OnLive founder and CEO out in restructuring
Steve Perlman (pictured left), founder and chief executive of OnLive, has left the groundbreaking cloud gaming company following its restructuring this month.
While Mr Perlman was “departing to work on his myriad of other projects”, according to a company statement, OnLive had been the entrepreneur’s main focus for at least the last three years. Read more
Gaikai ≈ PlayStation-as-a-service – Benchmark
A major investor in Gaikai, the cloud gaming service bought by Sony for $380m last week, has said the console maker could do something revolutionary with its acquisition that would transcend its hardware business.
“I think [Gaikai] will really show its true promise in the hands of Sony,” Mitch Lasky, general partner at the Benchmark Capital VC firm (pictured left), told the GamesBeat 2012 conference in San Francisco on Wednesday. “My hope is that we are going to see ‘PlayStation as a Service’,” he said. Read more
Apps, voice control and fresh interfaces are reshaping smartphones. Now the same is happening for televisions in the updates to services that have been made available for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Google TV. OnLive, meanwhile, is taking gaming out of the living room.
OnLive adds console games to tablets
OnLive has announced a major extension of its console-quality cloud gaming service with a launch on tablets and smartphones.
OnLive, available on PCs and TVs thus far, is releasing a free app for mobile platforms that will allow instant play of touch-enabled high-definition console games over its streaming service. Read more
OnLive’s cloudburst of gaming advances
OnLive, the cloud gaming service, has issued a cumulonimbus of announcements ahead of the E3 video game trade show next week, where it promises to reveal even more in demos at its booth. For now, we will have to settle for news of a UK launch, a new controller, a major expansion of the platform to millions more devices, more success with publishers and new integration of the service into Facebook. Read more
Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC clearly did not take Chinese New Year off. On the first day after public holidays ended, HTC announced it had made two investments that could expand its online offerings.
The first is buying a US$40m stake in OnLive, the company offering console-style games over the internet. The second is a GBP30m acquisition of Saffron Digital, a London-based mobile video specialist. Read more
The console-ation of online games
Cityville, with more than 100m players on Facebook, may be the most popular online game around, but it remains graphically challenged compared to home console games.
That needn’t be the case, as OnLive is proving in delivering 3D, full HD, PC and console titles direct to the TV this year over an internet connection, without the need for a console box. OnLive and cloud gaming is the subject of this week’s Personal Technology column in the FT’s Business Life section. Read more
OnLive to extend cloud gaming to run apps
OnLive, the company offering console-style gaming over the internet, is planning to use its technology and data centres to offer remote computing to consumers and businesses.
Speaking as OnLive announced iPad and Android apps for its service, Steve Perlman, chief executive and founder, said it would be breaking down boundaries in serving not just games, but distributing movies and television and allowing access to sophisticated software programmes. Read more
OnLive’s cloud gaming makes TV connection
OnLive, the ground-breaking cloud gaming service, has landed in the living room with the release of its first hardware.
A “MicroConsole” set-top box with a wireless game controller is available for pre-order in the US immediately, with delivery from December 2, in a $99 package that includes any OnLive online game. Read more
OnLive cloudy with a chance of pitfalls
We now have a date – June 17 – for the launch of OnLive, but uncertainties about the pricing and availability of the revolutionary cloud gaming service remain.
Steve Perlman did tell us the service would cost $14.95 a month and would be available in the 48 contiguous US states in his presentation today at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. But, in a conversation afterwards with the OnLive founder and Mike McGarvey, chief operating officer, the pricing seemed variable and availability looks like being initially limited in terms of actual numbers. Read more
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Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.
Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years and since 2004 has reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby.
Maija Palmer has been writing about technology for the FT since 1999 and is fascinated by cybercrime, privacy and all the other issues of the information society. Based in London, she covers European tech companies and hopes that they won't all get acquired by American rivals.
Robin Kwong is the FT's technology, media and telecoms page editor in London. Formerly he was the Taipei correspondent and wrote about the companies that manufacture the vast majority of the world's computers and gadgets. He is interested in the intricacies of the technology supply chain and how China is increasingly changing the tech landscape.
Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.
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