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Sunday, 19 August 2012 15:47

What is happening with OnLive?

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Cloud gaming platform, OnLive, was a very promising project, but never fulfilled its potential. The idea behind the project was to run all types of games on computers hosted in OnLive data centers and stream the video back to the end user. That way a customer can have a low-end PC and still play high-end games. The only thing required for it is to be able to play video and a decent internet connection (5 Mbit/s or faster). All games were available in 720p format, provided by over 50 publishers (Sega, Ubisoft, Epic Games, Atari, THQ, Eidos Interactive, Take-Two Interactive etc.).

But a few days ago it seems that company decided to shut its door. All employees were laid off and given small severance packages. Now it looks like this was just a cover for making a company with another name. It is rumored that they were near bankruptcy and after they allegedly searched for a $1 billion buyout they might have found new investors. Apparently a buyer wants all OnLive's assets, intellectual property, and branding. The cloud gaming service is supposed to continue working, but what really matters is what happens in the backgroud of the whole story.

money washing

It is possible that laying off the workers was done only to reduce the company's liability by reducing employee equity to almost zero. That means that staffers will have valueless OnLive stocks, a very shady move by OnLive. The new and unnamed company has given a statement to TechCrunch on the current situation:
„We can now confirm that the assets of OnLive, Inc. have been acquired into a newly-formed company and is backed by substantial funding, and which will continue to operate the OnLive Game and Desktop services, as well as support all of OnLive’s apps and devices, as well as game, productivity and enterprise partnerships. The new company is hiring a large percentage of OnLive, Inc.’s staff across all departments and plans to continue to hire substantially more people, including additional OnLive employees. All previously announced products and services, including those in the works, will continue and there is no expected interruption of any OnLive services.
We apologize that we were unable to comment on this transaction until it completed, and were limited to reporting on news related to OnLive’s businesses. Now that the transaction is complete, we are able to make this statement.“

Even though the new owner have said they will hire back a big part of former staff, while also hiring some fresh blood, it is obvious that workers have been tricked.

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Read 2727 times Last modified on Sunday, 19 August 2012 15:52

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