Microsoft is preparing to unveil a $1 billion computer gaming network for its Xbox games console. The company is expected to announce the network – called Xbox Live – at the start of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), which begins in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
A report in the New York Times claims the Xbox Live network will be supported by three huge data centres located in London, Seattle and Tokyo. The network’s capacity will reportedly exceed that of all Microsoft’s existing web sites, which are some of the most frequently visited destinations on internet.
The network will allow large groups of Xbox users to play tournaments together via the internet. But access to the network will come at a price. It will reportedly cost $9.95 per month to connect to Xbox Live, on top of the price of each game, and the service will only be available to those already paying for high-speed internet access.
Internet gaming is already popular among dedicated PC gamers but the net is not widely used to link up games consoles. Microsoft will be hoping to attract a broader audience to online gaming through Xbox Live.
Advertisement
The company will also be hoping the strategy will enable it to gain some ground on Sony, its main console rival. Sony has sold 30 million PlayStation 2 consoles compared to 3.5 million Xbox consoles. Nintendo has sold around five million Gamecube machines.
Sony and Nintendo have built their consoles with internet gaming in mind and Sony may offer a non-subscription service to those who buy the required PlayStation 2 add-on. But Microsoft appears to have raised the stakes with such a massive investment in its an online gaming network.
Another internet gaming network was recently announced by IBM and US software company Butterfly. The “Butterfly Grid” will be built according to existing standards for connecting supercomputers and has been designed to be platform-independent. IBM and Butterfly plan to lease access to the network to games publishers.
