OnLive, the company that helped spearhead the concept of cloud-based gaming, is back. Alongside it is a new Executive Chairman in the form of Mark Jung - formerly of VUDU and IGN - and a host of new concepts to potentially breathe new life into the old service.The group, which specializes in allowing players to stream PC games to nontraditional hardware over the internet, laid off all of its employees in August of 2012. A new company, also called OnLive, was started in its place, while all of its assets were sold cheaply to Lauder Partners for $4.8 million. CEO and founder Steve Perlman stepped down from his position and the service has been relatively quiet until now.A press release sent by the company this week states their plans for a new subscription, called CloudLift. The service is meant to allow players to use supported games they already have installed on their PC across multiple platforms such as tablets, Macs, OnLive's own streaming device and certain TVs."Apparently, any game supported by CloudLift should work despite where it was downloaded from, but purchasing a game from OnLive directly includes a seven day trial. The service normally comes at a cost of $15 a month.That's not included with the $10 a month "PlayPack" subscription, which provides access to streaming-only games from the OnLive library.
Update #3: After much back and forth and confusion, OnLive has officially announced a sale to an as-of-yet-unknown third party, as a part of which "a large perecentage" of the current staff will be purportedly staying on. Details on how this affect service with a full quote after the break. Update #2: Sources close to TechCrunch are stating that OnLive has been purchased by an unknown third-party, and has reduced staff by at least 50% in an alleged attempt to reduce employee equity to nearly zero. It's also been reported that no former employees were offered any sort of severance pay. Our hearts go out to those affected.Update: It looks like employees are exiting the OnLive offices, boxes in tow.
The dust has settled on Day 1 of the E3 show floor and on each of the big console players' presentations. Gaming websites are ablaze with debate. Who "won" the perennial contest for most impressive slate of titles? Was Nintendo's press conference rife with awkward dialogue (okay, there's not debate on that last one)? Hidden amid the usual chatter, however, are the announcements of a couple new players looking to make a splash in the industry. And by the way: they make phones and TVs.
OnLive's been picking up a lot of steam this year, thanks in large part to a fairly substantial marketing campaign and promotions like giving out free consoles at the Penny Arcade Expo. That said, the service has just come to Android (and is coming to iOS soon, pending certification), meaning that mobile gamers will be able to play the latest big-name video games on the go.