Sony Acquires Assets from OnLive for Use in PlayStation; OnLive Services Free for April, Gone by May

SL Go, the very cool Second Life streaming services for tablets and low-end laptops from OnLive, is now totally free to use until the end of this month. That's the good news. The bad news for SL Go users (and other OnLive customers) is this: Sony just acquired selected assets from OnLive, and consequently, the entire OnLive service is also going to be shut down. That's good news for Playstation owners, because it looks like the console line is going to get some kind of additional cloud-based streaming features soon. (Sony already has a streaming service called Playstation Now.) The acquisition, as a Sony exec said in the press release OnLive just gave me, "demonstrates our commitment to changing the way gamers experience the world of PlayStation.” 

As for SL Go, as I said, it's free this month, seriously free: "The OnLive and SL Go services will continue to operate in full capacity until April 30," OnLive's Dennis Harper tells me. "All services will be free to anyone who has or creates an account. All prices for the service have been set to $0.00, including SL Go." So if you haven't tried SL Go (or for that matter, other games on OnLive), now's your chance.

As for Second Life's SL Go user base, Dennis says this (and this is sad to say):

"On a personal note; you all have been so supportive of SL Go. You have my heartfelt thanks for all you have done. I have made some good friends in SL and it greatly saddens me that this project is ending. You all have accepted us n00bs into your community and mentored us on what Second Life really is. I have learned so much! My sincere thanks to all of you."

Disclosure: As NWN readers know, I once consulted for OnLive, and SL Go was a media partner, but now that the company is ceasing operations, I can say without even having to make a full disclosure that SL Go was just about the best thing to happen to Second Life in a long time, and I'm sorry to see it go.

Hmmm. But hey, now that Sony Home is gone, maybe someday we'll get to stream SL Go on our Playstations?

Update, 4/3: Replaced "Service" with "Assets" to avoid any confusion. 

Thanks to Janine Hawkins for some background research on this post. Please share:

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Comments

[Ciaran Laval]

Terrible news, Sony have a purchased a bloody good service and they decide to close it. Short sighted nitwits.

[HeavenL]

Question, where can I access SL GO? I downloaded it but don't see it anywhere. No instructions since the site is down.

[Ciaran Laval]

This is worse than I realised, they haven't just shut SLGo, they've shut all of OnLive, this is corporations at their worst and if Sony are going to launch an alternative service, my second word will be "off"

[Jonas Ingrassia]

Yes, this is a real shame and I'm not sure the right people truly understood what a foolish decision this is. At the same time, it seems obvious that another service ought to consider taking up this user base. Maybe that's wishful thinking, but even with a few quirks (like SL) SL Go has been a great service with a loyal following. One of the big barriers to entry in virtual worlds is having sufficient hardware.

The odds that LL would offer such a service are probably nil, but they should be thinking about it as well. It's a service to their users, and an obvious one, that would have more people in-world spending more money more often.

[Amanda Dallin]

This isn't just corporations at their worse it's the Tech Industry at it's worse. When someone comes out with a new innovative product a large company steps in and destroys it. This kind of thing hurts the entire tech industry. Customers can never trust any service that starts up will be there next month.

[DevinVaughn]

I don't think you can rush to sign up for a free month of Sl Go. I had account that didn't auto-renew. I discovered my account was deleted today.

[Someone in SL]

While everyone is upset, lets face it, why would Sony care about Second Life? It is a drop in a bucket compared to its millions of Playstation customers. Linden Labs are the ones who should create a light viewer client for their own product. Instead they continue to ignore the fact that everyone cannot afford a decent laptop or pc to access Second Life. I say petition Linden Labs to create a decent lightweight viewer, instead of bashing Sony.

[Issa Heckroth]

Sony, you suck. You always sucked, but now you suck 500% more. I was going to buy an expensive electric toothbrush from you, but f&*k you, imma buy a Phillips now instead. A$$holes.

[Ezra]

I never found a use for SL Go, but was thoroughly impressed with how quick the company responded to pricing concerns, choice of viewer to run and availability of in-world payments. They learned their SL user base and adjusted and I wish the need for SL GO was bigger to reward them for it.

If any SL Go management/devs are out of a job now and still fans of SL, I hope LL looks at hiring them for this or the next VW they're working on.

[Selena Anansi]

This is really a darn shame. I am currently living at my mothers while she recoups from surgery and SL GO works great on her lower end computer so I am able to keep up on running my estate.

I am HIGHLY impressed with how robust and stable SL GO is which is likely why it's being bought and killed off.

A real shame.

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

The headlines are rather anti-sony, when what really happened was:

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/04/onlive-shuts-down-streaming-games-service-sells-patents-to-sony-embargoed-7pm-eastern/

OnLive entered bankruptcy in 2012, is bought by by a venture capitalist. OnLive still can't make money but has valuable patents/technology. Owners sell the tech to Sony, who has an interest in those patents and tech to add to their Gaikai based tech that they use with Remote Play and Playstation Now with the PS4 and Vita.

Since Sony already HAS a streaming service, why should they keep this one up rather than incorporate it into what they already have?

[Ciaran Laval]

@CronoCloud Creegan, Sony aren't incorporating the service into their existing one though, they are boosting their own streaming service, which doesn't include those who were using OnLive's services.

However I do agree, after my initial annoyance, that it is unfair to pain Sony as the bad guy in all of this.

[Amanda Dallin]

Sony seems to be acquiring the patents to prevent future lawsuits against their streaming system if someone else had acquired OnLive's patents.

[AndyW Blackburn]

I was really impressed by SLGo it ran impressive maxed-out graphics on my old mac-mini. I have a feeling that SL2 may use a video streaming service, as opposed to creating many versions of the viewer for hundreds of different PC/MAC/UNIX setups: the huge content delivery network is not really needed, the rendering is done on one standardised server hardware setup, and the viewer download could be replaced by an in-web-browser HTML5 rendered video stream.

[Iggy]

If by some miracle Sony brought SLGo back under their service, I'd not sign up. Sony has been hacked many times, long before the "The Interview" fiasco. Their security is really suspect.

Big fish don't just eat little fish. It seems that in this business, they make the little ones go extinct. Better hope Sony does not acquire Linden Lab.

[EI Consulting]

Don't mind me, I'm a bot.

[Kyouko]

EI Consulting wrote:
"Don't mind me, I'm a bot."

Your first meaningful comment in the last three years!

[Dr Feelgood]

Ebbe Linden should have bought the company when he had the chance..this is his first screw up since becoming CEO..

He should had the company bought considering the tech applied not only to current platforms but future ones..then he could have licensed the product to other companies like the one who bought Desura or let it live as a wholly owned subsidiary.

Right now i think the linden lab CTO should be replaced. while Ebbe Linden should at least better explain the labs position regarding this to residents.

[Adeon Writer]

Alright, LL. You lost your mobile viewer. But now you know there's demand for one. Could always make a naively run viewer instead of a streaming service...

[Iggy]

@ Adeon, a "naively run viewer"?

I think LL has had one of those in play for a long time. That's why I switched to Imprudence, then Firestorm :D