Interesting news today regarding OnLive, the once popular gaming-on-demand service that has had its fair share of troubles since the beginning of last year. Apparently the company, along with all of its assets, have been acquired by Sony and because of that operations will be ceasing in the coming months.
The press release that came out today states that Sony has acquired “various assets including its US and foreign patent portfolio covering its substantial innovations in cloud gaming.” The service will not immediately be ending though, instead gamers will have access to the games, desktop, and Second Life services up until April 30th, 2015. After that date services will slowly be winding down until the entire OnLive service ceases operations completely. On top of that, anyone with a subscription will not be charged starting today. Anyone who was charged the subscription fee on or after March 28th, 2015 but before today will be receiving a refund.
OnLive has had problems for awhile, starting in 2012 when the company laid off a majority of its staff and stopped development for awhile after it was bought out, leaving the service running as-is at that time. Since then the service has been passed around like a party favor, being added to various platforms as well in an attempt to try to revitalize it. Mad Catz MOJO Android console ended up getting OnLive support, Wikipad joined the party as well, and of course the Ouya console. That’s just an example.
These strategic purchases open up great opportunities for our gamers, and gives Sony a formidable patent portfolio in cloud gaming. It is yet another proof point that demonstrates our commitment to changing the way gamers experience the world of PlayStation. – Philip Rosenberg, SCE’s VP of Global Business Development and SCEA’s SVP of Business Development and Publisher Relations
With OnLive’s patent protfolio in the hands of Sony, it will be interesting to see what the company does with all of that technology. It was in 2012 when Sony acquired OnLive’s competitor Gaikai which means Sony now has both companies. The actual terms of this deal haven’t been released. Anyone want to take a stab at guessing what Sony will do with it, or at least what you hope they will do with it?
