OnLive gets cross-game group chat

Gaming cloud serrmtvOnLive has updated its client to support group cross-game chat and other enhanced features. Speaking to Joystiq today, OnLive CEO Steve Perlman confirmed that users are now able to specify groups of people and maintain a chat session with them regardless of the game members of the group are playing. Invites into the chat room can now also be sent via email from the service. New parental control options have also been added, allowing parents to controls the contents their children are able to play in line with PEGI and ESRB ratings. They can also add exceptions to these rules, watch in on the child's gameplay live and chat with them as they play, too. Poor child. Facebook integration has now also been enhanced to support Achievement postings direct to your wall. OnLive will not only automatically tell your FB counterparts when you've got an achievement, it'll automatically include a video clip of the last 10 seconds of gameplay before you got it, which is pretty neat. It's not all been good news for OnLive today. While the service revealed it's signed a cool deal with Square Enix to allow PC owners of Deus Ex: Human Revolution a free cloud version of the game, this hasn't sat well with GameStop, who's told its employees to open up the games and throw out the OnLive coupons included. Mike Jackson

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