COLT Telecom Group plc (COLT) has been recognised by EA Games, the world's leading interactive entertainment software company, as offering the best performing hosting infrastructure for its online games in the UK. EA figures show that 90,000 ‘‘Battlefield 1942’’ games are played every week, on the servers hosted at COLT. This represents 87% of available places in a 24x7 period.
Gamers are increasingly selective and demanding about the speed and quality of their gaming experience as online games become more sophisticated. EA Games' latest PC game, ‘Battlefield 1942’, for example, hosts up to 64 players fighting at any one time. Each of these players is looking for the fastest latency speeds possible as this could mean life or death to their characters.
Both EA and COLT are well aware of the huge demands games like ‘Battlefield 1942’ place on the hosting and server technology behind them. COLT’s success with the gaming community lies in its infrastructure and bandwidth capabilities. Its servers are housed in its own hosting environment and networked via COLT’s own cable network. This guarantees a world class network performance that attracts 87% of ‘Battlefield 1942’ gamers, running across 1000 game seats simultaneously.
Online gaming has seen dramatic growth in recent years. According to Nielsen-Netratings (Feb, 2003), 5.9 million Europeans visited online gaming sites in January 2003, more than double the 2.8 million visitors of January 2002. This growth relies as much on the speed of the game, as the quality of it. Speed is key to a gamer’s competitive edge. A recognisably fast server is therefore an asset to any gamer and important to the success of games portals like EAGames.com. Bill Soules, Product Director, Data Centre Solutions at COLT comments: “Online gamers have voted with their hands – COLT provides the best online gaming experience and our network consistently ranks as the most popular destinations by far. We’re proud of our world beating hosting and managed streaming services, and the work done with EA Games is a fine example of the benefits COLT brings to companies.”
“Speed, stability and reliability are key requirements for any web-based business and online end user service,” explains Mike Richardson, European Online Operations Manager at EA Games. “The COLT infrastructure is providing online gamers with a powerful and stable gaming experience. We have seen a high proportion of visitors choosing to play against each other using our servers and have been impressed with COLT’s network capabilities and level of service.”
About COLT
COLT Telecom Group plc is a leading pan-European provider of business communications services. COLT has over 17,000 network services and eBusiness customers. The company owns an integrated 20,000 kilometre network that directly connects over 9,000 buildings in 32 major cities in 13 countries augmented with a further 41 points of presence across Europe and 11 Internet Solution Centres. COLT supplies customers across the full spectrum of industry, service and government sectors with unrivalled end-to-end network security, reliability and service.
COLT Telecom Group plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (CTM.L) and NASDAQ (COLT). Information about COLT and its products and services can be found on the web at www.colt.net Notes to editors Please ensure COLT is always spelt in CAPITALS.
About EA Games
Electronic Arts, headquartered in Redwood City, Calif., is the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, Electronic Arts posted revenues of $2.5 billion for fiscal 2003. The company develops, publishes and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under three brand names: EA SPORTS(TM), EA GAMES(TM) and EA SPORTS BIG(TM). EA's homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at info.ea.com.
Electronic Arts, EA, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS BIG, EA GAMES are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.
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