These days OnLive is probably known as much for its unexpected meltdown as it is for its promise to deliver streaming video games to the masses, but ever since the company reformed it seems to have returned to business as usual.
To wit: the folks behind the cloud gaming service have made good on an old promise to integrate OnLive with the Korean company’s new line of Google-friendly G2 Smart TVs.
If you happen to be a G2 TV owner, you may already have been nagged to install the necessary update, and the OnLive app will be pre-installed on all LG G2s going forward. Of course, there is a catch here — those current and future can’t actually start playing the games in OnLive’s catalog until they purchase one of the company’s (rather odd looking) wireless controllers first.
This little move has been a long time coming — OnLive first started talking up its LG partnership back in June at E3. Then the company’s future got considerably dicier just a few months later when it effectively cleaned house and sold itself to, well, another version of itself. OnLive seems eager to move past that unpleasantness (though it wouldn’t surprise me if some of the people they let go still bore a grudge), and getting the fruits of this particular deal into the wild is a sign that things may be evening out on their end.
Frankly speaking, the partnership is quite a feather in LG’s cap too. There’s something equally puzzling and great about the prospect of firing up a brand new television and jumping directly into a romp through the world of Saints Row: The Third with a minimum of setup. That said, I think it’s safe to assume that OnLive isn’t going to stop pursuing partnerships with other TV manufacturers now that LG is onboard. Changes are afoot in the living room, and OnLive would be silly not to strive for tighter integration with new hardware.