UK ready for OnLive

A PCR survey has found that just under half of UK retailers think that the UK market is ready for the subscription-based game streaming service, OnLive.

The study, undertaken on behalf of PCR by infinite FMS, found that 43 per cent of respondents thought that British users would embrace the new technology. 25 per cent thought it wouldn’t do well, while another 31 per cent weren’t sure.

OnLive launches in the US on June 17th and works by streaming game content  directly to the PC or Mac, removing the need for a box product or a full download. Crucially for the PC hardware market, it also doesn't require the type of high-end hardware the games would otherwise need on-board the users machine, as the actual processing is done at the other end.

So many European users signed up to the beta testing phase of this service that the company has revealed that it will be coming to Europe “in a big way” following extensive testing on EU networks.

“For all of you Euro gamers who have asked about OnLive, I have some very good news: OnLive is coming to Europe in a big way,” wrote OnLive’s founder and CEO Steve Perlman.

“Secretly OnLive has been operating a test site in Europe from a BT data center in Wales since 2009. And I’m happy to report, that over the European Internet infrastructure, OnLive is AWESOME. We’ve tested OnLive across all of Western Europe spanning from the UK to Italy and from Scandinavia down to Spain.”

Although he didn’t reveal precisely when a UK launch can be expected, Perlman continued to say that the company is “really excited about OnLive’s potential in Europe, and looking forward to kicking it off in the UK through our partnership with BT.”

Tags: UK, launch, onlive, survey, ready