P1347

Online Console Gaming

closed

We already know that Console Gaming is a killer application, with more than 150 million game consoles sold worldwide. What we don’t know is how telcos and ISPs can fit into this business model, what roles can the take, and how these kinds of applications might affect access and transport networks, when they are mounted with online capabilities.

To give an impression of the activity in the online console gaming community, XBOX Live has been reported to have more than 350 000 online customers worldwide by mid April this year, since its release in the US and Japan in November 2002, and in Europe as late as March 2003. They report an average of 1 million game sessions per week.

Global Information Inc. estimates that: “The global online games market will represent $3.2bn and 113 million users in 2005. Although PC online gaming will continue to grow strongly, the main driver of the market will come from console online gaming, which will bring masses of new users to online gaming and will rely on lucrative business models.” 

The study will answer the following questions:

• How can online console gaming represent new business and revenue opportunities for traditional network operators both at a pan-European and national level?
• What roles can and should telecos/ISPs take in this new market?How will online console gaming affect both in the edge and core of our networks and their design?
• Can online gaming consoles represent an alternative way to provide TV-users with other popular Internet based services like messaging and VoIP?

What are the main objectives of this Project?

The main objectives of this Study are to:

• Explore possible business and revenue models for this new emerging market.

• Explore the different roles that telecom operators can have.

• Indicate the best role for telecom operators/ISPs.

• Study the critical parameters in gaming applications, and how they will affect our view on traditional network design.

• Study the potential for pan-European Online Console Gaming (OCG) through simple experiments with existing applications between the partners in this study

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