Ex-Blizzard Devs Sign With Namco, Blizzard Using BitTorrent

Thanks to Yahoo for reprinting a press release revealing the ex-Diablo creators now at Flagship Studios have signed a publishing deal with Namco, in a move that "marks Namco's official entry into the PC games publishing business" - we've previously covered Flagship Studios' formation on Slashdot Games. Elsewhere, several readers point out Blizzard's official World of Warcraft site, which has announced with regard to the upcoming WoW Beta test: "While we plan on having several ways available to distribute the files to everyone, our primary method will be through the Blizzard Downloader program, which uses BitTorrent technology." Update: 03/18 21:01 GMT by S : There's more discussion on Blizzard and other companies using BitTorrent in a recent mainpage post.

Comments

Problem with Bit Torrent

[wickedj]

Though I love bit torrent and how it provides a fast way to access different types of media on the net, it does have its problems. One of the biggest I've seen on college campuses and several ISPs is that it is being throttled down or even totally blocked off because of its use as a form of P2P sharing software. I hope this doesn't present a problem for Blizzard but I'm thinking that a lot of college student testers aren't going to be able to download the WoW beta very fast, if at all.

Re:Problem with Bit Torrent

[Vaevictis666]

They do mention that this will just be the primary download method, and that they will have some form of direct download for those unable (or unwilling) to use the torrent file.

Re:Problem with Bit Torrent

[realdpk]

It's not exactly a *choice*. ISPs get reduced pricing from their providers by saying they'll maintain a certain upstream/downstream ratio. If they go over that, it's very expensive - as in all contracts if you exceed usage.

ISPs get that reduced pricing to offer more services, provide better download bandwidth, and of course get more profits. They decide on the ratio based on average use. They have to charge more for upstream because if they didn't, and one month everyone decides to start uploading lots of stuff, they're stuck with a HUGE bill.

Legit Bit (torrent)

[Kethinov]

I never got a chance to contribute in yesterday's (or was it the day before's?) article about bit torrent suddenly becoming sanctioned in games.

But I predicted this would happen in the early days of Bit Torrent (god I wish I could find my +5 on the subject from last year or so.)

Anyway, this saves companies TONS of bandwidth and if has already been proven with Linux distros. The Fedora torrent is massively successful.

It may also urge crappy ISPs to up the amount of bandwidth they give to customers when they realize that high bandwidth != piracy always.

Re:Legit Bit (torrent)

[macrom]

Most cable providers do provide asynchronous access here in the US, with upload speeds being a small percentage of the upload bandwidth. I am using Comcast's service and I believe the download is 3Mbit and the upload is 384Kbit (maybe 512Kbit since they just upgraded the service in my area). I know that companies try to give you enough uplink speed to play games, etc. but still discourage users from running a small-time ISP-like service. In fact, some providers even block outbound HTTP, FTP, mail, etc. requests altogether.

I am not sure about BitTorrent -- it may be too new to be noticed on the radar.

Slight Blip on the Irony Detector

[spudgun]

Bitware OSI License , Open software

bnetd, Open source , Sued by Blizzard under DMCA

are they having their cake and eating it too ?