OnLive not for the hardcore

Cloud gaming service OnLive may not be to the taste of the hardcore market, CEO Steve Perlman has told Cnet.

Anybody that’s a serious gamer plays games in more than one place,” he explained. If you’re a hardcore gamer and you’ve got a big rig and you want the highest quality graphics than OnLive is not the place where you’re going to play your high-end game.

Then again, to not have a huge download in order to trial something before you make the purchase decision, why not? Just click OnLive and give it a go. If you like it, terrific. Download the thing from Steam or order a copy on DVD.”

Furthermore, with OnLive’s various range of pricing and purchasing options, Perlman is more than happy (super happy, in fact) if users chose to use it simply as a way of sampling titles before considering a traditional retail purchase.

We’re super happy if people want to use us a demo service, as a rental service, as a purchase service, as a social network, we have folks that are just watching games instead of TV,” he asserted. Some people have said the only way you’re going to use OnLive is if you’re buying games, and it’s just a little bit silly.”