OnLive Is Either Shutting Down or Isn't, Depending On Who You Ask [UPDATED x3]

@gbrading said:

Well, yep. I still thought OnLive was in beta: I didn't realize it had properly launched.

OnLive's biggest problem is that it's designed for a broadband network which simply doesn't exist outside of selected cities in the US. In Britain, only central London can really offer the proper speed for it. The wilds of the Oxfordshire countryside certainly can't get that speed yet, and BT say it'll take until 2018 to install fibre-optic cabling around the country.

The US is far from the world's broadband leader. In fact in much of the country speeds are far below what is needed to run OnLive. Many European countries and Asian countries are years ahead of the US when it comes to Internet speeds. The fastest speed commonly available in even wealthy US areas is 50 mbps. In many parts of the world speeds are double or even triple that. Not saying Britain is in better shape than the US, but you should talk to some of your closer neighbors than holding the US up as doing it right.

@Tebbit said:

@LarryDavis

@ChrisTilton said:

@Patman99 said:

@Arrested_Developer said:

Brian Fargo leaked this? There's bound to be some fallout.

Yeah, their office must look like a Wasteland by now.

I bet all their accountants are in exile.

Man, going through all this must be Torment.

It seems There hasn't been much Interplay between OnLive and reporters.

I guess OnLive was a giant bomb in the end.

Ok so who bought them out? Apple? Google? Amazon? Someone we don't care about?

@LordAndrew said:

@ck1nd said:

It's a sad day to see something as cool as OnLive going under. I didn't use the service, I feel my computer is good enough that renders it obsolete, but it was a great idea.

On a related note, how does this affect OUYA's solidity now? I know OnLive was a large part of their pitch and it seems that this might cripple a lot of positive points for the system.

OnLive was a small part of the Ouya pitch, only coming in near the end of the Kickstarter campaign. Did it really make that much of an impact?

I thought so, but maybe I over-estimated it's impact. I thought it would be a quick-seller (I didn't know OnLive was in such a bad state) for the console gamers to interact with PC gaming without having to build a mega-machine.

"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."

It's unfortunate that we have to deal with stuff like this when Patrick is away.

@ck1nd said:

It's a sad day to see something as cool as OnLive going under. I didn't use the service, I feel my computer is good enough that renders it obsolete, but it was a great idea.

On a related note, how does this affect OUYA's solidity now? I know OnLive was a large part of their pitch and it seems that this might cripple a lot of positive points for the system.

OnLive was a small part of the Ouya pitch, only coming in near the end of the Kickstarter campaign. Did it really make that much of an impact?

@Tebbit said:

@LarryDavis

@ChrisTilton said:

@Patman99 said:

@Arrested_Developer said:

Brian Fargo leaked this? There's bound to be some fallout.

Yeah, their office must look like a Wasteland by now.

I bet all their accountants are in exile.

Man, going through all this must be Torment.

It seems There hasn't been much Interplay between OnLive and reporters.

@Dagbiker:

Where am I?/?? Did I just wake up on an RPS dark theme??? WHO AM I???

This would be a shame... although I'm not currently interested, it seems like one of those things that is forcing the industry forward.

... then again, it could just be that Sony or MS or Google or someone else bought them to work on an upcoming product, and it's being kept quiet for now.

I bought Saints Row 3 on Onlive for $1 (they had a promo where the first game you bought was $1). The had lots of Steamish-sales like that. Was SR3 on Onlive comparable to other platforms? Not really, there was graphics compression and relied on Internet. However, they went a long way towards fixing the controller lag and I actually finished the game using a mouse/keyboard. Suffice to say, if they do close, I lost $1.

OUYA bought them with all the Kickstarter Money!

Has anyone suggested that Google bought them?

EDIT: Nope.

Gamestops cloud service became onlive... Thats what i think.

@ChrisTilton said:

@Patman99 said:

@Arrested_Developer said:

Brian Fargo leaked this? There's bound to be some fallout.

Yeah, their office must look like a Wasteland by now.

I bet all their accountants are in exile.

Man, going through all this must be Torment.

@LarryDavis said:

@ChrisTilton said:

@Patman99 said:

@Arrested_Developer said:

Brian Fargo leaked this? There's bound to be some fallout.

Yeah, their office must look like a Wasteland by now.

I bet all their accountants are in exile.

Man, going through all this must be Torment.

This will make one great Bards Tale.

well this came out of nowhere... should i buy a preowned microconsole as a collectors item? 

@NoobSauceG7 said:

I am honestly surprised that Onlive has lasted this long. Seemed like a good idea but just never fulfilled on being more than just an idea. If microsoft or sony or even nintendo can incorporate onlive into their next console it should work better imo.

Same here. When it was first mooted it seemed like little more than some guys trying to get some money from gullible investors for a half-baked, not-fully -workable idea.

In the end I suppose it was that, but I was surprised it lasted so long.

Though I'm also surprised that some people actually 'bought' games on this service. What where they thinking?!

@KickahaOta said:

@Xeirus said:

Dude, how trashy and sad are you that you're camping outside a place as people are being fired. Have some respect... garbage, straight garbage...

So, we have half the thread saying "Don't report on this until you actually know something firsthand", and now you're saying "How dare you go and actually find out something firsthand"?

First of all it's not the same people saying both. Also I'm not calling GB trash, I'm calling that guy who is sitting outside their office trash, it's disrespectful.

@ChrisTilton said:

@Patman99 said:

@Arrested_Developer said:

Brian Fargo leaked this? There's bound to be some fallout.

Yeah, their office must look like a Wasteland by now.

I bet all their accountants are in exile.

Man, going through all this must be Torment.

@Xeirus said:

Dude, how trashy and sad are you that you're camping outside a place as people are being fired. Have some respect... garbage, straight garbage...

So, we have half the thread saying "Don't report on this until you actually know something firsthand", and now you're saying "How dare you go and actually find out something firsthand"?

@Patman99 said:

@Arrested_Developer said:

Brian Fargo leaked this? There's bound to be some fallout.

Yeah, their office must look like a Wasteland by now.

I bet all their accountants are in exile.

LIVE AND ON THE SCENE!! STRAIGHT TO THE FACTS!!

@Arrested_Developer said:

Brian Fargo leaked this? There's bound to be some fallout.

Yeah, their office must look like a Wasteland by now.

Kara Swisher (allthingsd) is reporting and has posted pics.. its true.. :( Sad really..

@Brackynews said:

@The_Laughing_Man said:

@Sil3n7 said:

Reporting that we don't know anything.

Great.

Dont go to Kotaku then. Half of their crap is hear say.

CNet is also reporting, citing Kotaku's rumors. O_o Giant Bomb has #crackinwise, I think Kotaku needs #mariocakes.

I suppose it didn't help that they announced the OnLive service for the first time on April Fool's Day...

Brian Fargo leaked this?  There's bound to be some fallout.

My £1 copy of Deus Ex (New and Old) that I also own on Steam and got a copy free with my 7970 and played it on xbox... oh no.

bummer, it is a neat tecnology only the time was not right I guess, I hope someone keeps working on stuff like this for the near future.

though that really doesn't bother me as much now since I built myself a mean gaming machine ;P, no need for a cloud gaming service on my part.

Also I'm glad I've never purchased anything there, basically because it hardly worked for me and when it did the latency was pretty fucking bad.

@dsi1 said:

Trying to provide a service that only works on high speed connections in an era where "high speed" = ~5 MB/s?

The only people that could ever use this service today are those in Kansas City.

I have been wishing I have lived there ever since I heard :(

Edit: "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."

Dude, how trashy and sad are you that you're camping outside a place as people are being fired. Have some respect... garbage, straight garbage...

I bet you Klepek's on the way right now with his news hat and a janitor's costume. 
 
TRICKY'S ON THE CASE!!

Trying to provide a service that only works on high speed connections in an era where "high speed" = ~5 MB/s?

The only people that could ever use this service today are those in Kansas City.

what i want to know is what happens to the two games i still have on Onlive.... but it's good technology... the only problem is that the united states internet situation sucks balls at the moment and i don't see it improving any time soon.

No idea if it means anything, but I have the On Live iPad desktop app, and the connection is for shit, but I can at least log in before getting booted. I'm positive it's not my home network, so it could be indicative of something going on with the service...or nothing. Disclaimer: plural of anecdote is not data, only reporting my own experience.

First of all, props to IDG for actually doing work and going to the office to see if anything was happening.

Second, this is sad. Onlive is amazing technology. It's really sad that they couldn't monetize it.

This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

I am honestly surprised that Onlive has lasted this long. Seemed like a good idea but just never fulfilled on being more than just an idea. If microsoft or sony or even nintendo can incorporate onlive into their next console it should work better imo.

@The_Laughing_Man said:

@Sil3n7 said:

Reporting that we don't know anything.

Great.

Dont go to Kotaku then. Half of their crap is hear say.

CNet is also reporting, citing Kotaku's rumors. O_o Giant Bomb has #crackinwise, I think Kotaku needs #mariocakes.

@Jams said:

@Ravenlight said:

@DetectiveSpecial said:

Great timing, OnLive - while GB's news guy is on honeymoon. Klepek's gonna be pissed.

"Honeymoon" AKA "in deep cover posing as an OnLive middle manager"

isn't that the plot from superman 2?

superman 3

@The_Laughing_Man said:

@Sil3n7 said:

Reporting that we don't know anything.

Great.

Dont go to Kotaku then. Half of their crap is hear say.

Well part of this story is based on the kotaku rumor story, so it's almost like a second hand rumor, which might be even worse.

If this is true (and I wish we'd wait until we have some actual facts before putting up stories - no-one comes here to get the news first, just for accurate reporting and intelligent and humourous comment) its not that surprising I guess.

Onlive always sounded like a good idea just a little ahead of its time. The network just isn't there yet unfortunately. Give it 5-10 years and this will be a service used everywhere I would guess - unless it really is impossible to sort the lag problem out.

I think companies like Gamespot and CEX which make big profits on used games are breathing a sigh of relief.

Also it will be really interesting to see what people who bought games through the service are entitiled to - my guess would be nothing. Have they actually bought the game or do they just pay for the service? I'm guessing the latter. Any ONLivers care to confirm?

Reporting that we don't know anything.

Great.

I think they call this "restructuring" which sometimes occurs due to "corporate insolvency". Basically, they can't pay their bills so they need to make big changes.

I'm not surprised at all. The national broadband infrastructure isn't advanced enough to make this technology feasible. They were ahead of their time and suffered for it.

so an episode of the newsroom next season will have this be a story right?

Damn you, Curt Schilling!

I don't know what they plan on doing for everyone that bought games on the service. But I expect not much if anything and that makes me sad.

@Mr48 said:

@ck1nd said:

It's a sad day to see something as cool as OnLive going under. I didn't use the service, I feel my computer is good enough that renders it obsolete, but it was a great idea.

On a related note, how does this affect OUYA's solidity now? I know OnLive was a large part of their pitch and it seems that this might cripple a lot of positive points for the system.

OUYA is a pipe-dream at best and a scam at worst regardless of whats going on with On-Live. What the OUYA team has promised simply cannot be delivered in the time-frame and at the costs they are claiming. They're either deluded or lying.

You don't know that, and I highly doubt you've done the math to prove it.

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.

I'm glad you decided to note the unconfirmed sourcing in the article, but I hope that in the future the press is able to recognize that if something is going to be a story...it will be a story.

If an unofficial source tells you that a company will go bankrupt then you call an official source. If the official source has no comment you investigate as much as you can. The best way to find out if Onlive will file for bankruptcy is if the company announces they will file for bankruptcy or if you watch the bankruptcy court database for mentions of Onlive.

This isn't as bad as the Half-Life 3 at Gamescom stuff from a couple days ago, but it is still pretty non-story right now. I thought that Giantbomb had more info in the update so I clicked on the article. Turns out it was just more "anonymous source" stuff from Kotaku. It's more believable that the company is reformatting, but there is still no official word.

@AuthenticM said:

@DetectiveSpecial said:

Great timing, OnLive - while GB's news guy is on honeymoon. Klepek's gonna be pissed.

Why ? I don't recall him ever being a fan of the thing.

He's a fan of Scoops

Wow, really? Damn. That's too bad, I was waiting to go back and play that when it got better, but... Huh.

i wonder if they had bet everything on being bought out by sony.

if durango isn't b/c with the 360 maybe microsoft can snap them up cheaply for the same reason sony did gaikai.