Sony revs up its Online Service w/Grid Technology

IBM Press Release

MSNBC

A supercomputer design favored by cancer and nuclear weapons researchers will now be directed toward a more frivolous pastime — playing games online. Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. will lease IBM Corp. equipment and networks to build online gaming environments using a “grid” platform built by Butterfly.net, a Martinsburg, W.Va.-based game technology developer

Traditionally, online video games have segmented players onto separate servers, limiting the number that could interact and creating reliability and support obstacles. In the first generation of online games, when one server is down, overloaded, or patches are being installed, game-play comes to a halt. With Butterfly.net\'s breakthrough Grid technology, the server interaction is completely transparent and seamless to the user -- delivering a resilient gaming infrastructure where servers can be added, or replaced, without interrupting game-play.

The network will run on IBM computers loaded with IBM Internet and database software, along with Butterfly’s game platform. The grid servers are scattered in IBM data centers around the United States, and can support millions of simultaneous users, Penberthy said.

Sounds great, hopefully it won\'t take forever to launch.  We gotta have this for GT4!

I\'d be really interested to hear more of this.

and still no monthly fee?

:eek:

When is all this set to take place?

nice to know that the online side of ps2 isnt dead.

SCE also plans to tie up with same-group Sony Finance International to develop a system to charge individuals participating in the online games.

Read more here.

Not so free.  

They seem to mention it in the same breath as Final Fantasy XI

How did you warp the words around to that?

It clearly states for inviduals participating in online games...notice the plural.

Originally posted by Ginko
How did you warp the words around to that?

It clearly states for inviduals participating in online games...notice the plural.

Yep, but what type of games?
MMO games? "Regular" semi online games?

I don’t see how they can charge a fee for someone else’s game, as the non Sony games have their own servers.

The PS2 Online plan reminds me of how it works on the PC, and I don’t see any fee\'s there (speaking only of semi-online games that is)

SCE also plans to tie up with same-group Sony Finance International to develop a system to charge individuals participating in the online games

I think they are talking about future Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO)-games made by Sony (like Everquest Online Adventures, Star Wars Galaxies ect).

But we knew these [MMO] game’s would require a fee, didn’t we?

I\'m not sure what this all encompasses...and I don\'t think any of us will for quite a while.

But I figure if it were just for MMO then they would have specified that...but then again there\'s no way to know right now.