OnLive's New Executive Chairman Intends To Launch Two New Cloud Gaming Systems
Despite the fact that OnLive brought an innovative concept to the gaming industry, the truth is that they failed to implement it in practice. Less than two years ago, the company managed to save itself from insolvency via the clever financial maneuver of becoming its own buyer. Although it is allegedly up to its neck in debt given the rocky past couple of years, OnLive announced the appointment of a new executive chairman.
Mark Jung, the man with a vision
The new executive chairman is none other than Mark Jung, the former CEO and co-founder of IGN. Even though Bruce Grove will continue to be OnLive’s general manager, the investors are overall satisfied with getting Jung onboard. As OnLive’s lead investor Gary Lauder stated, the time and resources they invested to convince Jung to join their team were well spent.
OnLive can count on a skilled professional with a lot of experience in managing and growing a gaming company. Not only does Mark Jung have impeccable credentials, but he is also a true leader who managed to grow a company to IPO. In other words, Jung will be the company’s key person, the man who will know when and how to deliver excellent cloud services to gamers and businesses.
OnLive also launches two new cloud gaming services
Along with Jung’s appointment come two new cloud gaming services, namely the CloudLift subscription and OnLive Go. I must admit that the announcement came as a surprise for me and many others, especially if you take into account the fact that the company has been unable to compete with other gaming platforms for almost two years now. Then again, these services might be just what OnLive needs to get back in the game.
OnLive Go is the first cloud gaming service that aims to reach into the world of MMOs. The service will debut in a program dubbed SL Go, which is a mobile viewer for the popular Second Life, a game that works with low-end PCs and Android tablets. Although it’s currently in beta, OnLive Go is quite impressive considering that users will be able to play Second Life with high-quality graphics on a low-powered device.
Photo credits: pcworld.com
As far as the CloudLift subscription is concerned, the service is designed to support games purchased from any digital retailer. Simply put, for $15 per month, you can select titles from your game library for which OnLive and CloudLift will automatically save relevant metadata. Regardless of the device you choose to play your favorite games on, you can be sure the game resumes where you left out.
Unfortunately and hopefully only for the time being, CloudLift only works with Batman: Arkham Origins, Saint Row IV, Type: Rider and The LEGO Movie Videogame. Although OnLive announced they intentions of including dozens more titles to CloudLift, so far the only confirmed games are 2013 FIA Formula One World Championship, F1 2013 and Europa Universalis.
And that’s not all!
In addition to their promising new director and two new impressive cloud gaming services, OnLive has announced several upgrades to its technology, including a sleek UI for its new services and several additional services and data centers in Chicago and Seattle. All in all, OnLive has all the tools it needs to pull through and become an active competitor in the gaming industry.
