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OnLive carries the torch of a gamer's dream, and that dream is a cloud-based library of popular games titles that can be played on any device at any time. Today that dream took an unplanned and shocking detour as reports surfaced that the company has laid off its entire staff.

Mashable first reported that something was amiss at the popular start-up's Palo Alto, CA offices. According to a source close to the events, OnLive called a staff-wide meeting this morning around 10 a.m. PDT  and then fired all its employees. According to the source, the company advised its team that there was a chance some employees could be hired back in the future.

In further developments, Forbes reached out to OnLive Director of Corporate Communications Brian Jaquet who initially replied "No comment," then followed up with "We are not going out of business." Current web speculation reveals theories that the company may stop offering services and start selling its  intellectual property instead.

The en masse pink slipping comes as a stark surprise considering the small company's timely successes. OnLive recently partnered with Vizio to offers its service within a connected device for televisions called the Co-Star. That goes ditto for a partnership with OUYA, an Android-based gaming console that obtained popularity--and $8.6 million in  funding--on KickStarter just weeks ago.

Via Mashable, Forbes