GameFly, the video game rent-by-mail service, has long been compared to Netflix, at least, back when they mailed us DVDs. Now the company has made a new step towards becoming the gaming equivalent of the Netflix that focuses on streaming. Along with announcing their acquisition of Playcast, GameFly is launching a new game streaming service exclusively on Amazon’s Fire TV. And they’re not talking about the kind of games you’d find a smartphone, but big-name titles including the Batman Arkham series, Hitman, Darksiders, Red Faction, and games from the various LEGO franchises. This is a big win for the Amazon Fire TV, as game streaming is something that isn’t offered on rivals such as the Apple TV, Chromecast, or Roku. GameFly says the service will launch later this year*, powered by Playcast, and eventually make its way to other devices like smart TVs. The game streaming service will also be unique in its pricing models, as instead of a buffet of content for one monthly fee, users can rent different bundles of select games for $6.99 per month.
There will be six bundles available at launch, each with seven games loosely grouped by theme. Serious gamers will be more interested in the premium bundle, which offers 16 games for $9.99 per month. Titles included in the different bundles are listed below. Action Pack (7 titles) – $6.99/month includes F.E.A.R. 3, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, Red Faction: Armageddon, Red Faction: Guerilla, Mafia II, Sleeping Dogs, and Hitman Adventure Pack (7 titles) – $6.99/month includes Dark Void, Overlord II, Darksiders, Darksiders II, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, and Batman: Arkham Origins Speed Pack (7 titles) – $6.99/month includes Ace Combat, Dirt 3, GRID, GRID 2, MotoGP13, Ridge Racer Unbounded, and WRC 4 Fun Pack (7 titles) – $6.99/month includes Flock!, PAC-MAN Championship Edition, PAC-MAN and the Ghostly Adventures, LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7, Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams, Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams – Rise of the Owlverlord, and BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
Lego Pack (7 titles) – $6.99/month includes LEGO Batman, LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, LEGO Lord of the Rings, LEGO Harry Potter 5-7, LEGO Marvel: Super Heroes, and LEGO The Hobbit Gamer Pack (16 titles) – $9.99/month includes F.E.A.R.3, Red Faction:Armageddon, Red Faction: Guerilla, Sleeping Dogs, Hitman, Darksiders, Darksiders II, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, Batman: Arkham Origins, Shank, Shank 2, Dark Void, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, Mafia II, and Overlord II Games can be played for as long as a user likes, however using GameFly’s service will require buying a $40 Amazon Fire TV Game Controller. While the titles included so far aren’t the latest blockbusters hitting the PS4 and Xbox One, GameFly’s service is definitely ambitious. The company notes that it wants to build “the world’s premier multi-platform, console-quality streaming video game service.” Hopefully it won’t turn out like OnLive’s attempt, which never took off and eventually saw the company shut down.
Batman's very own Lego movie is currently tearing up the box office thanks to its childlike appeal and some clever humour. Apple clearly wants to get in on the action because Siri appears to have learned a new Bat-themed trick. The iPhone's voice assistant will drop in references to The Lego Batman Movie if you say the magic word. All you have to do is activate Siri and address your iPhone with "Hey Computer" (or, if you fancy "Hey 'Puter) and it'll respond in kind. As you can see from the video above, we've been testing out the feature ourselves and Siri didn't disappoint with it's excellent Lego responses. Thankfully, you don't have to have star Will Arnett's vocal dexterity to play the "caped crusader" for your iPhone. Last week we reported how Arnett hasn't asked former Batman actors Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck for advice on portraying the Dark Knight. The 46-year-old actor plays a miniature version of the superhero in The Lego Batman Movie, and in a bid to put his own spin on the DC Comics character, he's avoided asking for tips from both the first ever and most recent Batman stars.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he said: "I don't have a phone. I met Michael Keaton last year which is pretty awesome." OnLive gets Xperia Play support, iPad app still MIA 12.23.2011 :: 7:15AM EST The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play was a bit of a dud. The long-rumored Playstation Phone implemented a cool idea — put a slide-out physical controller on an Android phone — but old PS1 games weren’t enough to get most people excited (Crash Bandicoot was cool in 1997, but not so much in 2011). The Xperia Play, however, just got a lot more interesting: cloud gaming service OnLive just updated its Android app to support the Xperia Play’s controller. What does this mean? It means that Owners of the Xperia Play can now play L.A. Noire and Batman: Arkham City on their phones. Technically, anyone with an Android device can already do this, but there’s a catch: aside from a few touch-optimized Lego games, OnLive’s library of games requires a bluetooth controller.
Xperia Play owners no longer need to buy the $50 accessory, and can use their phone’s built-in control pad. Another potential catch revolves around OnLive’s fundamental premise. No game is downloaded to your device. While you control the input and see the output, the game is hosted on OnLive’s servers. Think of it as a YouTube video that you control in real-time. If you have an excellent internet connection, it will be just like playing the game on a console; if your internet is slow, it will be laggy and frustrating. In our tests, a 25Mbps cable-based WiFi network offered low latency (essentially real-time), but a 6Mbps DSL-based network lagged by nearly a full second. While the Xperia Play support will be welcomed to the relatively small number of owners of that device, the massive population of iPad owners are still left in the dark. OnLive had expected the iPad verison of its app to launch around the same time as the Android app (earlier this month), but the iPad version is still MIA.