Shadow Cloud Gaming Acquired by OVHcloud Founder

Shadow Cloud Gaming Service Acquired by Octave Klaba’s Fund

Blade, the French company responsible for the cloud gaming service Shadow, has been acquired. This acquisition follows a ruling made by a commercial court. The purchasing entity is a fund managed by Octave Klaba, a prominent figure in the French cloud industry.

Octave Klaba and OVHcloud

Klaba is widely recognized as the founder of OVHcloud, a leading French provider of cloud hosting solutions. It’s important to note that the acquisition of Blade and Shadow is being conducted through Klaba’s investment fund, Jezby Ventures, and is separate from OVHcloud’s operations.

Understanding the Shadow Service

Shadow provides users with access to a powerful gaming PC hosted in a remote data center. A monthly subscription grants access to this virtual machine.

Users can connect to their Shadow PC from a variety of devices, including computers, smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs. The service streams video output to the user’s device while relaying their input back to the server.

Shadow’s Unique Approach

Unlike competing services such as Google Stadia, Amazon Luna, and Nvidia GeForce Now, Shadow offers a fully customizable environment. Users are able to install any software they choose on their virtual server.

The service provides a complete Windows 10 installation, ensuring compatibility with a wide range of applications. This extends beyond gaming to include professional software like Steam, Photoshop, and Excel.

Financial Difficulties and Administration

Despite successfully raising over $100 million in funding, Blade faced significant challenges. The company struggled to fulfill existing pre-orders and lacked the financial resources for sustainable growth and expansion.

Although Shadow attracted a user base of 100,000 paying subscribers, the company was ultimately compelled to enter administration proceedings with the commercial court, as reported by Next INpact.

Takeover Bids and the Acquisition

Multiple parties expressed interest in acquiring Blade. These included a team led by Blade’s CTO, Jean-Baptiste Kempf, alongside other employees, and a separate bid submitted by Octave Klaba.

Klaba’s plan for the future of Shadow involves retaining all current employees with the exception of Jean-Baptiste Kempf.

Future Outlook for Shadow

The coming weeks will be crucial in determining the future direction of the Shadow service. Current subscription prices begin at €12.99 per month in Europe and $11.99 per month in the U.S.

It remains uncertain whether these pricing levels will be maintained, how the service’s technical specifications will evolve, and whether the company will invest in expanding its server infrastructure to accommodate new users.