Some OnLive titles platform locked

High-spec games on any platform that can go online – that was the boast of ambitious cloud gaming service OnLive, but already one title has arrived which challenges the philosophy.

In an interview with Cnet, OnLive CEO Steve Perlman has admitted that EA’s Xbox and PC exclusivity deal for Mass Effect 2 locks out any Mac users of the service from playing the title.

If you load Boot Camp [software that allows Apple owners to run Windows] on your Mac, you can play Mass Effect 2,” he explained. If you don’t use Boot Camp, we can’t let you run it.

We don’t have any other games in the pipeline that are restricted, so that’s the only one. All the other games we have in the pipeline run on PC and Mac, and going forward, the publishers all know that they should not sign a contract that restricts the PC version because of the existence of OnLive.”

In a modern industry where platform exclusive deals remain very much at the forefront, that might be wishful thinking.