Update: OnLive's director of corporate communications Brian Jaquet responded to Mashable with this: "no comment on the news other than to say the OnLive service is not shutting down."
OnLive — a cloud gaming startup focused on bringing a console experience to devices such as the iPhone, iPad and Android phones — laid off its entire staff Friday.
According to a source close to the situation, the company called an all hands meeting at 10am PT, at which the entire staff was fired. Some staffers may be rehired as the company transitions to its next unknown iteration.
OnLive most recently announced a partnership with Ouya, the Android-based hacker friendly game console that broke records and stole hearts on Kickstarter.
The company was preparing to launch a new connected device in conjunction with Vizio. Past conversations with the company also indicated that a focus on mobile and tablet devices would continue.
Our source tells us that many employees blame the failure of the company squarely on the CEO — who refused to sell the company many times, to companies including HP. There is speculation that the future company may simply be a pure intellectual property play, selling access to patents.
OnLive reportedly has patents covering cloud-distributed content, especially in 3D graphics.
Game developer Brian Fargo has tweeted information OnLive employees are sending him, all of which suggest the company will cease to exist by days end.
At the 2009 Game Developer's Conference, a cloud gaming platform called OnLive was announced. It as originally expected to launch at the end of the year. Some of the original investors included Warner Bros., Autodesk and Maverick Capital.
On March 10, 2010, OnLive announced their would launch on June 17, and the monthly service fee would be $14.95. They made a large push at E3 of that year that coincided with their launch.
OnLive was awarded a patent for their original method of delivering gaming content via the cloud on December 7, 2010,
OnLive finally arrived to UK gamers on September 21, 2011.
In January, 2012, OnLive announced a service that would mimic Windows 8 servers on iOS and Android tablets. Two months later, Microsoft raised concerns that using it violated the Windows 7 terms of service, and OnLive was forced to slightly modify their app.
OnLive announced all their games would be available for OUYA, the $99, hackable, Android-based console.
Rumors fly about OnLive's closure on August 17, 2012, as a few anonymous employees sent out emails during the day Friday, which company spokespeople denied.
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