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Microsoft has announced ambitious plans that will see the world's number one software maker launch a global gaming network for its Xbox console this autumn.
Xbox Live, an interactive gaming service based on always-on broadband technology, was announced at the annual E3 Gaming Congress in California on 21 May.
Essentially, the new Xbox Live service will assign participating gamers a unique user ID which will be linked to each Xbox console. Gamers will only be able to access the network from another console by saving their ID to an SMB memory unit.
Through the network, players are matched to opponents with similar gaming abilities anywhere around the world and the network will prevent advanced gamers from entering easy levels and wiping the floor with beginners.
Microsoft said it was placing a large emphasis on security, claiming that it will build the entire infrastructure for the gaming network from scratch to make sure it is secure and reliable. Users will be asked for personal information such as a credit card number and demographic data to form the ID and the safety of the data is likely to be a key consumer issue.
A voice communicator peripheral will allow every user to communicate with other players and Microsoft said the sound quality will compare favourably to a hands-free mobile phone.
Consumer beta testing will start in the United States this summer and the Xbox Live Starter Kit will cost USD49.99 for 12 months of service in the US. The service will go live in North America, Japan and Europe later this year, but details on the launch dates for each country are not available at this time.
Interestingly, all three of the big console makers, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, have now announced on-line gaming strategies but how successful they will be in the market remains to be seen. Although Sony's "EverQuest" has proven to be a raging success with more than 100,000 subscribers paying USD13 a month to access the game's virtual world, Sega's Dreamcast, which also had on-line capabilities, was a dismal failure and Sega pulled the plug on the unit last year.
Last week, Microsoft announced that it had signed an exclusive publishing deal with Sigil Games Online, a development studio run by two of the creators of "EverQuest."
Moreover, Jupiter Media Metrix said in December 2001 that the PC will remain the number one vehicle for on-line gaming in the US despite the increased availability of connected video game consoles. According to Jupiter, the number of American households owning a games console connected to the Internet will increase from 700,000 in 2000 to 12.3 million by 2006, but people who play games on-line via their PCs will continue to account for most of the gaming subscription revenue.
Jupiter forecast that subscription revenues from on-line PC games will be USD1.5 billion by 2006, while similar revenues from connected console gaming will only reach USD250 million in the same period. But the company does admit that the investment in on-line gaming for video console makers will begin to pay off after 2006 when broadband penetration increases in the US and the current generation of consoles are ready for replacement.
Last week Microsoft cut the US cost of the console from USD299 to USD199 following game console price cuts from rivals Sony and Nintendo.
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