With news over the weekend that streaming gaming service OnLive had entered a form of bankruptcy, let go of all its staff and had been bought by an unnamed organisation, the question on everybody's lips was "who?" Now however, it's been confirmed that initial investor, Lauder Partners, has become the new owner of the platform.
Despite this somewhat positive sounding turnaround, this doesn't put any staff in a better situation. Many are still without work, with around half retained as full time employees and another small group rehired as consultants. Whichever camp they ended up in though, all employees potential stock options have been written off. As has everything put into the firm by initial investors. Make no mistake, the new OnLive headed by Lauder Partners, is an entirely new company, which means anyone that even put a few dollars into the technology the first time around, is unlikely to see a return.
The statement that attempts to sugar-coat this point reads (via AllthingsD): "OnLive, Inc.’s board of directors, faced with difficult financial decisions for OnLive, Inc., determined that the best course of action was a restructuring under an ‘Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors.’ The assignee of the company’s assets then sold all of OnLive, Inc.’s assets (including its technology, intellectual property, etc.) to the new company."
Customers have been informed that they won't see any interruptions to the usual OnLive service, with all purchases remaining "intact and available."
One interesting question that's raised by the changes going on at OnLive: will we see it on the Ouya? The little Android machine would really have benefited from an option for AAA games, considering its hardware won't be capable of the latest and greatest HD offerings. The new company's statement makes it sound as if it will be, but OnLive needs to be around and functioning at the release of the Ouya in order for that to be possible and considering the reports that OnLive has only a couple thousand users during peak hours, that might not happen.