The OnLive video game streaming platform has announced it’ll be shutting down operations at the end of this month after selling off its patents to Sony’s PlayStation division.
The gaming industry’s first real foray into cloud streaming will pull down the shutters on April 30, while no new subscriptions will be offered from today.
The intellectual property has been snapped up by Sony for an undisclosed free. The gaming giant will presumably use the patents to boost its own PlayStation Now cloud streaming platform powered by the Gaikai company acquired back in June 2012.
Sony paid $380m for Gaikai in order to boost its ability to offer access to its back vast back catalogue of games on the PS4 and a host of other streaming devices.
In a post on the OnLive support website, the company wrote: “
“Your service should continue uninterrupted until April 30, 2015. No further subscription fees will be charged, and you can continue to play all of your games until that date.
“We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being an OnLive customer, and we wish you all the best.”
Read more: What is PlayStation Music? How to get Spotify on your PS3 and PS4
OnLive had a good run in the early days with its subscription gaming service but ran into trouble back in 2012 after falling into debt.
A buyout helped it to come back from the dead, but it has been out of the headlines in recent times with the dominance of Valve’s Steam and the forthcoming emergence of Sony’s PlayStation Now service.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.