Online games, be they MMOGs like World of Warcraft or co-op/multiplayers like Team Fortress 2, are driving internet growth according to Vlad Ihora, head of gaming at TeliaSonera. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, he explains how the attitudes of internet service providors (ISPs) are changing toward online gamers and why he believes digital distribution of games will eventually become mainstream.TeliaSonera, who look after Blizzard Europe's networking solutions for WoW, have noticed an increase in companies not even related to gaming wishing to hook up to their network. Also, internet usage has shot up by 52% in the last 12-18 months and ISPs are paying much more attention these days than ever before to issues that affect gamers such as connection lag, packet loss, etc..
In reference to digital distribution, Ihora states that from his side of things, it would be as simple as flipping a switch because there is so much more bandwidth available and he believes the networks that support the internet can handle the strain. He also believes the conversion from boxed to digital distribution will happen gradually rather than all-at-once, comparing it to the CD and MP3 music formats.
