The glossy front panel is both a distinctive touch and a fingerprint magnet Despite the look, there’s nothing here that would make it more difficult to pack or store than your standard controller. Where other controllers might have had more open space between the triggers and the central battery, for example, OnLive preferred to create only a small dip between them. The underside, too, tends towards larger, squarer shapes. It’s not particularly bigger than other controllers, but it feels decidedly chunkier, largely because of a decision to square off the top rather than create a valley between the shoulder buttons. Overall, the OnLive controller looks like a single block of plastic into which controls have been set, rather than a group of controls that have had plastic molded around them. Anticipated TV use aside, read on to find out whether OnLive made me want to replace my trusty Xbox 360 controller. Some smart TVs are also supposed to start shipping with an OnLive app soon, at which point you’ll be able to use the controller for those as well. We tested the controller over three devices - a notebook, the Asus Eee Pad Transformer tablet, and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone.
Its latest effort is the $49.99 OnLive Universal Wireless Controller, a cross-platform version of the MicroConsole controller that’s meant to complement OnLive’s PC, Android, and upcoming iOS offerings.īut if you use OnLive already, or are in the market for a new PC gamepad, is this the one for you? Based on our experience, it depends on what you’re looking for. Back in those days, this usually meant netbooks, but with tablets on the rise, OnLive is turning its gaze to less traditional gaming devices.
When OnLive launched, it was touted as a way for gamers to get high-end titles on low-spec machines.