OnLive, the streaming game service which debuted in GDC 2009, will cease to operate after this month. The announcement has been made official but as far as the service is concerned, it may not be totally saying goodbye with reports that Sony has officially bought the OnLive's 140 cloud gaming patents.
OnLive went through turbulent times since unveiling its OnLive Game System back in 2010. However, with layoffs and the exit of founder Steve Perlman in 2012, the need to secure new funding became apparent.
Surprisingly and despite belief that OnLive had already succumbed at that time, the service was still kept alive for one reason or another. Much of the credit is given to angel investor Lauder Partners which took hold of the company assets and the cloud gaming technology that they had originally set up.
OnLive somehow got back in the limelight in 2014, backed by a new business model and implementing a £9.99 monthly subscription for users to be able play PC streaming games. The number of games ballooned to 300 by March of 2015 but apparently failed to hit the vision which the company had in mind.
With OnLive shutting down the service by the end of the month, players can still continue to play all the games available for free. Subscriptions will no longer be available and existing ones will no longer be renewed.
Existing subscribers who had renewed their subscription on or after March 20, their subscriptions will be refunded.
As far as the acquisition of Sony is concerned, Onlive's 140 and more cloud gaming patents could eventually crop up in the world of the PlayStation. In all likeliness, this deal (whose figures were withheld) is most likely to follow the one Sony had for GakKai back in 2012. Ever since that deal which cost about $380M, the game stream is now used as part of the PlayStation Now and Remote Play.
