Online gaming is driving internet growth
by Brooke Pilley 
Mar 20th 2009 at 3:00PM
Filed under: Interviews, MMO industry, News items, Opinion
Online games, be they MMOGs like World of Warcraft or co-op/multiplayers like Team Fortress 2, are driving internet growth according to Vlad Ihora, head of gaming at TeliaSonera. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, he explains how the attitudes of internet service providors (ISPs) are changing toward online gamers and why he believes digital distribution of games will eventually become mainstream.TeliaSonera, who look after Blizzard Europe's networking solutions for WoW, have noticed an increase in companies not even related to gaming wishing to hook up to their network. Also, internet usage has shot up by 52% in the last 12-18 months and ISPs are paying much more attention these days than ever before to issues that affect gamers such as connection lag, packet loss, etc..
In reference to digital distribution, Ihora states that from his side of things, it would be as simple as flipping a switch because there is so much more bandwidth available and he believes the networks that support the internet can handle the strain. He also believes the conversion from boxed to digital distribution will happen gradually rather than all-at-once, comparing it to the CD and MP3 music formats.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Quinnae said on 3:32PM 3-20-2009
Not surprising, and good to hear! Digital distribution is already very handy and convenient. Although in the future I will lament not being able to add to the collection of game boxes on my mantle.
ISPs are taking gamers more seriously as they realise they can build some loyalty with customers who find themselves able to play their favourite games with a low ping and few network problems. Verizon ran some ads not long ago specifically targeting gamers.
For my money, however, it remains to be seen whether this is merely a marketing shift or a substantive one. There is some hope, certainly, as- for example- Blizzard seems to get results from working with ISPs in regions they have trouble with.
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PeterD said on 4:41PM 3-20-2009
Yet more and more ISPs in the U.S. are implementing usage caps to gouge gamers and other high bandwidth users. They're paying more attention to gamer's activities, but not in a good way.
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