Sony buys what's left of OnLive, service shuts down April 30th

Sony Computer Entertainment is buying the remaining patents and assets belonging to OnLive, the cloud-computing service that some might say was ahead of its time. OnLive as a service will shut down on April 30th and the company won't collect any more subscription fees. On April 30th, all OnLive player data will be deleted, though any Steam games purchased through the service will continue to reside on Steam.

"It is with great sadness that we must bring the OnLive Game Service to a close," OnLive writes. "Sony is acquiring important parts of OnLive, and their plans don't include a continuation of the game service in its current form."

Sony bought game-streaming service Gaikai for $380 million in July 2012, and it's since turned all of that tech into PlayStation Now. OnLive was purchased once before: A venture capital bought the company for $4.8 million in 2012, after the company accrued roughly $30 million in debt. OnLive hung in there for a few more years, in 2014 announcing a new cloud-based enterprise.

Regarding its closure, OnLive says, "We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being an OnLive customer, and we wish you all the best."