[Rumor] OnLive Laying Off All Of Their Staff

[Doogie2K]

I like how you had that close enough at hand to pull it within ten minutes.

[TheKeck]

Originally Posted by RandoM51

I soooooo told you so.

It needed to be sold to cable providers and hotel chains who could bury the fees in their main charges. Instead of paying extra for this service suddenly it'd be, "wow, I can play games for free if we go with this cable provider or if we stay at this hotel."

But no, they had to try to sell it as the answer to everything while making it also cost more than everything. Idiots.

Originally Posted by RandoM51

http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogfor...8&postcount=30




03-10-2010, 07:19 PM

I didn't post anything about it until they announced their pricing model, at which point the doom was obvious. Until that point they had a chance of limited success in certain niches.

So, I'm not getting what you predicted correctly. As I just explained, there is no subscription for this service. It's actually quite cheap. And so far, it seems that this whole layoff thing is just seedy shenanigans. I guess we'll see how things pan out, but, yeah... I don't see what your point is.

[Widgetcraft]

Looks like they may be trying to make things right as best as they can.

[PathMaster]

Originally Posted by Widgetcraft

Looks like they may be trying to make things right as best as they can.

At least making the attempt to compensate them. There is so much secrecy over this whole situation. I think some things were exaggerated in the press and other things not brought to light. It will be interesting over the next few months where this all settles, as it appears they may still want to sell.

[Karak]

MS just announced that they will hire any staff not taken on by Onlive in the rebuild.

Microsoft said, “We are eager to speak to individuals and teams affected by the OnLive transition. With the stunning success of Xbox/Kinect and the accelerated growth of this business, we are looking to add key players who want to make a real impact in creating groundbreaking new products and services. We have positions in both Redmond, WA, and in Mountain View. There are big projects in the pipeline for the rest of 2012 and beyond, and the team is growing rapidly to support the work ahead! We’d love to have YOU be part of our team!”

http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/24/mi...-well-hire-ya/

[danhoo]

Not to beat a dead horse, but some more insight into why OnLive ended up the way they did: http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/28/3274739/onlive-report

[tacitus]

Interesting article - I never did onlive; they didn't want me for their beta and I never revisited the option. But one of the things that discouraged me was bandwidth usage plus the initial rental fees.

[Widgetcraft]

The thing is, Electronic Arts was actually on board. Former staffers told us Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins were ready and would have launched on day one if it wasn't for Steve Perlman. At GDC 2009, when OnLive revealed itself to the world in style, a rival named Gaikai did the same behind closed doors, and when Gaikai CEO David Perry came by the OnLive booth to greet his competitor, Perlman starting screaming at him. On June 17th, 2010, the day OnLive launched, Gaikai announced a multi-year deal with Electronic Arts. Perlman received the news in the OnLive booth at E3 2010. "He went ballistic," one witness recalls. "We had to slam the conference room shut and crank up the music so people wouldn't hear him." Perlman told EA he wanted exclusivity, even though Gaikai only offered game demos via the web rather than fully playable purchases. When EA refused, Perlman ordered his staff to remove all EA titles from OnLive. "We were instructed in no uncertain terms to pull the EA games at the very last minute," one ex-staffer related. Mike McGarvey, COO at the time, argued against the move, but Perlman wouldn't hear it. Shortly after the launch, McGarvey was sidelined.

From then on, employees told us, Steve shot down any game that Gaikai nabbed first; even titles that the company had already spent money to onboard, test, and certify with a game publisher. Both OnLive and developer CD Projekt RED confirmed that The Witcher 2 would arrive on the service, but Gaikai got it first.

Wow... sounds real professional.

[tacitus]

Yea ... there is so much bad shit in that article its not even funny. I think we have a winner in childish behavior in the games industry.

[TheKeck]

Wow, that sounds awful. Makes me not want to have anything to do with OnLive. But then, it makes me feel sorry for all the other employers or the company having to deal with the idiocies of this one man.

[Ink Asylum]

Those low usage numbers are brutal, but not that surprising. The market for a service that stands in for either a console or a gaming PC, but provides an inferior catalog and play experience, must be pretty small.

[PathMaster]

Pearlman is now gone from what I am reading. Hopefully things improve.

[Ravenlock]

Yeah, the real interesting story here may actually be what happens next, with Perlman gone. It sounds like he was awful to work for, but if someone else can take what he put in place and manage it well, maybe there's still some hope.