Engage Games Online Inc has teamed with UK systems and service provider ICL Plc to expand its on-line games service to the European market. The new Gamezone.net multiplayer on-line games venue is due to go live in the autumn featuring the same games and services available in the US. The idea behind the deal is to provide a low latency service in Europe along with localized content and local language support. This is ICL’s first move in the online games market. ICL hopes to broaden application of its server systems and Internet consultancy services into a future growth area, commented Michelle Rusbridge, multimedia marketing manager at ICL. She cited figures from Forrester Research stating that 9% of Internet users are potential online game players. The potential European layers of such games is 350,000 according to Forrester. This is not far off the estimated 500,000 people that now regularly play online games in the US. ICL has designed the games venue and is providing the backbone to the service. A monthly fee to play will not be charged. Instead users register and pay on a per minute basis with charges automatically being debited from the player’s credit card account. These are likely to work out at around $2 to $3 an hour. Gamezone will provide adventure, strategy and action games as well as trivia quizzes, chat and online shopping for games related products. Games titles will be supplied by MPG-Net, the third signatory to the partnership and include Kingdom of Drakkar, Descent, Splatterball and also Virtual Pool.
