Alex St. John: OnLive is a good business idea that's "doomed"

Alex St. John, a.k.a. Mr. DirectX and WildTangent founder, has said that OnLive is "doomed" due to the business being built on what he calls "false assumptions".

While St. John thinks it is a great idea for a business, he believes it is doomed because there is a lack of understanding in how traditional game publishers should operate within OnLive.

"The hard to accept reality is that traditional games designed for retail distribution are simply dead in an online world and frankly the publishers of these games will ultimately die with them because they can't afford to adapt.

"Streaming the same content 'on-demand' won't save them.

"The exciting part of this change is that it’s a brave new world for new companies to step in and create the next-generation EAs and Take-Twos. I’d list Activision as well, but they’ve already effectively been bought by World Of Warcraft.

"I would not be surprised to see successful future games that are designed to be delivered as streaming video, but a new streaming delivery technology will not create a new online second life for this dying genre of content".

There's loads more over on Industry Gamers (via BigDownload)where his editorial has been posted.

OnLive is expected to launch this summer.

Thanks, ffronw.