OnLive Focuses on Video Games, No Competition with Netflix

Various sources have claimed that video game streaming service OnLive could also move into the movie space and challenge Netflix, forcing the leader of the company to set the record straight and say that his company was focusing on video games and does not currently have the resources to also take on the movie market.

Speaking with GamePro Steve Perlman, who is the president and the chief executive officer of OnLive, stated that his quote was taken out of context by other outlets and added, “The other part of that was something like 'but Netflix has such a huge library'.”

Speaking to an audience at the Dive Into Mobile conference the executive also said, “It's not us or Netflix, it's us and Netflix.”

Perlman has admitted that his company might look for a partnership with Netflix in the future, aiming to deliver a more complete entertainment experience to the potential customer, but at the moment the two entities are taking on the challenge of convincing the market that streaming and not physical packages is the future.

At the moment, OnLive can be used on the Mac, the PC, the iPad, the Galaxy Tab phone and the TV as long as the user pays for a Microconsole.

The service aims to deliver a large library of video games that are instantly available to all subscribers and can be played without installing them locally, by streaming all the needed information from the user's machine to a server farm where the game is actually running.

The business model that OnLive initially relied on, with a subscription cost coming alongside the actual price of the video games that are bought or rented, has driven away some potential customers, but the company has dropped the charge recently and aims to also make it cheaper for gamers to gain access to indie and older games for just a monthly fee.