Sony Corp (ADR) (NYSE:SNE), which is among the leading gaming console manufacturers, is now making an effort to acquire the patents of OnLive, a game streaming platform. To strengthening its streaming prowess, OnLive’s intellectual properties are being bought by Sony, including more than 140 US patents.
OnLive shutting down
OnLive was looked upon as future of gaming since its launch, and was a good gaming option among the players as it allowed playing virtual games on any computer provided the internet connection is decent. The streaming platform was not able to gain enough popularity as it hoped to, eventually leading to a shut down. On April 30, the company will be shut down as reported by TechCrunch, and won’t accept any new sign–ups.
“After today’s date, no further subscription renewals will be charged for any of these services. Users whose subscriptions renewed on or after March 28 will be refunded,” the company said in a statement.
OnLive will proceed with the winding down in an orderly manner, and will bring all its operations to an end after it terminates all its services and products completely. There is a possibility that CloudLift is also a part of this closure while there is no mention of this anywhere, says the report.
The number of users getting affected with the shutdown of OnLive is unknown for now. In 2012, it was observed that no more than 1,600 players used the platform at any point in time despite it claimed to have 1.2 million registered users.
How Sony will benefit?
The value of the patents portfolio of OnLive had been estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars at one point in time. Since, the terms of the deal between Sony Corp (ADR) (NYSE:SNE) and OnLive are undisclosed for now, so it cannot be said for sure what price has been achieved.
The acquisition of the patents will put Sony, which itself is struggling to retain its market, as a “formidable” IP holder. The patents will not only help Sony Corp (ADR) (NYSE:SNE) to push its ambitions further, but will also help the Japanese firm to fight legal battle against the tech firms, who the company feel infringe its tech.
