AT&T, Verizon Moving Into Gaming

Verizon announced today that they are working on a service to deliver games through their broadband service for a monthly fee. The service will begin this summer in New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Along similar lines, IndustryGamers reports that AT&T is "investing millions in gaming." In addition to revamping the games section of their website, they are also working on an IPTV service and trying to find a way to unify the gaming experience across mobile platforms, computers, and consoles. "[AT&T's Executive Director of Gaming, Glenn Broderick, said,] 'What we're doing is trying to incentivize [gaming companies] to take some risks by tethering mobile games to console or PC experiences.' ... He continued, 'We're putting a ton of money into back-end systems for both mobile and the broadband site... We're making serious investments in the games space because it's now seen as a huge strategic initiative for AT&T. And before it just wasn't; it wasn't on the executive agenda.' Broderick also is optimistic that cloud-based gaming services like OnLive that provide games on demand will take off in the next 5-10 years, and he sees AT&T and its network as a big player in that."

Comments

Re:How is this net neutrality related?

[Anonymous Coward]

You honestly think that they will be above using the same mafioso blackmail tactics on Blizzard and independent game server admins as they have on say, VOIP and IPTV? The broadband gaming revolution was nice while it lasted, but once this scheme is running as intended you can expect to see your favorite Counter Strike server become mysteriously laggy (or disappear from the list altogether) unless it is part of their approved, regulated, sponsored group (in which case no one from outside that walled garden will be able to play there).

"Unifying the game experience"?

[Rogerborg]

Say what?

On the mobile side, AT&T is taking its .net website to phones for a "more consistent experience" between PC and mobile. Essentially, AT&T has a "three-screen focus," Broderick said. "We're looking at the TV, broadband connected PC and mobile almost as a unified platform," he stressed. "What we're doing is trying to incentivize [gaming companies] to take some risks by tethering mobile games to console or PC experiences.

Does anyone know what language this guy is speaking? It's almost like English, but seems to convey no useful information.

Is he saying that the same game will be playable and look pretty much the same on mobile, PC and on a TV (presumably through a set-top box)? Wow, that should be a shitty experience for at least two out of three platforms, although I wouldn't rule out the possibility of it sucking on all three.

Or is he proposing multiple clients with potentially wildly disparate UIs playing in the same game world, chosen from a vast content range such as video poker, scrabble, or video poker?

Would anyone care to risk their sanity by trying to decipher the meaning behind his marketdroid hoots and wails?

Re:"Unifying the game experience"?

[FrozenFOXX]

Sure, what he's saying is that they want someone else to make a way for them to sell you TV, your Internet Connection, and your phone, and then keep you hooked on all three. Basically some "game" that you'd say, "Well I thought about changing my phone to T-mobile but then I wouldn't be able to play this game since I wouldn't have all three services! I CAN'T have THAT!"

It's just another way for them to try and stick you with three services. The rep makes no sense because he doesn't understand what he's talking about. People think you can just use this magickal, "game," thingie that seems so popular and suddenly use it to make people buy all your useless shit. It's the same kinda thing that Microsoft tries to pull but really isn't as good at as it claims (witness how well Shadowrun for tie-in worked out).

Don't think too hard about it because they've got no idea how it works either (it comes from not playing any games...seriously, most of these people don't even know what a game IS, and that I say from a lot of experience). When we hear something like, oh I dunno, that you'd be able to plot raid groups in WoW from your phone, watch those same dungeon runs you plotted out on your server on your TV, and even play in them the conventional way with your computer, *then* you can feel free to start puzzling over it again.

Re:Hooray for the end of buying used games!

[jaggeh]

it looks like a steam clone with a stupid pricing system.