Over a year after the OnLive streaming game service launched in North America, the company is finally launching a presence overseas. OnLive announced today that UK users can now play over 150 games on the service, either purchasing the rights to play individual games or playing a monthly £6.99 fee for unlimited access to over 100 game titles. First time users can purchase their first individual OnLive game for just £1. In addition people who attend London"s Eurogamer Expo this weekend can get OnLive"s Microconsole hardware for free.
OnLive is partnering with broadband provider BT and as part of that relationship, BT customers can access the monthly PlayPack bundle of games for free for three months. Also, PC Gamer magazine readers in the UK can get one month"s worth of free access to the PlayBack Bundle.
Unlike here in the US, the UK version of OnLive has a retail brick-and mortar retail partner in GAME. The OnLive Microconsole will soon be sold in over 600 of GAME"s UK retail locations. The service will also be sold on game.co.uk and gamestation.co.uk later in 2011. That"s a big change compared to OnLive"s presence here in the US, when retailer GameStop decided earlier this summer to remove a coupon for a free OnLive copy of Deus Ex: Human Revolution from the PC boxed version of the game.
Finally, it looks like OnLive will finally be getting some games from one of the industry"s biggest publishers, Electronic Arts. The company announced today that this year"s first person shooter Bulletstorm will be added to OnLive in the near future.