Square Enix's cloud gaming service 'CoreOnline' now live

Square Enix has announced that its new cloud gaming service, CoreOnline, has now gone live. CoreOnline allows users to easily play popular, console quality games for free in a web browser.

Games on CoreOnline are made available via a combination of Google and Square Enix's proprietary technology, which allows for support of Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer. CoreOnline is easy to use, allowing players to click on a level and start playing instantly, and giving them the ability to start from any part of the game they wish.

Users of CoreOnline can play games for free by "earning" minutes of gameplay time by watching video advertisements. A 1:17 ad for example, is worth 25 minutes of play time, whereas a 7 second ad is worth 5 minutes. Users can elect to skip advertisements by purchasing levels or entire games.

Titles available at launch include Hitman: Blood Money and Mini Ninjas, while Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light will launch on CoreOnline in October. Also under development for CoreOnline is Tomb Raider: Underworld and Gyromancer, the first title available on the service from Square Enix Japan. Further titles from Square Enix's worldwide lineup of content are intended to be made available within the next year.