One of the biggest downsides to gaming is the need to purchase games. If a player wants access to a game, they have two options; either buy a disc of it or download and install it directly to their device. However, playing games that way is expensive and takes a lot of space on the player's device. But one company wanted to change that up.
OnLive is the world's first game-streaming service. OnLive started out in 2010 with a variety of last-gen games and a $100 microconsole that streamed the games to the device without saving data. However, a series of technical issues, the cost of games and a limited library of games made it hard for OnLive to develop a strong userbase. The company eventually went through massive layoffs and a major restructuring. But after multiple attempts to stay alive, OnLive announced that it's closing down for good.
OnLive announced on Thursday that its streaming servers will go offline on April 30, reports Ars Technica. OnLive will then sell all remaining assets to Sony Entertainment. This makes a lot of sense, since Sony created its own streamed-gaming service in 2012 when it purchased OnLive rival Gaikai. That framework provided all the infrastructure required to start the successful game-streaming service Playstation Now.
"These strategic purchases (of OnLive assets) open up great opportunities for our gamers, and gives Sony a formidable patent portfolio in cloud gaming," Sony Computer Entertainment VP of Global Business Development Philip Rosenberg said in a statement. "It is yet another proof point that demonstrates our commitment to changing the way gamers experience the world of PlayStation."
Why did OnLive fail when it did? "OnLive was just a little bit too far ahead of the curve both in terms of market readiness and the Internet infrastructure necessary for streaming games," Ars Technica speculates. But as the cost of Internet bandwidth goes down, other companies may be able to take up OnLive's model and make the streaming-game service a viable business model.
