OnLive has announced the OnLive Player App, which will enable streaming play of "virtually all" OnLive games on iPad and Android tablets. Due for launch in Autumn, it will support both touch control and OnLive's new Universal Motion Controller. The app overlays virtual buttons over the screen if the controller isn't used - a demo at E3 of From Dust uses virtual controls that have been designed by its developers. It also supports multiplayer voice chat.
The app also allows tablets to act as a touch and motion controller if combined with a TV, Mac or PC, displaying both synchronised and independent video on the tablet and TV screen, meaning that the TV and tablet can display both video from one game and from two different games.
"The power of the cloud is definitely the theme this week, displacing what had been assumed to be platforms that could never be displaced," says OnLive founder and CEO Steve Perlman. "The OnLive Player App for iPad and Android shows how with the power of the cloud, the question is not whether cloud gaming will be able to catch up to consoles, it will be whether consoles will be able to catch up to cloud gaming."
Addressing Nintendo's unveiling of Wii U yesterday, OnLive's press release states that it will integrate tablets and TV with gaming "with far higher performance, richer gameplay and deeper social integration than any console announced for 2012."
OnLive launched an iPad app called OnLive Viewer in December, which only supports OnLive's social networking features, such as viewing friends lists and watching "Brag Clips", videos of friends' gameplay.