Category: SL Go

OnLive extend SL Go’s free trial period to 7 days

Posted on by Inara Pey

SL go logoImportant note: The SL Go service is to be shut down on April 30th, 2015. For more information, please read this report.

On Tuesday June 3rd, OnLive announced that with immediate effect, the trial period of their SL Go service, which provides a full Second Life viewer experience to both computers and android devices, will be extended from 20 minutes to a full seven days for those who sign-up to the service.

The OnLive announcement came via Dennis Harper, OnLive’s Senior Product Manager for SL Go, and reads in full:

OnLive will now be offering new SL Go users a 7-Day Free Trial with sign up for an ‘unlimited access’ subscription package.  A valuable piece of feedback from the Second Life community has been that the 20 minute free trial is not sufficient to get a true experience of SL Go.  Now new users can try SL Go free for an entire week, experiencing Second Life on their Android tablets or seeing how SL Go can render ultra-high graphics even on a lower powered laptop computer.

Impressions of SL Go from the Second Life community have been brilliant so far, and this new 7-day Free Trial will hopefully encourage even more players to check it out.

Dennis Harper
Sr. Product Manager, OnLive

The SL Go service streams Second Life, including the viewer, directly to the user’s system or device. Because all of the processing occurs within the OnLive SL Go servers, and the fact that there is no viewer to install locally, SL Go is an ideal solution for those needing to access Second Life from low-end computers or who wish to access SL from a suitable android tablet while on the move.

SL Go now features a 7-day free trial period for subscribers
SL Go now features a 7-day free trial period for subscribers

Since its introduction in March 2014, the service has proven popular with users, but has also received some criticism – which has been heard and reacted to by OnLive. In April 2014, for example, and a month after launching the service, the company announced a new pricing structure for the service directly in response to user feedback concerning the original pricing system.

The original 20-minute free trial period offered to new subscribers also came in for criticism – more so after the pricing change -, with users feeling that it wasn’t sufficiently long enough for them to gain familiarity with using the service, particularly from a mobile device when using the on-screen UI overlay. Extending the trial period is a direct response to this criticism and should allow users more than enough time to familiarise themselves with the service.

Second Life user Mondy Bristol has produced a video showing SL Go in use on her Nexus 7 (2012).

 

 

 

OnLive and LL announce new pricing structure for SL Go

Posted on by Inara Pey

SL go logoImportant note: The SL Go service is to be shut down on April 30th, 2015. For more information, please read this report.

In March 2014, Linden Lab and OnLive, the games streaming service, announced the open beta of OnLive’s new SL Go service, a means by which SL users could access Second Life via tablets and mobile devices using a full viewer streamed directly to the user’s device.

At the time of the launch, I was one of a number of people who were able to provide a review of the service, having been offered access to it ahead of the launch.

One area of upset with the service which quickly became apparent was the payment plan, which was based on a pay-as-you-go approach, with an hour of use costing $3.00, three hours $8.00 and ten hours $25.00. In response to criticism of the model, OnLive sought to make it clear through various mediums – notably Designing Worlds and Drax Files Radio Hour – that the plan was only an initial step, a means to gain data and feedback, and that options such as subscription plans had not been ruled out. The service also came in for criticism that it was only available in the USA, UK and Canada.

SL Go by OnLive: streaming Second Life to your tablet - but the initial pricing model caused upset
SL Go by OnLive: streaming Second Life to your tablet – but the initial pricing model caused upset

On Thursday April 3rd, OnLive followed-up on these comments by announcing they are both introducing a revised payment plan and extending the service to more regions.  Linden Lab also followed-up with a post of their own. The OnLive announcement reads in part:

Since launching the beta of SL Go about a month ago, OnLive reports they’ve seen a very positive response to the Second Life® Viewer for Android™ that allows users to access Second Life over wifi or 4G LTE on tablets and laptops. Today, OnLive has updated the SL Go beta with new pricing:
  • Monthly unlimited-use subscription for $9.95 (USD) / £6.95 (GBP). No contract and no commitment
  • Reduced hourly rate: $1 / £0.70 per hour.
The previously available offer of a 20-minute free trial still stands.

In addition, and with the announcement, SLGo is now available in 36 countries worldwide, including Austria, Belgium, France, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Luxembourg, Scandinavia – even the Vatican City! The full list of supported countries can be found in the OnLive blog post.

SL Go on my Nexus 7 HD + keyboard
SL Go on my Nexus 7 HD + keyboard

Commenting on the move, OnLive’s Vice President of Product and Marketing, Rick Sanchez, said:

We’re grateful for the opportunity to support the Second Life community, and pleased to be working with such a passionate and creative group.  We look forward to further developing SL Go with their feedback and suggestions.

How popular this makes the service, remains to be seen. But for those on low-end computer systems who would like to have access to Second Life in all its glory, $9.95 might not be considered too much to pay per month until such time as they upgrade their systems.

Certainly, the $9.95 price-tag for the monthly is lower than the figure I had been anticipating following post-launch activities by OnLive; I’d been expecting the price to perhaps be on a par with their CloudLift service ($14.95 a month), which launched at the same time as SL Go. Similarly, dropping the pay-as-you-go rate to flat $1.00 per hour should make the occasional access via tablet or mobile device even more attractive you those who might need it. For those who are interested, and following-up from my initial review, I also have an article about running SL Go on a Nexus 2013 HD.