Following GameStop Spat, OnLive Finds Retail Partner In UK's Game

Cloud gaming service OnLive launched in the United Kingdom on Wednesday, bringing with it the announcement of its first retail partner. The company said that British video game retail chain Game will carry OnLive's physical goods (namely its plug-and-play console and its wireless controllers) across its 615 stores in the United Kingdom. The partnership will also see the service offered digitally on Game's e-commerce sites, first across the UK and "eventually across Europe and elsewhere," according to statements received by Gamasutra. OnLive's retail partnership in the UK comes in sharp contrast to rifts between the company and leading U.S. retailer GameStop, which in August physically removed promotional vouchers from new copies of Square Enix's Deus Ex: Human Revolution, calling OnLive a "competitor" in the process. "We pulled the coupons because, like all retailers, we prefer not to promote our competitors and their competing offerings and services in our stores. Unfortunately, the coupon was packed without our prior knowledge," GameStop said in a statement. OnLive recently partnered with consumer video game website GameSpot to stream game demos in the United States, which CEO Steve Perlman told Gamasutra was the company's first "large-scale" business push.