Divinity II - The Dragon Knight Saga now available via OnLive !!!

We're very pleased to announce that Divinity II - The Dragon Knight Saga is now available via OnLive.

If you're wondering why we're so happy about it, it's because it takes care of that one thing that might be preventing you from playing Divinity II - The Dragon Knight Saga: your hardware.


Via Onlive you can play at high settings on your PC, your Mac, TV and even mobile devices.
No discs.
No downloads.

All you need is an internet connection. The service is currently only available in the US but it's scheduled to soon launch in other countries.

Check it out now - it's pretty amazing!

Ok I don't want to sound like an idiot but how would that work?

I've never played games OnLive before, if theres no downloads does that mean you have to pay every time you wish to play it. Or is it like the downloads, you just pay once & then you can access it whenever you want?

You can buy short or long tern access to certain games (full access means you pay once and can play it as long as it is supported, which they say will be as long as people are still playing, but at least 3 years after release), or there is a subscription pack that will let you play any of the bundled games and give a discount on others. Most games also have a demo, which are apparently the full games, since they say you can continue with the same save if you try a demo and then purchase access.

Getting Started FAQ

Oh ok that's cool that will mean more publicity for Divinity which is always fine by me

congrats guy's I'm rooting for you I hope everything keeps going good for you all

& maybe one day you can Bankrupt EA & take there place LOL

It all sounds freaking amazing !!!

Hopeone day I can play on a pc (with internet connection) the last new rpg of Larian for at least 3 years !
O, only 3 years?
That's toooooooo little !! 30 years is maybe enough to starting a "New Game" of Larian Studios and begin to find it a little bit "boring" - like maybe at some time Divine Divinity becomes for me boring ?
... Maybe!

You get BORED of Divinity Joram ........ Why Can I NOT see that happening lol

Hahaha .. never laught so much as today reading on this Larian forum !

FINALLY the Larian forum start going to be as funny as a Larian game !
That is what I will see, after all !

I wonder what sort of inet connection is required for good performance. I'm i'm not mistaken they render the image and then ship a diff of each frame to your device. I guess since this is video update only they could handle low level packet loss by dropping frames or partial frames.

[Their faq suggeset you need 3+ Mbp/s which is quite a bit if this is a sustained rate.

Sounds like a good idea then everyone can play games regardless of their computer hardware. The UK is pretty backwards when it comes to internet connectivity speed; two of the biggest telephone companies offer 50Mb broadband if you live in a fibre optic enabled area but coverage is limited. Give it 10 years though and fast internet coverage will increase and then cloud gaming will be a big thing.

So it is a renting service (you do not actually own a copy of the game at all, and when the game is pulled off that is it) which also requires a hi-speed internet access. I guess I am missing something here. Paying big bucks for rentals - when did it become a great idea? You know I would prefer to own a copy and not to be dependent for my kicks on some dudes, so I would stick with the Xbox. Nobody can take MY COPY of D2DKS from me!

You've a point !

And: if your internet connection failed some day, for example a big storm or short-circuit or whatever by your internet provider and it's over ...

But I still find the "idea" nice, but not without possible 'disadvantages' !

I second that. I prefer physical copies & yes having just seen the prices for rentals that is way too steep! I didn't pay too much attention to that the first time I looked. Although you can purchase the game from them and play it forever technically you are still renting as you never have a physical copy digital or not. Also if the company goes tits-up you have lost your game.

It's a good idea though for people who don't own high end hardware or want to play on other devices; my nephew being a good example. They have a 5 year old PC and no money to buy consoles or another PC but yet have 50mb broadband.

Majority of PC players though would get a DVD / download copy unless Onlive lower their prices. I bet though in 10 years so called 'cloud' gaming will be more popular.

I just want the boxed English version. Still haven't been able to find it in America

There was no US DVD release, so you'll have to import it or find a store that imports games. GoGamer.com used to carry it, but the site is down (they used to have a messages saying they were reorganizing and would be back 'soon', but now it is just a logo). AFAIK nobody in Canada that carries the game (Amazon/Gamestop) ships outside of Canada.
A few people in the UK mentioned ordering from Play-asia.com (though it doesn't look like they still have it in stock), or you should be able to order from another European country (except Germany), since they include the English language version of the game (but not necessarily an English manual).

I can't buy a hard copy?

Then you should not buy games from Steam, Origin, or the like, because they can revoke the rights to your games, or terminate your account entirely.

Your point sounds reasonable, but you're really just singling out OnLive for something that is inherent in all forms of digital distribution. OnLive is not a rental service any more than Steam is a rental service (okay, technically, you CAN rent games on OnLive, but you know what I mean). Just like I doubt Steam is going to one day decide to remove games from people's accounts just for the fun of it, I highly doubt OnLive will do so as well. That is simply paranoid thinking.

As for big bucks, OnLive is currently one of the cheapest, if not the cheapest, places to buy games. I can list games I've bought at extreme discounts, and games I got for free outright. For example, I received Red Faction: Armageddon for free the very same day it was released in stores. I did the same with F.E.A.R. 3 on its release date. Divinity 2 is currently on sale for $19.99, but most users are only paying $13.99. The closest I came to paying full price for a game recently was pre-ordering Batman: Arkham City for $34.99, as opposed to its normal price of $49.99. Big bucks? More like pocket change.

OnLive is a wonderful service that will allow Divinity 2 to be played on a wide variety of hardware such as low-end PCs and Macs. Maybe it's something you can get into, or maybe it's not. Regardless, I will point out that there is not a single thing you've said in your post that has not, at one point, been said about Steam when that service was coming into its own.

That is a perfectly reasonable and valid choice.

Also, yeah, I agree that rental prices should be cheaper. Most OnLive users don't bother renting, to my experience, as oftentimes a sale comes along and they're able to buy the full game for lower than it's rental price!



As I mentioned earlier, this same argument was levied against Steam, once upon a time. "No physical discs? Madness! What if the service disappears?" Technically these arguments are still valid. Steam could disappear tomorrow. However, most people know this to be highly unlikely. I will say, though, that if you're going to say this about OnLive then you must say it about all digital game stores.

As for not having a local copy ... yes, that is part of what Cloud Gaming is. Your ability to reconcile this will determine your ability to accept it. I, at first, refused to buy any OnLive games for months for just this reason, but after a while I got over it.

One interesting thing OnLive is doing is including free cloud copies of their games in the physical PC versions. If you buy a physical PC copy of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, you will receive a voucher for a free OnLive version of the game. Well, unless you buy it from GameStop. There's a bit of controversy going around because GameStop was caught opening copies of Deus Ex, removing the OnLive vouchers, and selling them to their customers as "new" products.



That is the greatest benefit of cloud gaming. I will also add that, in the near future, you'll be able to play OnLive games on tablets and smartphones. Also, OnLive has a partnership with Vizio to build it into their TVs and Blu-Ray players.



I agree. Players with the hardware will get the download/physical version, but not because OnLive is expensive. It is actually INSANELY cheap. I gave a couple of examples of this in my earlier post. The reason OnLive, and cloud gaming in general, will take a while to catch on is because it will take a while for gamers to wrap their minds around it and discover that it is not as intimidating as they think. There is currently a certain level of bias against cloud gaming that must be overcome.

Good points, personally I try & buy boxed copies but I have started buying more from Steam basically because like you say it's been around for ages and not likley to disappear soon. They also have special offers from time to time which is cheaper than store prices.

As for onlive, thing is in the UK we always get ripped off because games & other products are often the same amount in pounnds as they are in dollars. A game that is $39.99 in the US will be sold at £39.99 in the UK. With currect exchange rates UK users are paying almost twice for the same product.

If / when onlive comes to the UK I'd be interested in certain games purchased from it for the simple reason I can play the game on my PC then continue on my laptop (a cheap celeron incapable of anything but office work) or tablet. All other games will be from stores or Steam.

While I'm not a fan of purchasing streamed content from a cloud, the Onlive stuff does work relatively well. The IQ is never as crisp as running a game directly; however, it's certainly a nice option for those that don't have the hardware to run a game or to test out a game for 30 minutes. I've gotten Amnesia for free, a few other games for next to nothing during sales, and have played a good many trials to take games for a test drive.

OnLive is officially launching in the UK on September 22nd. Pricing hasn't been announced yet, but I do hope that the difference in currency is taken into account.

That is extremely depressing. I still don't have the game, since I only want the physical version. Do the Canadian stores still have the box copy?

I have not been in any game/computer stores in awhile, so don't know if anyone else has started carrying DKS. Best Buy / Future Shop still only list D2:ED on their websites. Amazon.ca has the PC and Xbox version of DKS; GameStop.ca used to carry both, but now only list the Xbox version on their website (it is possible individual store may still have the PC version). A couple listings show up on eBay (for a little over $40 - it is $30 from Amazon.ca, but would have to be shipped again to get to the US, since they do not ship games outside Canada).

I'm going to be in Vancouver and a few other parts of B.C. next week, so hopefully I can find a copy then. If not, hopefully I can find a way to get one shipped in

A storm of that nature would probably knock out your electricity anyway, so unless you have a handheld (and remembered to charge it) you'll be without your games regardless. In the event of an outage it wouldn't be "all over". Your service would be restored as quickly as possible.

If you truly fear such a scenario, then I suggest you never use the internet for anything remotely important, because that would effect more than just your OnLive account.

well it would all depend on what he thinks is inportan on the net

Well, to depend on OnLive or any other rental is like to depend on a hooker for sex. In some respects it might be preferable to a permanent girlfriend or a wife - no need to worry about hooker's needs or health, how happy she is and such. But even in the Universe with the abundance of available hookers I would still prefer to be totally sure when and from where my next sex will come from. It is far more convenient to me, that's why I am all for the girlfriends and wives.

BTW, OnLive IS NOT like Steam. On Steam you can play without internet connection, and you can download backups of your games, and install them if necessary. Steam is just one of the digital distributors. OnLive is not, it is a market alternative to brick-n-mortar rental outlets like bankrupted Blockbuster. I guess as an opportunity to check out a game that does not have a demo for free it is good, but I wouldn't shell out any money on OnLive.

yes but it's an option for people that may not have the space on there harddrives to play it without having to install it. They never once said they'd rely on it, they don't need to they already sold a whole load of DKS for Xbox & PC. This is just another way to bring it to more people that may not have an Xbox or like I said space on there PC to install it.

I don't think hard drive space is an issue; they are dirt cheap nowadays. It's more a case of convenience I think; that is being able to play the same game on multiple platforms. Casual gamers will probably go for it but if you are into serious gaming you would buy retail or from Steam.

Refering back to earlier post, onlive would be great for my nephew and his single parent. They have a 5 year old PC, no consoles, a low paid job, high mortgage and so a new PC is out of the question. If you can rent high end games and play them on a 5 year old PC then that would be great for them.

I see both sides of the argument; not everyone can afford Xboxes and gaming PC's but for those that can I can't see onlive being a first choice.

they maybe dirt cheap to some but there still a lot of money to others, not everyone has the mony to just go out & replae a P or a part for it. So a game you can play without downloading it & have it take up space on the harddrive is a godsend to thouse that can't afford a state of the art PC.

A 500Gb HDD can be had for the price of an average game. You don't have to replace your existing drive, just add it as a secondary drive. But yes, not everyone can afford one.

People who do not have enough money simply do not waste them on video games (the ones I know simply pirate them with no qualms about morality). Anyway, the price to play a full game on OnLive is exactly the price of buying a disk copy. It ain't cheap you know. I simply do not see some poor guys paying for it, it does not look like a budget service to me. If you do not have 50 bucks to buy a hard drive, why would you spend 50 bucks on OnLive? I mean I can get that people trying games for free, I would do it myself one day. But other then that it looks like a sucker trap You know, like with credit cards. People may not want to wait some time to save money for an upgrade, and to buy a used copy, so they may rush and shell out money on OnLive. Well, a f***wit and his money are easily parted.

How people choose to play there game's is up to them Onlive doesn't effect me because I have a Pc able to hanlde the game's. Not too mention I play DKS on the Xbox rather than the PC Although i do have it for the PC, I bought it the other week but have'nt played it properly yet.

I thought f**itt was a British thing. Here's my favorite viz character:-

Terry F**witt

As for people who don't have any money don't waste it on games I see your point but my nephew does; he buys them himself from his pocket money or what he earns from doing simple jobs for my stepparents i.e car washing, light gardening jobs etc. He gets taught if you want something, you earn it.

Exactley there are plenty of reasons why people would use onlive, like Arokh said, maybe the one's buying it are kids with there pocket money. Maybe the PC doesn't belong to them & the owner doesn't want a game that they won't play taking up space on there harddrive. Maybe they are using a public computer like in a computer cafe or at a librery, there are many possibilitys for someone using Onlive. Just because you maynot use it doesn't mean the people that do are F**witts as you put it, they just might lack the option to play it any other way.

Yes, you are right, there are circumstances like you described (when a comp is not available or some other emergency)) when people would use OnLive. But I doubt that just emergency use would generate enough profits for a service. As I said it ain't cheap, and while it is so, it would not be financially wise to use it not as an emergency (where you pay like 5 buck for a three days or something) but on a regular basis. Well, people are all for instant gratification, even if it would cost more at the end, so OnLive is here, if somebody needs it.

Personally, I don't like OnLive at all - because of the direction where it leads to ...

But I respect Larian's decision.

I'd never heard of the game until it was added to onlive. I bought it a few weeks back and just started playing it and now I'm hooked!

It's true that onlive has some disadvantages such as needing a fast internet connection while playing and relying on the service to stay around to access your games, but it also has some real advantages too.

The obvious is that you don't need high end hardware. But the big thing for me is the portability. If I'm at home, at work, at my parent's house, at a friend's house, not only do I have instant access to all of my onlive games, but all of my save states are there too! I've been playing DKS during lunch at work and turning people on to it who would have never heard of it otherwise. Then when I get home I pick up the game from the same spot.

Also, you can watch other people play the game in real time which gives you a much better idea of if the game is fun or not than watching a trailer or even pre-recorded gameplay footage on youtube.

I've had quite a few discs and cartridges get lost/stolen/damaged over the years, so having the physical copy doesn't always mean you have it forever either.

So, it's a tradeoff, it's not for everybody, but I like it.

That indeed make sense !

Happy hunting, happy carving or happy hurling ... some enemies