GameRail Network Shuts Down

GameRail, the private gaming backbone providing low-latency connections to gamers, has announced that it is shutting down:

It is with deep regret to announce that the GameRail network has been discontinued at this time. … We believe that latency and network quality will continue to affect the gaming experience and while we are still believers in the GameRail concept, the market does not appear to be ready to support a standalone network for gaming at this time.

GameRail was a customer of Internap (INAP), which provided the gaming network with intelligent routing services to support its service. It also had connectivity agreements with XO Communications and Broadwing. The network was based in the Bandwidth Exchange buildings in St. Louis, which are now owned by Digital Realty Trust (DLR).

Stripped-Down, Streamlined Servers

Like most operators of online MMO games, CDC Games runs a lot of servers. Unlike World of Warcraft and other major MMORPGs, CDC doesn’t charge a fee for its games, and makes its money on the sale of in-game products and services. That model has worked well in the Chinese gaming market, and CDC has expanded into North America, hosting its equipment with Terremark (TMRK) at the company’s NAP of the Americas in Miami.

In a Network World profile, CDC general manager Ron Williams says server vendors would do well to consider the needs of gaming companies and other emerging providers focused on scalability, which have different priorities than the traditional enterprise customer. An excerpt:

“All of us are taking these generic, commoditized servers and trying to do the best we can, when what we really want is a stripped-down box that’s of high quality,” Williams says. “IBM can’t afford to keep all kinds of models around, but I think as we move more into cloud computing, someone is going to have to create (more stripped-down servers) for us, whether we’re gamers or software-as-a-service.”

Williams talks about the data center economics for gaming companies, and how they may differ from other customers. Check out the full story at Network World.

Peering Dispute Disrupts World of Warcraft

The Cogent-Telia peering dispute is causing major grief for gamers whose ISPs rely solely on Cogent for connectivity, who now find themselves unable to access World of Warcraft, the world’s most popular online game. It turns out that Blizzard Entertainment, which operates Warcraft, uses Telia for its Internet backbone services. Blizzard has advised Warcraft players of the business dispute between Cogent and Telia, which is also being discussed on Warcraft community news sites. It’s not clear whether this is affecting only Cogent networks in Europe, or the U.S. as well.

In de-peering Telia, Cogent is wagering that pressure from Telia’s users will bring the European broadband giant back to the table to work out their differences. But the Warcraft issue can’t be happy news for Cogent’s ISP customers, who are no doubt fielding complaints from angry gamers.

For more on network provider disputes and online gaming, check out RampRate’s column from 2006 titled “Every Time You Vote Against Net Neutrality, Your ISP Kills A Night Elf.”

Terremark Targets Gaming, Social Networking

Infrastructure service provider Terremark Worldwide (TMRK) has targeted the fast-growing online gaming market with the launch of the Terremark Interactive Entertainment Group, which provides managed infrastructure solutions for virtual worlds and social networking sites.

“We are seeing significant demand for our services from companies dedicated to bringing online gaming applications, virtual worlds, and social networking sites to market,” said Marvin Wheeler, President of Terremark’s U.S. Commercial Business Unit. “Our portfolio of premium managed services is ideally suited for large-scale performance-intensive applications such as massively multiplayer online games and this group is dedicated to creating solutions tailored precisely to the requirements of these innovative applications.”

Is Your Ops Staff Playing Halo 3?

I’m shocked, SHOCKED to hear rumors that IT staffers may be playing video games in the data center! I sure hope they’re being discreet about this, so word doesn’t get out. What’s that? … they’re posting pictures on the INTERNET!?!

Yes, the staff at opus:interactive, a hosting and colocation provider in Portland, Oregon, celebrated the launch of Halo 3 by setting up three large LCD projector screens in the company data center and firing up the Xbox 360s for an extended session of digital mayhem. Then they blogged about it and posted video on YouTube. I’m sure this mischief was terminated once Chief of Operations Jason Nuss found out about it … wait, no … it looks like that’s Jason there in the middle of the photo. Jason’s quoted on the blog: “Stealing the flag was only half the battle as we waged efforts against our own o:i brethren. We sharpened our skills on the iron blades of our foes and screamed beautiful obscenities towards a sea of enemies, while demolishing their skulls with Gravity Hammers.”

The blog also documents caffeine loading via Pepsi and Coca-Cola. What, no Mountain Dew Gamer Fuel?

PlayStation 3 Clusters In The Data Center

Sony is releasing an online version of Warhawk for its PlayStation 3 console, powered by an unusual back-end: clusters of rack-mounted PlayStation 3 systems housed in data centers around the globe. The infrastructure for WarHawk - a reissue of a flight combat game that debuted on the original PlayStation in 1995 - was outlined yesterday on the PlayStation blog.

The clusters are designed to reduce latency (lag) for PS3 users by providing shorter routes to Warhawk servers. Sony has also included an “Integrated Game Server” (IGS) with Warhawk that allows users to run their PS3 as a server, creating a distributed network of hosts. “Since Warhawk is a global online game, our IGS method scatters game servers quite literally into player’s homes all over the planet

NPR Features One Wilshire Carrier Hotel

National Public Radio technology correspondent Xeni Jardin featured Internet carrier hotels in a segment that aired yesterday. The piece spotlighted One Wilshire, the huge Los Angeles Internet hub owned and operated by CRG West, the technology real estate arm of the Carlyle Group. The report introduced carrier hotels and the basics of Internet infrastructure to a general audience, but also highlighted the fact that “business is booming” at One Wilshire, according to CRG West’s David Dunn, who said One Wilshire has experienced demand from the emerging market for Internet video games.

Jardin, also one of the anchor bloggers at Boing Boing, used the recent earthquake in Taiwan to illustrate the resiliency of Internet infrastructure, noting that the networks housed at One Wilshire were able to route around the outages within several days of the earthquake. The segment also mentions the possibility the carrier hotels could be targeted by terrorists, an angle that has often turned up in media coverage of this industry. Internet security guru Bruce Schneier contributed a sound clip that placed the terrorist issue in perspective. You can listen here or check out the photos at Flickr.

GNi Acquires MMO Hosting Specialist

Global Netoptex, Inc. (GNi) has acquired long-term partner Online Game Services, Inc. (OGSi) in a deal valued in excess of $3 million, the two companies said. The move positions GNi to provide “pay-as-you-grow” game hosting solutions to the fast-growing industry for massively multiplayer games (MMOs).

“Acquiring OGSi is a natural progression,” stated Derek Wise, GNi’s president and CEO. “By combining their expertise in the games space with ours in managed services, we achieve increased economies of scale and efficiency to better serve our customers.”

“Combining our two companies clearly strengthens our ability to serve the game industry with innovative hosting solutions,” said James Hursthouse, CEO of OGSi. “We’ll also be taking our ‘pay-as-you-grow’ model into new areas such as interactive TV, video and music services, and social community websites.”

OGSi currently has more than 1,000 blade servers packed into 12 cabinets in 365 Main’s San Francisco data center. OGSi has been developing its game service provider business model since 2004, hosting sites for Ping0 LLC and GoPets Ltd. with the new Hellgate London online game. With its acquisition by GNi, OGSi expects to have over 4,000 additional servers operational for games clients in 10 datacenters worldwide by the end of 2007.

Would MMOs Wither Without Net Neutrality?

Is Net neutrality critical to the rapid growth of MMORPG online games? Ramprate believes it is, and outlines its thinking in an article titled Every Time You Vote Against Net Neutrality, Your ISP Kills A Night Elf. The article’s premise - that ISPs who get no direct revenue from online gaming would handle MMO and FPS (game server) traffic in a fashion that would degrade latency - is being discussed on Slashdot.

While there’s a certain logic to some of the scenarios presented by Ramprate regarding phone companies and ISPs, bear in mind that the largest online games are actually hosted by a phone company. AT&T hosts World of Warcraft and Sony Online Entertainment’s major games. At this year’s E3, AT&T announced the expansion of its online gaming operation. Given the hosting fees coming in from Blizzard and Sony, it’s reasonable to conclude that AT&T/SBC has a vested interest in their success. Does the nation’s largest phone company have leverage in dealing with ISPs who might be tempted to mess with their customers’ MMO traffic? I suspect they do. I’d be interested in comments/feedback on the Ramprate scenario and whether AT&T’s hosting role supports or undermines it.

MMO Game Host Deploys 1,000 Blade Servers

Multiplayer online game host Online Game Services Inc. (OGSi) has deployed more than 1,000 IBM BladeCenter servers at 365 Main’s flagship data center in San Francisco, the companies announced today. OGSi, the gaming channel of managed services provider Global Netoptex Inc. (GNi), says it already has more than 1 million users, with clients including (GoPets Ltd.) and Ping0 LLC, which will distribute the online component to Hellgate: London.

OGSi has invested over five years and more than $20 million in its network infrastructure. The servers installed at 365 Main include a mix of IBM LS20 (AMD-based), HS20 and HS21 (Intel-based), and JS20 (PowerPC-based) blades, and represent the single largest deployment of IBM blade servers in the digital entertainment industry, according to OGSi. The company says it expects to have more than 3,500 blade servers operational by the end of 2007.

“Our on-demand ‘pay-as-you-grow’ game hosting business model is based around a dense hosting environment that requires advanced, modern data centers like 365 Main’s,” said James Hursthouse, CEO and owner of OGSi. “We chose 365 Main because it offers world-class power, connectivity, cooling and security, which together allow us to provide our customers with the finest hosting infrastructure available to power their games.”

Online Game Services Inc. launched in June 2004, and is providing online game companies with fully managed dedicated game hosting services, eliminating the need for MMORPG operators to spend millions of dollars on web infrastructure. “It’s a drastic reduction in risk and cost,” said Hursthouse, who said the MMO sector is growing quickly due to the success of World of Warcraft and strong media interest in Second Life. “There definitely has been a paradigm shift. Right now there aren’t many publishers that aren’t looking at MMOs.”