OnLive has been making some smart moves since the launch of its game streaming service, including bundling a free OnLive console with the pre-orders of some high-profile releases. And it looks like those moves have paid off, as CEO Steve Perlman told GI.biz that publishers see the service as a close number two to Valve’s Steam for PC digital distribution.
“Publishers have bought into it, they get it, they know that it works, and the cheques at the end of the month help," he said. "The publishers are telling us we're number two in terms of digital distribution behind Steam.”
"We're getting exclusive demos. Doing a demo is something that's hard to develop. For example on Red Faction: Armageddon there was an Xbox demo but not a PlayStation 3 or PC version - they put it on OnLive instead. This is the first time a platform has been released that doesn't present itself as a direct competitor to the other platforms."
The service has been available in the U.S. for over a year, but just recently launched in the United Kingdom. And the company still intends to expand the service to other devices, increasing its reach, but Perlman is reticent to say how OnLive will do in the U.K.
"The U.S. has been the U.K.'s beta test. We've had 15 months of live experience there, not just on the technology side but with what users want, how to package features and build up the game library," he added.
"It's a new animal. In my career I've launched a lot of new things and it takes time,” he said. "In the U.S. we had to gradually build up from 18 games and some of the early adopters tried it but it didn't have enough for them so they moved on. In the U.K. we have a very robust system with a lot of games, a big library. This is one of the most difficult things in the world to predict."
