Shadow (service)
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| Industry | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2014 |
| Founders |
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Key people | |
| Website | shadow.tech |
Shadow.tech is a Cloud gaming service developed by the French company Blade (Recently acquired by OVHcloud). Their technology is based on Windows 10 servers executing video games remotely. Contrary to other services such as Google Stadia or GeForce Now, as well as Amazon Luna, the service is not limited to running Video games, as Shadow.tech provides a remote access to a complete PC infrastructure.[1]
History
In 2015, Emmanuel Freund, Stéphane Héliot and Asher Kagan-Criou create a start-up called Blade to propose a cloud-gaming service called Shadow.
At the start of 2016, they raised 3 millions euros of capital, then 10 millions, followed in 2017 by 51 millions, with several investors.[2]
In 2019, Blade further raised 30 million euros, following the arrival of Google in the Cloud gaming sector with Stadia.[3]
In October 2019, Shadow had more than 70000 users.[3] In November 2020, They announced having more than 100000 active users.
In September 2020, Blade CEO et CTO change for Mike Fischer and Jean-Baptiste Kempf (one of the major contributors of the VLC media player project).
In March 2021, it was announced that Blade had filed for Chapter 11 Protection in the United States, as well as filing for bankruptcy in Europe.
In May 2021, it was announced that Blade had been bought after its insolvency by Octave Klaba, CEO of OVHcloud.[4] Before he bought the service however, Octave Klaba announced that he was not interested in Cloud Gaming but intended to develop a European alternative to Office 365.[5]
References
- ^ "Shadow : Qu'est-ce que c'est ?". Numerama. 2019-04-19. Retrieved 2021-03-05.
- ^ "Startups : le français Blade lève 51 millions d'euros pour l'ordinateur du futur". La Tribune. 2017-06-14. Retrieved 2021-03-05.
- ^ a b "Shadow lève 30 millions d'euros et divise par deux son prix pour contrer Google". La Tribune. 2019-10-29. Retrieved 2021-03-05.
- ^ "Jeu vidéo en ligne : après la faillite, la résurrection de Blade Shadow, repris par le fondateur d'OVH Octave Klaba". La Tribune. 2021-05-01. Retrieved 2021-05-03.
- ^ "Jeu vidéo en ligne : après la faillite, la résurrection de Blade Shadow, repris par le fondateur d'OVH Octave Klaba". 9to5google.com. 2021-04-30. Retrieved 2021-05-03.
On the other hand, there's grim news, too. One potential source of funding, Octave Klaba, the founder of OVHcloud, says he is interested in buying Shadow by Blade, but with the intention to build a competitor to Google Workspace and Office 365 rather than to provide a game-streaming platform.