Sony Acquires OnLive, What’s Next?

It looks like Sony is doing more than just selling off many of its assets. In a recent announcement from game streaming service OnLive, Sony has just finished purchasing their company. People who own Sony’s PlayStation products won’t see much of a change with this acquisition until later down the line. However, OnLive users will stop receiving service as OnLive will be completely shut down April 30th, 2015 with all account records deleted.

This leads the question, “Why would Sony want to buy a company and then shut them down?” It’s simple really: to acquire technology patents. Sony is making a big push with cloud gaming with its PlayStation Now service and this will give them the ability to do more with the service without the risks of any legal hurdles.

This purchase is very similar to the 2012 purchase of Gaikai, which was also a game streaming company. The technology they obtained from them helped pave the way to create PlayStation Now as it’s used today.