Game streaming service, OnLive Games, had a pretty good thing going for it when it first launched. Unfortunately they just couldn’t get a hold on the market for one reason or another. Now, after five short years of service, OnLive Games will be closing up shop. As noted on their site this morning, Sony is acquiring important parts of OnLive and their plans don’t include keeping the services up and running.
After five years of uninterrupted service, the OnLive Game Service will be coming to an end. Sony is acquiring important parts of OnLive, and their plans don’t include a continuation of the game service in its current form. 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.
As the first-ever game streaming service of its kind, everyone who has ever played a game using OnLive has contributed to the technology and its evolution in some way. We’re immensely proud of what’s been achieved and extend our heartfelt gratitude to you for being a part of the OnLive Game Service.
Thank you from all of us at –
OL2, Inc. (aka, OnLive)
The details don’t talk about price tags or what will happen with the current set of OnLive employees that are on hand. It is possible that Sony will bring them over to continue their work with the technology they have been working with over the years. As for current OnLive gamers, the PlayPass games will no longer be available after April 30th. Saved game data and achievements will also be deleted after the 30th as well, unless it was on a CloudLift account where all the data will remain on Steam. Oh, don’t go thinking you can get a refund for any games you purchased either. According to the FAQ page, you are simply out of luck. Same applies to any dedicated OnLive hardware you might have purchased.
While OnLive Games is fading into the distance, that doesn’t mean all hope for streaming games is lost. We know NVIDIA is continuing its push with their GRID services and that is only going to get amplified when the NVIDIA Shield gaming box/Android TV device goes live next month. We know Microsot is building streaming abilities into the Xbox One and PC’s running Windows 10. Sony already let users play their Playstation 4 games on compatible Xperia phones and tablets and this purchase will surely help to further Sony’s abilities in game streaming in the near future.
Source: OnLive | OnLive Shutdown FAQ
