Unfortunately, OnLive may be coming to an end as employees were laid off and the company is now in the hands of an unnamed investor. OnLive seemed to be the next big thing, but perhaps it was ahead of its time. Many could also argue that cloud gaming is unnecessary in today’s world where those with a capable gaming rig would rather opt to play a game on their hardware instead of streaming it from a server. Still, cloud gaming is a sound idea for tablets and most laptop users.
Whatever the cause was, it is now clear that due to low subscriber count (users who actually paid for their services), the company is now bankrupt. However, instead of liquidating the company, the company and its assets have been handed over to a third party. This third party entity will continue to provide OnLive’s services to its users, but note that this is not under the same direction and control as the previous owners. This type of transfer is known as “Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors,” or an “ABC.”
Going forward, what will become of OnLive? Well, there is still hope. The third party entity that now has control over the company may bring back many of the employees that were laid off. This may mean that OnLive could still make a come back. But, for now, the service will still be operational and users can still hop on and play their games.
Sources:
Kotaku.com, Joystiq.com
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As expected. Nobody who can afford an internet connection capable of streaming games without latency would ever subscribe to this service for various reasons. Most importantly, the amount of money available to buy a system and games for it.
Unless you live in california or kansas city with $70 for 1 gbps connections lol.
On my desktop it was okay, but wireless was a bit wonky. Also, another issue was that the quality suffered quite a bit. I believe in some games the effects were not turned up all of the way and the max res you could go up to was 720p.
With that said, this was quite an interesting venture. However, a lot of devices are starting to get more powerful. So, it’s going to be hard to see the need for cloud gaming as we progress IMO.
I would expect much better battery life playing off of onlive than off of the computer/tablet (since you’re only drawing power to render the video and not having to render the entire game on the GPU…)
The CEO also promised to sue Gaikai for “Stealing their ideas’
It’s a good rent-a-game thing as far as I’m concerned but initial investment + buying the games = nonononono. Better buy a pc and the games from a service with a more lasting appeal.