The future is dead. OnLive tried to break the mold, but on April 30th they will close their services. For those who don’t remember the premise of OnLive, it was supposed to be video gaming’s first online streaming service. You could rent, buy, and most importantly stream video games over the internet. Gone were discs and download times, and all you needed was a hearty enough Internet pipeline to pump the bits through and a catalog of games were at your finger tips. They even released a tiny home console and controller so you could game on your television just like a normal console would. The idea seemed far fetched, and once the product finally launched in 2010, the reviews were mixed. I tried it out myself in 2012 and had a mostly enjoyable experience. Renting a game for streaming purposes only seemed a bit strange but their business model and internal structure was never too stable.
Alas, now OnLive is all but gone and their patents have been purchased by Sony. Sony, you may remember, has their own video game streaming service called Playstation Now. OnLive certainly wasn’t a bad idea since we now know the technology works, but perhaps they were just a few years too early. RIP OnLive, at least you tried.
