Sony buys OnLive gaming streaming service.

[Xsilent(X)]

 

OnLive, one of the most promising video game startups in the industry, is shutting down.

The Mountain View, Calif., company, which offered gamers a groundbreaking new way to play games over the Internet, announced Thursday that it's selling its patents to Sony. OnLive's service will be shut down after April 30.

 

"Following the termination of the company's services and related products, OnLive will engage in an orderly wind-down of the company and cease operations," OnLive wrote in a statement. Sony confirmed the deal, saying the purchase opens "great opportunities for our gamers, and gives Sony a formidable patent portfolio." Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The sale brings to an end one of the more ambitious new video game technology startups. Founded more than a decade ago by Apple and Microsoft alum Steve Perlman, OnLive was built to offer customers a way to play visually sophisticated video games without having to own expensive computing hardware. The way it worked was through a technology called "cloud gaming," where gaming programs would run on powerful computers in a server, and the images would be broadcast over the Internet to a gamer playing on a tablet or computer, much in the same way Netflix streams videos to television sets.

But OnLive struggled. Two years after its high-profile launch in 2010, high costs and anemic marketing forced the company to enter a form of bankruptcy, during which OnLive laid off much of its staff and effectively sold itself to investor Lauder Partners. The company relaunched, offering streaming technology for gamers who used Valve Corp.'s Steam online store, but otherwise it appeared to scale back its ambitions.

 

In 2012, OnLive said it counted 1.75 million active users, some of whom paid $9.99 per month to access its game library of 250 titles on devices ranging from TVs and PCs to smartphones and tablets. OnLive also at one point sold access to newer titles outright at prices similar to retail.

One of the biggest challenges for game-streaming technology has been convincing players to pay for it. Only 2 percent of gamers had spent money on cloud gaming technology by last June, according to a survey from research firm IDC. Only about 13 percent of gamers said they were even interested in spending money on it.

OnLive wasn't the only company offering streaming technology. Nvidia, which is best known for making microprocessing chips for PCs, offers a game-streaming service for PCs and set-top boxes called GRID.

But perhaps the biggest company offering this technology is Sony. The Japanese tech giant built a streaming service for its PlayStation family of gaming devices using technology it bought in 2012 from a company called Gaikai for $380 million. The PlayStation Now streaming service, as it's now known, launched in January.

But Sony faces similar problems to OnLive: cost and lack of interest from gamers. Currently, PlayStation Now allows for the streaming of only about 100 older games. The company has also priced its service higher than OnLive's, at $20 a month or $45 for three months. Sony has declined to say how many gamers have signed up for its service.

Though it does offer the ability to rent games on a title-by-title basis, Sony has been criticized for offering unrealistic prices as high as $5 for four hours or $30 for a 90-day play period. Sony says publishers and developers decide what rental durations are offered.

What's unclear is whether Sony can succeed where OnLive appears to have failed. In its statement, Sony said its continued investment "is yet another proof point that demonstrates our commitment to changing the way gamers experience the world of PlayStation."

 

 

http://www.cnet.com/news/sony-buys-onlive-streaming-game-service-which-will-shut-down-later-this-month/

[terrytek]

I always thought this program was crapware.

[STRMfrmXMN]

Pretty sure OnLive is dead - no reason to buy it Sony. You're already in a bad enough position.

[Xsilent(X)]

Pretty sure OnLive is dead - no reason to buy it Sony. You're already in a bad enough position.

 

i'm sure it has some patents to sue other company's

[STRMfrmXMN]

i'm sure it has some patents to sue other company's

That is true, though I think, from a business standpoint, buying a service that people believe to be crapware like @terrytek and I did until reading this article is not a good idea. Sony is making a dumb decision here IMO.

[Hspasta]

I didn't know onlive was still around...That said, I think calling it crapware is uncalled for. The idea is sound, but the infrastructure required wasn't there yet and it won't be for a while in the US.

 

Actually, I recall seeing a Microsoft advertisement about Titanfall on how they do some heavy lifting processing server side for better content on your xbox.

[EChondo]

Wasn't April Fools yesterday?

[Majinferno]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Good bye to my backup streaming service. I'll be back in a year when sony closes it off.

[Kamina]

Onlive was DOA.

[Trik'Stari]

Never even heard of it.

[Misanthrope]

WAT

[BallisticPeanut]

I remember OnLive.  Wasn't sure if anyone ever used it.

[Xsilent(X)]

I remember OnLive. Wasn't sure if anyone ever used it.

They had allot of active users in the begining of that service, but they never had Anny numbers of active users using that service.

[chutia]

The are basically taking a service away from pc users and providing it on their playstations. So are they trying to force pc users to purchase playstations now!!?

 

These cloud services are only going to get more popular as faster broadband becomes available to houses, so this seems suspicious market cornering strategy by playstation....

[Inkz]

I thought they bought it a few years ago...

[dylan43270]

Never heard about it until it was mentioned in Tech Talk. I am just waiting for Leap Computing to release a more better version of this service.

[Sharkyx1]

I thought they bought it a few years ago...

That was Gakai

[Albatross]

Never heard of this before...

[Inkz]

That was Gakai

Ok,thx

[Sharp_3yE]

Guys, remember when Sony said "we're working on a streaming service so you can play all your older games on your new console" and well here is part of their solution. They bought a company that does this.

[suicidalfranco]

Guys, remember when Sony said "we're working on a streaming service so you can play all your older games on your new console" and well here is part of their solution. They bought a company that does this.

they already had bought a company that does: gaikai

they already deployed a solution that allows to play older games on new consoles and tvs: ps now

ps now is the result of the gaikai buyout

 

i think this sucks though, now the only option available is nvidia grid and, unlike onlive, it's not available online it's not available worldwide. and my old old netbook just become a brick at this point

 

edited

[Sharp_3yE]

they already had bought a company that does: gaikai

they already deployed a solution that allows to play older games on new consoles and tvs: ps now

ps now is the result of the gaikai buyout

 

i think this sucks though, now the only option available is nvidia grid and, unlike onlive. it's not available online. and my old old netbook just become a brick at this point

Yea, they have already worked on this. That's why I said "here is PART of their solution." It's not their whole thing.

[suicidalfranco]

what will happen to those that bought the onlive micro console and controller?

[Xsilent(X)]

what will happen to those that bought the onlive micro console and controller?

 

i think they will get a update to Playstation now hub.