OnLive Awarded Cloud-Based Game Streaming Patent

OnLive has been awarded a landmark U.S. patent for cloud-based game streaming, giving it the potential to leverage the company's rivals in streaming games to devices remotely across the Internet. U.S. Patent #7,849,491 names OnLive CEO Steve Perlman as the inventor of an "apparatus and method for wireless video gaming." The patent itself describes a method by which games are rendered remotely and then transmitted to a unit -- like OnLive's new MicroConsole -- that communicates with a display device. "Hundreds of people have worked incredibly hard for more than eight years to bring OnLive technology from the lab to the mass market, not just overcoming technical and business challenges, but overcoming immense skepticism," says Perlman. "It is gratifying to not only see people throughout the world enjoying OnLive technology in the wake of so many doubters, but also receive recognition for such a key invention." OnLive launched its service to wired PCs and Macs in June 2010, and launched its MicroConsole to living room televisions in December. Shortly thereafter it launched a viewer app for iPad, through which users can watch their friends play games, and an Android version is currently in beta. The company says it has filed other patents related to its tech and expects to receive them.