OnLive enters open beta

Video game streaming service OnLive has now entered its open beta phase, founder and CEO Steve Perlman has announced.

The technology bypasses physical media by streaming games directly to home computers and television screens. Rather than install the games, data is relayed back and forth between computers and powerful servers. A small microconsole is required for television compatibility.

According to Perlman, the company faces a number of challenges ahead of its launch. "One of the key challenges that OnLive technology addresses is providing a high-quality, fast-response gaming experience over a wide range of situations: different speeds/locations/types of broadband services, a variety of different PC and Mac configurations, several kinds of input and display devices, etc," he said.

"So, a major focus of OnLive Beta is to test as many of these different situations as we can... As testers interact with the service and play games, OnLive will be constantly logging technical data, and then afterward, we'll ask testers to give us feedback about their personal experiences with OnLive... Another important goal of the Beta is to shake out bugs so we can fix them.

"Beta is an awesome milestone for OnLive, capping many years of work. We're really looking forward to hearing what you think."

OnLive has been in development for over seven years. The service is expected to debut this winter.