OnLive has been waiving first-year base monthly fees since its launch last summer while it grew its base of users and tracked actual operating costs. Today, OnLive confirmed there will be no ongoing base monthly fees, either in the first year or beyond.

“We’re delighted to be able to offer the OnLive Game Service without a base monthly fee on an ongoing basis,” said Steve Perlman, founder and CEO of OnLive, Inc. “There is no precedent for OnLive, so we had to grow to a large number of active users in order to assess usage patterns and operating costs. We’ve arrived at that stage, and as we had hoped, we are able to operate OnLive without charging a fee for access. This opens the door to any gamer seeking instant top-tier game demos, or even just people interested in spectating high-performance live gameplay in the OnLive Arena. Come one, come all.”

OnLive is kicking off this change with the introduction of its Free Trial program for new users to its service, which offers access to the game service in just seconds, with no credit card required to create an account. “The Free Trial program is an instant sign-up path to instant high-performance gaming and community,” added Mike McGarvey, OnLive’s COO. “Since OnLive works on almost any PC or Mac, in no time at all you can be checking out the latest top-tier games for free. Whether you just want to demo a game, or you want to participate in the OnLive community, the Free Trial program is a seamless, hassle-free way to stay on top of the latest in gaming. With OnLive you Just Play.”

In addition to providing free demos and community, OnLive offers purchase of 3-day, 5-day and Full PlayPasses for its catalog of games on an a la carte basis, each of which is accessible without monthly fee for the term of the PlayPass. To sign up or learn more about OnLive’s Free Trial program, visit https://www.onlive.com/go/signup.