OnLive may well be too little, too late. The tech is amazing, no question of that, but it is so for offering a lower-cost alternative to what we already know. When you’ve already dropped a few hundred dollars on a console and countless more on its games, paying less for a fresh start with a new gaming community just doesn’t seem as attractive a proposition.

Adam Rosenberg
Former Gaming/Movies Editor
Previously, Adam worked in the games press as a freelance writer and critic for a range of outlets, including Digital Trends…
The best PlayStation launch games, ranked
best ps1 games sony ps1

The most important time in a console's life is its launch. This is when a new piece of hardware needs to prove that it is worth investing in, which always comes down to games. Launch titles are rarely the best games on the system, although some of Nintendo's launch games buck that trend, but at least need to show off what the system can do. PlayStation always had a secondary selling point with its consoles, such as doubling as a CD player or DVD player, so it is interesting to speculate how successful those early consoles would've been judged solely on their games. We now have launch titles from the PS1 all the way up to the PS5 (and soon to be PS6) to look back on with fresh eyes to see just how good those first games were.

Air Combat - PlayStation 1

Read more
The Switch 2 is the perfect example of why console launches don’t feel special anymore
The Switch 2 being unboxed.

I will never forget the unbearable excitement I felt on that early morning on my 7th birthday. It was 1998, and Pokémon was the biggest thing in the world, especially for an elementary school kid like me. Except that I didn't have a single card or game to my name. In fact, I didn't even have a Game Boy. That, plus Pokémon, was the only thing I asked for that birthday, and I knew I would get it.

I can still remember lying awake half the night, unable to sleep while my imagination ran wild with unrealistic machinations of what the game would be like. I woke up just as early to the sounds of my parents and sister setting up decorations downstairs and bided my time before I could go down. It was a school day, but they could sense my excitement well in advance and agreed to let me open one thing before school.

Read more
If the leaks are true, ROG Xbox Ally’s price could be anything but an ally
The ROG Xbox Ally UI.

There's still a lot we don't know about the ROG Xbox Ally, but a potential price has leaked that shatters any hope of it being affordable. First seen by 3djuegos on the ASUS Store, the ROG Xbox Ally was listed at 599 Euro (roughly $700 USD) while the ROG Xbox Ally X was listed for $899 Euro (roughly $1,050 USD). The listing appears to have been created by accident, but those price points raise eyebrows.

ASUS prices its own handheld PCs around that same price, with the 2023 ROG Ally landing at $500 and $650, depending on the version. While that's a reasonable price point compared to other handhelds on the market (like the $1,000 MSI Claw 8 AI+), it's still significantly more than a base-level Steam Deck.

Read more