OnLive launches L.A. Noire for Android tablets

Cloud gaming service OnLive is launching Rockstar Games’ L.A. Noire on Android tablets today.

One game may not seem like a big deal. But the move shows that OnLive is still striving to bring high-end content to low-end devices. That is, it is taking games that run on game consoles or high-end PCs and is enabling them to run on devices such as iPads or Android tablets.

L.A. Noire was one of the big releases of 2011 and has high-end 3D graphics that wouldn’t otherwise run on a normal tablet. But OnLive uses cloud computing and compression technologies to execute the game in its servers and then send video to the screen, making it seem as if the game is running locally on the tablet.

The tablet version of L.A. Noire is exclusively available through OnLive on Android or Apple tablets. The game has been modified for touchscreen controls.


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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.