Is there a service out there that thrives off only 1,600 users? If there is, just know that OnLive, a game-streaming service, couldn’t be anymore envious. This god-awful statistic popped up after OnLive founder and president, Steve Perlman, stepped down. Oh, and let’s not forget that at least half of the staff was reportedly laid off and that OnLive supposedly filed for bankruptcy around the same time Perlman left. All of this hit the fan around August of last year, seemingly dooming OnLive yet the company still survives today, servers and all. Now, the current chairman of OnLive is saying this was all a misinterpretation.
OnLive’s “Augustocalypse”, if you will, is said to have been a transitional period — duh. In an interview with MCV in October of last year, CEO Charles Jablonski, in addition to saying OnLive is making transitions, said “if anything, this has caused everyone to make sure they focus”. Fast-forward to now and a blog post by majority owner and chairman, Gary Lauder, had this to say:
“When the restructuring of OnLive happened in August, many misunderstood it to mean that the service and company were shutting down. Neither occurred, nor did we go bankrupt. We should have communicated better…As Mark Twain wrote, ‘The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.'”
Lauder also adds that his current workforce is about 90 strong and that they’re still working on racking up new publishers and developers. He cites how they launched The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced on February 28th that included a free digital copy provided you bought the Full PlayPass. I don’t see how launching an almost two year-old game on your platform is a feather in your cap, but hey, it makes the man proud. He also says that it’s just the beginning (for like the third time in OnLive’s life) of a promising future.
Does OnLive really have a future? Do you think Lauder’s denial is an honest one? Let us know in the comments below.