Who's got Net game?

From...

April 21, 2000
Web posted at: 12:39 p.m. EDT (1639 GMT)

by Kenneth Li

(IDG) -- Nowhere has the carnage of competition been bloodier than in the niche of online games. Mpath Interactive, Sega, Total Entertainment Network. These and other firms have tried, failed and moved on from the dream of putting videogames on the Internet.

The idea sounds simple enough: Use the Internet's interactivity to connect players in lavish digital worlds. But the reality of creating and paying for those worlds has been discouraging. A single game can cost as much as $8 million to design. Past attempts to offset development costs with subscription fees have mostly gone nowhere.

Then there's the bandwidth issue. After all, playing games over dialup connections can't compare with the flash-and-thunder graphics of CD-ROMs. Should gamemakers sell hardware and software to create elaborate gaming environments at home and use the Net only to connect players ö a la Sega? Or should they create the worlds online?

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These obstacles have intimidated most companies from experimenting with online gaming. Those that have tried have stumbled. In the meantime, gaming has been dominated by consoles connected to TVs on the one hand (a market divided among Nintendo, Sega and Sony), and CD-ROM computer games on the other.

But online gaming has too much potential to resist. Projections from Forrester Research say online games will account for nearly one-fourth of interactive entertainment revenues by 2004, up from a scant 2 percent this year. (The current electronic entertainment market is valued at $7 billion.) Such forecasts have game companies again dusting off their online playbooks.

Sega, the world's third-largest videogame console manufacturer, is creating Sega.com, a new firm dedicated to Internet gaming. In February, Sony Online Entertainment struck a partnership with George Lucas' LucasArts to create an online gaming environment centered on the Star Wars brand. Separately, Sony Computer Entertainment America, maker of the PlayStation, has been urging game developers to translate PlayStation 2 games to the Internet.

"The human element makes gaming more addictive," says Sega.com CEO Brad Huang. "Consoles as a standalone are dead."

Open-source, networkable shooter has Linux gamers buzzing
April 12, 2000
Sony has high hopes for PlayStation 2
March 31, 2000
MS tests games-on-tap in Sweden
March 22, 2000
PlayStation 2 mania hits online auction sites
March 8, 2000
Plenty of emotion greets PlayStation 2
March 6, 2000
Sega to launch Dreamcast high-speed Net service
February 1, 2000
Sega, AT&T to launch gaming portal
August 4, 1999

First Look: Sony's PlayStation 2
(PC World Online)
Synergy at Sony? Don't count on it
(The Industry Standard)
Sega unveils online games, free consoles
(PC World Online)
Can Microsoft get game(rs)?
(The Industry Standard)
Sega to launch Dreamcast high-speed Net service
(IDG.net)
Study: Online gaming to reach $4.9 billion in 2004
(IDG.net)

Sega
Sony PlayStation
Sega Dreamcast Network
LucasArts

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