2010 is a great year to be a Mac gamer. Steam for Mac has already brought us a new way to play with and against our PC-gaming pals-slash-nemesis, with dozens of hot games that we never had access to before. But those games download to your Mac, and run on your Mac—so if you're Mac isn't up to the minimum specs, no game for you.

OnLive wants to change all that.

Launching today at 6pm Pacific time, the instant-play service streams live games to your Mac or PC, via a browser plug-in. You control the game as if it were running on your local machine, but in reality it's running on a powerful server machine at an OnLive data center up to 1,000 miles away. We spoke to founder and CEO Steve Perlman about the service, plus got our hands on it at E3 just yesterday.

"It's a very different approach to gaming," he told us, "and in fact, it's a different approach to computing, because you don't need a high-performance computer to run a high-performance game." OnLive's customized Dell GPU-powered servers and proprietary video-compression technology can stream low-latency video to you in 720p, and "it arrives so fast it's like you're playing the game locally," Perlman says. And you don't have to worry about system requirements or whether that game even has a native Mac version at all—OnLive takes care of the technical side, and you just play.

"It basically works on every Mac," Perlman says, "which is very cool. We can't say that about PCs, because of netbooks." OnLive does require Snow Leopard, a dual-core CPU, and a 1280x720 screen resolution, but that covers every modern Intel Mac. Only the first-generation MacBook Air has trouble, Perlman explains, because it can overheat, which slows the processor.

And of course you need a good broadband Internet connection. At launch, it has to be a wired Ethernet connection--Wi-Fi support will come later. You need to be within 1,000 miles of a data center, so they're launching in the continental U.S; Alaska and Hawaii are too far. OnLive recommends a 5MB per second connection, and a ping result of less than 25 milliseconds—head to speedtest.net if you need to check your Internet speeds, and get all the technical details about OnLive here.

How to Procure an OnLive Account

So, let's say your specs are up to snuff: How do you get in? And what'll you find when you get there? And how much will all this cost? AT&T is sponsoring a Founding Members Program, and if you sign up here by July 15, the first year of the service is free, and an optional second year is $4.95 per month. You'll still have to pay for the games themselves (we don't have pricing info at press time, but will update when the service goes live). OnLive will gradually add people to the service to make sure the servers can keep up with the demand. "We're not going to let more people on than we can handle the load for," Perlman says.



During our play tests at E3, we were impressed with the easy-to-use interface, plug-and-play gamepad support, high resolution, and of course the game selection. We didn't notice any lag taking a spin through Assassin's Creed II, Dragon Age Origins, Madballs in Babo: Invasion, and World of Goo. OnLive even has a playable demo of LEGO Harry Potter, Years 1-4, which Warner Brothers Interactive showed at E3 and isn't released until June 29. We'll write up a full review of OnLive once we get some real-world experience with it, but so far, so good.

OnLive Has Tons of Features

You can even try OnLive games before you buy, with free demos and 3- and 5-day rentals providing a tiered path to buying the full game. "The demo and rental is instant, and you can buy it instantly when the demo runs out," Perlman explains.

Aside from just gaming, you'll be able to set up a friends list, spectate other users' game sessions in real time, and record and share "brag clips" of your best gaming accomplishments. More developments are in the pipeline, including a MicroConsole adapter that lets you play OnLive on your regular TV, and possible iPhone and iPad access.



"Today we think of media as still images, video, and music," Perlman explains when discussing OnLive's philosophy. "You pretty much figure any media like that, you can play across any platform. But when it comes to games, they're considered a type of application, so it depends on the platform and the capabilities. what we've done is turned games into a pure form of media. It streams like video, it runs on any platform. And it brings Mac users all the top games."

The full launch lineup, with more titles coming soon, includes:

* aaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity
* Assassin's Creed II (Ubisoft)
* Batman: Arkham Asylum (Square Enix / Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
* Borderlands (Take Two Interactive Entertainment)
* Brain Challenge (Gameloft)
* Defense Grid: Gold (Hidden Path)
* Dirt 2 (Codemasters)
* Dragon Age: Origins (Electronic Arts)
* FEAR 2: Project Origin (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
* Just Cause 2 (Square Enix)
* LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
* Madballs in Babo: Invasion (Playbrains)
* Mass Effect 2 (Electronic Arts)
* MLB 2K10 (2K Sports)
* NBA 2K10 (Take Two Interactive Entertainment)
* Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Ubisoft)
* Puzzle Chronicles (Konami)
* Red Faction Guerrilla (THQ)
* Shatter (Sidhe)
* Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction (Ubisoft)
* Trine (Frozenbyte)
* Unreal Tournament III (Epic)
* World of Goo (2DBoy)