ISP BT Retail will finally launch the UK version of OnLive this autumn 2011. The service allows customers to play the latest PC, PlayStation 3 and XBox 360 games - without owning them - via a live and remotely controlled internet video stream that is delivered over your broadband connection.

BT originally announced its commercial partnership with OnLive USA one year ago (here). This deal included the exclusive rights to bundle the service with its broadband packages and a 2.6% shareholding in the business. Further details were due to surface at the end of 2010 but never materialised (Delays Strike BT's UK ISP OnLive Broadband Video Game Streaming Service).


Thankfully OnLive UK is finally due to be unveiled at the June 7th E3 expo (8PM BST) and gamers are already being invited to reserve their unique OnLive Player Tag by signing up through the OnLive website. For the time being we suspect that only BT customers, some of which are already helping to trial the service, should bother to apply.


Some people will probably question whether the country's existing broadband infrastructure can cope, not to mention the huge strain that could be placed upon ISPs. OnLive customers need a stable connection speed of at least 1.5Mbps for Standard Definition (SD) quality gaming (i.e. similar to iPlayer's normal video quality stream), although most would probably rather have the 5Mbps HD stream.

According to Ofcom the UK average download speed is 6.2Mbps, which suggests that more than half of the country should be able to make use of OnLive's HD service. The ever increasing deployment of superfast broadband solutions, such as BT's own 40Mbps FTTC technology, could also help with OnLive's viability.

At the present time we don't have any details about pricing, launch dates or even the available game library. OnLive intends to reveal more details about its UK launch "over the coming months". Certainly there could be a market for this (it seems to be working in the USA) provided the price is right, you have a good connection and BT or other ISPs make an allowance for the huge data consumption that such a service must require.