Sun Microsystems is expected to announce today that it has created a prototype for a computer server that will be sold to online game companies.
The Santa Clara server company's Game Technology Group adapted Sun's existing Sun Fire Blade server to handle specific online gaming tasks. Chris Melissinos, Sun's chief gaming officer, said the prototype aims to address some longstanding problems for online games, which are designed to accommodate thousands of players in rich fantasy worlds.
Companies such as Sony and Electronic Arts have hosted online games with hundreds of thousands of players for years on standard business servers. But those servers limit the number of players who can participate in an online game. For instance, when Sony first launched its EverQuest game, the company could accommodate only 3,000 players on a single server.
"Our servers will eliminate those barriers so the players can more freely move within the game world,'' Melissinos said. ``The game companies will also be able to operate their games more profitably.''
News source: The Miami Herald
