Square Enix kills ad-supported streaming service

Square Enix's streaming service Core Online, which allowed users to play console-quality games through their browsers, is no more. Just fifteen months after going live in August 2012, the service has been closed due to a lackluster commercial response, Square Enix announced on its website.

"Core Online was released as an experiment to see what demand there would be for HD games played via the browser," Square Enix said. "However, due to limited commercial take-up of this initiative, Core Online closed on Friday 29th November 2013."

Core Online was a browser-based gaming service that ran natively within Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer. You could play games like Hitman: Blood Money and Mini Ninjas for free, but you had to watch intermittent video advertisements or spend real-world money to continue.

Though Square Enix may be moving away from streaming, Sony has big plans for cloud-powered gaming through its new PlayStation Now service. You can learn more about Sony's plans for streaming by checking out our roundup of what we know about the platform so far.