Steve Perlman's on-demand cloud gaming service, OnLive, just became a far more attractive option. The company's founder and CEO announced today that the $15 monthly base fee for the service has been removed.

Now available for PC and Mac, OnLive allows gamers to instantly play the latest console and PC games without the need for high-end hardware. Via a browser plug-in and high-speed Internet connection, you can play Mafia II on your bargain-priced laptop right now.

OnLive came under heavy fire when Perlman announced at E3 in June that the service would come with a monthly $15 fee that didn't include the cost of rentals or full game purchases.

"Although we wish we could have confirmed no monthly fee from the get-go, pioneering a major new videogame paradigm is hard: we had to first grow to a large base of regular users before we could understand usage patterns and operating costs," Perlman wrote on the OnLive blog this afternoon. "Now that we've reached that stage, we can confidently say a monthly fee is not needed, which deserves a double WOOT! WOOT!"

Perlman also added that the OnLive MicroConsole and game pads are also now in manufacturing, potentially bringing the service to living room TVs in time for the holidays.