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Article

Title: Game On: Carriers Play Hide and Seek with Gaming Strategy

Author: Vittore, Vince Article Type: Product Analysis
Source: Telephony, v245 n7 p28(4) Publication Date: Apr 5, 2004
  ISSN: 0040-2656
URL of Publication: http://www.internettelephony.com

BellSouth's broadband strategy includes keeping track of the gaming market. Unlike most telephone companies, BellSouth has kept broadband content development within the company. Among its services are MovieLink, providing access to over 600 movies, and a rotating group of 60 to 80 free games. It gets gaming revenues from upgrades and subscriptions. It pays gaming publishers based in part on a game's popularity. Its model is based on serving many small market segments of the gaming community, with a goal that each game will appeal to at least four percent of the user base. Seventy percent of BellSouth's gamers are casual gamers, rather than hardcore gamers. Online gaming is still a small percentage of overall broadband revenues. Global online gaming currently consists of two segments. In the first, gamers meet online on a per-game basis. The second, massive multiplayer online games (MMOGs), uses client/server technology that allows activities to be saved and games to continue over long periods of time. U.S. carriers have not been very activity in either category. MMOGs have been especially popular in Asia, but have not been appealing to U.S. consumers yet. Technology is not a barrier. Verio's Enterprise Hosting technology can support MMOGs. Sony and Microsoft, with PS2 Live and XBox Live, are larger barriers to the carriers establishing an online game presence. Casual gamers are likely to remain a better market for the carriers.

Companies:
BellSouth Corp Sony Computer Entertainment America
Verio Inc

Products:
BellSouth Gaming PS2
Verio Enterprise Hosting

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