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Tech Giants Targeting Online Gaming Infrastructure

Posted by simoniker on from the i-crush-you dept.

Thanks to CNET News for its story discussing the increasing interest of large tech companies in online gaming middleware, explaining: "Inspired by predictions of brisk growth in the $1 billion online game market, IBM, Sun Microsystems and other companies normally not associated with dragon-slaying adventures have launched projects recently to handle the complex infrastructure needed to run online games." Steve Canepa of IBM is enthusiastic about the opportunities: "The gaming industry is really going through a transition now... we think there's a real opportunity for IBM to play a role in that transition [by backing Butterfly.net, among other things]." However, analyst Billy Pidgeon points out, in riposte: "There's just not a lot of profit to be made... the infrastructure stuff is not really that expensive or difficult a piece of the online game process, so the outsourcing players can't charge a whole lot."

2 of 18 comments (clear)

  1. One extra dollar.... by MMaestro · · Score: 2, Insightful
    There's just not a lot of profit to be made... the infrastructure stuff is not really that expensive or difficult a piece of the online game process, so the outsourcing players can't charge a whole lot.

    I don't know about most people but if I was given the choice of paying an extra dollar a month for absolutely no time EVER and much less lag, or not paying that one dollar and having to deal with downtime and annoying lag... well, I'd have to go with the extra dollar plan. I spend more on candy a month than I do on subscription based games so an extra dollar isn't gonna cause me to starve.

  2. This is a good thing by LordZardoz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Getting some of these tech giants involved in creating MMPORG middle ware is probably a great thing. The developers should focus on making the game fun. So why spend their time on the 'boring' aspects (customer billing, database system for account management, server maintenence, etc).

    If IBM and the rest can provide software and hardware services to do this, it will be a good thing. Does a customer really need to know or give a damn if their Everquest game uses the same server back end as Dark age of Camelot or City of Heros?

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