14 DAY TRIAL // A number of anonymous sources have suggested that Steve Perlman, the former founder and chief executive officer of OnLive, created a number of the issues that have plagued the company and have led to its current financial difficulties.
Speaking to Polygon, sources from OnLive have said that the rivalry OnLive developed with Gaikai, which Perlman took as a personal matter, meant that relations with many publishers became more difficult than they should have been.
Apparently, Perlman yelled at David Perry, the founder of Gaikai, during the 2009 edition of the Game Developers Conference and had a strong reaction to the deal that the rival company made with Electronic Arts in 2010.
The source stated, “He went ballistic. We had to slam the conference room shut and crank up the music so people wouldn’t hear him. We were instructed in no uncertain terms to pull the EA games at the very last minute.”
Perlman instituted a rule that any game which appeared on Gaikai was banned from appearing on OnLive, including hits like The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings and Bulleststorm.
The competition with Gaikai also affected a deal with publisher Ubisoft when the company refused to back out of a partnership with the rival.
The anonymous sources were also critical of the way Perlman managed the internal matters of OnLive, including micro-management, public ridicule of some employees and favoritism towards others.
One source said, “He would tell people they were stupid in front of the entire office.”
Steve Perlman was forced out of OnLive after the company faced a dire financial situation.
Gaikai was recently bought by Sony and it seems that the company has long term plans to use the streaming service in order to fundamentally change the way console gamers get access to content, including but not limited to video games.