OnLive Snubbed in Sprint’s HTC Evo View Reveal

By  |  Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 6:15 pm

If HTC’s Evo View 4G tablet can play modern PC games from OnLive, Sprint isn’t saying so.

OnLive was supposed to be a big feature in the HTC Flyer, the 7-inch Android tablet that Sprint is calling the Evo View 4G. The cloud gaming service gets top billing on HTC’s Flyer website, and promises to let users play PC games like Homefront and Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood on their tablets.

But Sprint’s announcement of the Evo View 4G doesn’t mention OnLive, even as it promises other built-in entertainment apps such as Blockbuster On Demand and NASCAR Sprint Cup.

OnLive won’t tell me exactly what’s going on, but says it has a good-sized mobile team that’s still working on features with HTC, which earlier this year invested $40 million in the company.

It’s possible that OnLive will make a separate announcement, but I’m guessing that when the Evo View arrives this summer, OnLive won’t be pre-loaded. Maybe Sprint doesn’t want the service chewing up its bandwidth. Or perhaps AT&T, another OnLive investor, has first dibs on the tablet front. Your guess is as good as mine.

Whatever happens with Sprint, I hope to see OnLive on tablets this year. I was hard on the service in my review of its MicroConsole set-top box, mainly because of occasional service interruptions and a limited game library, but I’m still fascinated by the concept. Tablets, which for the foreseeable future won’t be powerful enough to run the latest big-budget video games, seem like a good place for OnLive to grow.

 
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7 Comments For This Post

  1. OnLiveFans.com Says:

    I’m guessing it will come in a separate announcement, but my guess is as good as yours.

  2. kpy345 Says:

    As I understand, OnLive has only developed a spectator version on its software for tablets, with the development of actually playing games on a tablet sometime in the future. Maybe it wasn't worth mentioning for HTC?

  3. JaredNewman Says:

    Nope, when HTC announced the Flyer, they specifically mentioned the ability play games on it. HTC's website also says so:

    "All you need is the OnLive game controller and you can instantly play the best games in the world anywhere you have a fast Internet connection."
    http://www.htc.com/www/product/flyer/overview.htm

  4. Dave Says:

    You can get splashtop and steam it from your pc.

  5. Dan Says:

    thats exactly what I do on my ipad 😀

  6. JaredNewman Says:

    Does that work? I wasn't aware that virtual desktops were fast enough for that sort of thing.

  7. Dave Says:

    err stream it