OnLive didn't go bankrupt, according to the streaming games company's new chairman and majority owner Gary Lauder. A blog post by the executive plays down the events of last year as nothing more than a wobbly-executed restructure.
"When the restructuring of OnLive happened in August, many misunderstood it to mean that the service and company were shutting down," he wrote. "Neither occurred, nor did we go bankrupt. We should have communicated better.
"As Mark Twain wrote, ‘The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated’. Same with us. Our service continued without interruption both in the USA and overseas, and we have about 90 employees."
Except that it wasn't exactly a misunderstanding. Reports last August confirmed that OnLive - under the stewardship of Steve Perlman - had entered an "Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors". Which is a form of bankruptcy. A large number of employees were laid off as a result.
At the same time, a new company was founded which acquired the assets of Perlman's OnLive and continued to operate under the same brand name. Essentially, this is the OnLive we have today - a sort of OnLive 2.0. Lauder is certainly correct that this OnLive hasn't seen any form of bankruptcy.
Nevertheless, Lauder is optimistic for the future, despite its bitter rival Gaikai gaining a decisive foothold in the streaming games business following an acquisition by Sony. "It has been seven months since I jumped in to save OnLive from a financing mishap, and I have had the opposite of buyer’s remorse: buyer’s elation!
"We have already delivered some significant milestones for the OnLive Game Service, in particular, being incorporated into our first third party device, the VIZIO Co-Star, and into Google TVs, starting with the impressive LG G3 Series – with more to come.
"We continue to bring new game publishers and games into the mix, and released Witcher 2:Assassins of Kings Enhanced release from CD Projekt RED on Thursday, February 28th with a special promotion, which includes a free a digital download copy of the game for PCs with purchase of a Full PlayPass. We are busy exploring other new ways to serve our users’ and publishers’ interests capitalizing on our unique abilities."
"When the restructuring of OnLive happened in August, many misunderstood it to mean that the service and company were shutting down," he wrote. "Neither occurred, nor did we go bankrupt. We should have communicated better.
"As Mark Twain wrote, ‘The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated’. Same with us. Our service continued without interruption both in the USA and overseas, and we have about 90 employees."
Except that it wasn't exactly a misunderstanding. Reports last August confirmed that OnLive - under the stewardship of Steve Perlman - had entered an "Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors". Which is a form of bankruptcy. A large number of employees were laid off as a result.
At the same time, a new company was founded which acquired the assets of Perlman's OnLive and continued to operate under the same brand name. Essentially, this is the OnLive we have today - a sort of OnLive 2.0. Lauder is certainly correct that this OnLive hasn't seen any form of bankruptcy.
Nevertheless, Lauder is optimistic for the future, despite its bitter rival Gaikai gaining a decisive foothold in the streaming games business following an acquisition by Sony. "It has been seven months since I jumped in to save OnLive from a financing mishap, and I have had the opposite of buyer’s remorse: buyer’s elation!
"We have already delivered some significant milestones for the OnLive Game Service, in particular, being incorporated into our first third party device, the VIZIO Co-Star, and into Google TVs, starting with the impressive LG G3 Series – with more to come.
"We continue to bring new game publishers and games into the mix, and released Witcher 2:Assassins of Kings Enhanced release from CD Projekt RED on Thursday, February 28th with a special promotion, which includes a free a digital download copy of the game for PCs with purchase of a Full PlayPass. We are busy exploring other new ways to serve our users’ and publishers’ interests capitalizing on our unique abilities."
Companies:
OnLive
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