OnLive’s inability to tap into console games was key to its downfall, according to rival Gaikai.
According to Gaikai founder Dave Perry, OnLive’s focus on PC game streaming was it’s biggest issue.
Speaking on his blog, Perry outlines his belief that OnLive’s failure to access the whole console ecosystem was why the streaming service was struggling.
“OnLive was a heck of a competitor to Gaikai, at every single turn we made different choices. It was very worrying, were we making the right choices?” said Perry.
“Our issue was that PC games (for keyboard and mouse) were becoming really difficult to get across a myriad of TVs, phones, set-top boxes and websites from the cloud, especially as a lot of great games are no longer supported by anyone, even their publishers have disappeared.”
“So at Gaikai we kept looking at the console libraries and sighing… how lucky they were to have organised, well supported platforms, with incredible game libraries that worked on standard controllers.”
Related: What is PlayStation Now? A guide to Sony’s game streaming service
Gaikai was acquired by Sony back in 2012 for $380 million (£259 million), but Onlive never quite got the console tie-in it hoped for.
“Onlive did an assignment for the benefit of creditors (an asset sale) shortly after Sony acquired us. We were in complete shock,” said Perry.
“OnLive then grew a second time enriched by new funding and new leadership, by integrating Steam versions of the games, they accelerated onboarding but they never got the chance to integrate a console library.”
OnLive has now been bought out by Sony, who also acquired all of OnLive’s patents.
It’s most likely that Sony will use the patents to boost its own PlayStation Now cloud streaming platform, which is powered by Gaikai technology.
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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.
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