UPDATE 3: Engadget is reporting that at least "50%" of the staff at OnLive has been laid off, and that the company has been bought by an as-yet-unknown third party.
UPDATE 2: IDG News' Martyn Williams reports that he's outside OnLive's offices right now, and has seen multiple employees exiting the premises with moving boxes.
UPDATE: Kotaku is reporting that despite OnLive's denials, the company is filing for bankruptcy in the state of California. The intent, according to Kotaku's source, is to reform the company as a new entity with a smaller staff. What that company will look like and what it's plans are for OnLive's current services are still unclear. Other sites are also citing more sources from inside OnLive confirming the layoff portion of the story. Still some questions floating around, but it looks like things are becoming a bit clearer.
----
Here's one of those rare cases where we're going to report that on the fact that story exists, as opposed to the factualness of said story, because quite frankly, we have no idea either way.
Earlier this afternoon, reports began to surface that cloud gaming service OnLive might be shutting down. This info appears to source back to Brian Fargo, a developer not directly affiliated with OnLive who nonetheless claimed a source inside the company had told him the shutdown was taking place. Not long after, Mashable posted a report proclaiming that the entire staff had been laid off this morning, and that the company either would be shutting down outright, or forming a new, seemingly staff-less company focused on licensing intellectual property patents the company owns.
OnLive, on the other hand, is refuting much of this. The company's head of corporate communications Brian Jaquet responded to multiple inquiries regarding the shut down with a statement saying, "We don't respond to rumors, but of course not." He then proceeded to say a bunch of nice things about the company's future projects, while also not mentioning or acknowledging the layoff portions of the news. Hmm.
So basically we, the gaming press, know about as much as you do. Several sites are reporting anonymous sources confirming the layoffs at the company, but the actual shut down of OnLive appears to perhaps be exaggerated. Or maybe it isn't, and nobody's told Brian Jaquet yet. In which case, oops.
Regardless, we know something is happening at OnLive. We just don't know what, exactly. This is what news looks like in the Internet age, people. We'll let you know when we confirm something. Anything, really.
138 Comments