It is with deep regret to announce that the GameRail network has been discontinued at this time. Thank you to the gamers who have participated in the GameRail trial and support of its development as we worked to solve the issues of latency and network quality and their impact on gaming. We believe that latency and network quality will continue to affect the gaming experience and while we are still believers in the GameRail concept, the market does not appear to be ready to support a standalone network for gaming at this time.

GameRail operated a high speed network that directly connected online game players to servers hosting popular games. GameRail’s business model was to deliver superior performance to its subscribers by peering directly with ISPs, universities and game server providers (GSPs). Low latency is crucial in multiplayer first-person shooter games like CounterStrike, where a slow connection can leave a player at a competitive disadvantage. But gamers are also a price-sensitive crowd, as noted by Wagner James Au at GigaOm:

GameRail’s death notice suggests a broader reason: There are probably very few gamers out there willing to pay extra to become what’s colloquially called an SLPB, or “super low ping bastard.”

“Every Windows gaming PC has other non-gaming tasks running in the background vying for network resources,” said Harlan Beverly, co-founder and CEO of Bigfoot Networks. “Killer Bandwidth Control can for example, stop PunkBuster or annoying Windows updates from ruining the experience by limiting the bandwidth they can use.”

The Killer NIC gaming network card is designed to reduce the lag and latency associated with high action MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) and FPS (First Person Shooter) games. With a dedicated Network Processing Unit (NPU), Killer NIC offloads network processing from the CPU, bypasses the Windows Network Stack and prioritizes game packets to boost average frame-rates and smooth gameplay during intense game situations.

With Bandwidth Control gamers can manage the bandwidth across all applications to further maximize their game performance. Key features include: (1) Bandwidth Priority settings tell Killer NIC which applications should get preferential access when multiple applications are vying for the same bandwidth, (2) Bandwidth Limits set a minimum/maximum upload and download bandwidth speed for any game or application.

Bigfoot Networks specializes in technologies designed to fight Lag in online games. The company’s mission is to enhance Internet-based online game experiences in multiplayer action games. The company’s hardware and software solutions are targeted at gamer PCs and game hosting servers.

Bigfoot Networks Inc Killer K1 64 MB PCI Wired Online Gaming Network Accelerator NIC (B011-500-0045)

The Killer™ K1 64 MB PCI Online Gaming Network Accelerator from Bigfoot Networks™ is a Network Card designed specifically for online gamers. Killer K1 accelerates gaming by bypassing the Windows Network Stack, getting to data to your game fast. It features 333 MHz Network Processing Unit with Lag and Latency Reduction Technology. Killer K1 can be upgraded to support the Flexible Network Architecture (FNA). This allows you to run applications such as firewalls and BitTorrent clients right on your Killer instead of your CPU.

GameRail operates a high speed network that directly connects online game players to servers hosting popular games. GameRail’s business model is to deliver superior performance to its subscribers by peering directly with ISPs, universities and game server providers (GSPs). Low latency (“lag”) is crucial in multiplayer first-person shooter games like CounterStrike, where a slow connection can leave a player at a competitive disadvantage.

“When 20 milliseconds is a matter of ‘life and death’ – winning and losing – for an online gamer, latency, packet loss and jitter can ruin the playing experience,” said Mark Senda, chief executive officer for GameRail. “Internap’s optimized network performance solutions allow us to provide localized ingress and egress connection speeds to three milliseconds, maximizing the flow of real-time Web traffic while optimizing game play.”

Peering with Major GSPs
GameRail has direct connect peering relationships with the leading game server providers with over 80 percent of First Person Shooter (FPS) and Real Time Strategy (RTS) gaming servers attached directly to the company’s private, nationwide network. Internap’s solutions ensure that residential broadband users of all carriers are able to enjoy the optimum gaming experience. Additionally, GameRail features private peering to route traffic away from the Internet and onto its private backbone.

“GameRail has a unique and superior online gaming solution and we are thrilled to work with the company to help them evolve,” said Tim Sullivan, chief technology officer for Internap. “As a Web-reliant enterprise, GameRail’s use of our innovative, proprietary technology is a significant proof point of the power of our resources for Internet-based business.”

Online multiplayer computer gaming is one of the fastest growing entertainment activities in the U.S., with more than 40 million people now playing regularly.

GameRail is operated by Progression LLC, a facilities-based network operator with interconnection facilities in eight major US markets including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Palo Alto, Seattle and St. Louis.

Team Pandemic will be the first pro-gaming team to exclusively game on Dell XPS systems featuring Intel Core 2 Duo processors and Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate. “Dell’s college initiative provides us the opportunity to work closely with the industry’s technology leaders,” said Chris Lemley, president of Team Pandemic. “With Dell Unleashed as a title partner, we have a unique variety of media to further reach the college-aged gamer.”

The Frag Dolls, a team of seven women gamers, will hold a casting call for a new member as part of the sponsorship with Dell. I wrote about the Frag Dolls on GameJournalism.com back in 2004, and it turned out to be one of the best read articles on that blog (now part of Video Game Media Watch). The combination of attractive women and FPS gaming was a hit magnet, which is clearly what Ubisoft was thinking when it assembled the team. The Dell sponsorship will likely raise the Frag Dolls’ profile even further.

Applicants for the casting call will be interviewed Aug. 2-5 in the Dell booth at QuakeCon in Dallas, and the qualifiers will compete in the finals on Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas at Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) in Seattle, Aug. 24-26.

Games Media Properties said it would pay all previous prize winners and refund entry fees it has received for scheduled  events in Los Angeles, London and Sweden .

After sequestering him in Sao Paulo, they held a gun against the victim’s head for five hours to get his password, which they wanted to sell for $8,000. And yes, the story gets even better. Surprisingly enough, after five hours the hostage wasn’t talking. The group leader had a gun against his head all that time but the guy didn’t say a word. At that point, the crooks gave up and decided to let him go. The Brazilian police then caught the four suspects, aged 19 to 27.

How many gamers would refuse to give up their passwords with a gun to their head? Hero or idiot?

GameRail’s business model is to deliver superior performance to its subscribers by peering directly with ISPs, universities and game server providers (GSPs), reducing congestion that is often encountered on the public Interent (see diagram). Low latency (”lag”) is crucial in multiplayer first-person shooter games like CounterStrike, where a slow connection can muck up gameplay and/or leave a player at a competitive disadvantage.

“With the addition of The Planet to our network, our subscribers will see a substantial increase in the desired content titles and game play environments they prefer,“ said GameRail’s Vice President of Business Development John Alden. “The Planet’s powerful network performance and reliability provide optimum connections for serious online gamers.“

“The Planet has always been a destination for competitive online league gaming events,“ said The Planet’s Vice President of Technology Will Charnock. “With this peering connection, GameRail is able to extend the reach of our customers to additional cities with a hyper-competitive, low latency and smooth connection to the online gamer.“

GameRail is still in the testing phase but getting closer to “live status,” the company says. It now has network facilities in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Palo Alto, Seattle and St. Louis. GameRail made network equipment upgrades in April. “Because of the tremendous response from both access peering and game server partners, we quickly outgrew our phase 1 network equipment even before our formal launch to end users,” the company said in a May 3 announcement. “We just completed an upgrade to Foundry Network XMR core routers in each city. These routers are carrier-class and allow GameRail to peer with a huge number of companies.”

To make it easier for its end-users to locate servers, GameRail recently worked with Game Monitor to create a web interface that identifies more than 4,000 game servers hooked up to its network.

Online multiplayer computer gaming is one of the fastest growing entertainment activities in the U.S., with more than 40 million people now playing regularly. GameRail introduced its “bypass network” in January to delivers a direct connection from the game player to the game host.

GameRail is operated by Progression LLC, a facilities-based network operator with interconnection facilities in eight major US markets including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Palo Alto, Seattle and St. Louis. The company’s lead investor is River City Internet Group (RCIG), a St. Louis area technology company. Robert Guller, President of The Broadband Exchange Building in St. Louis, is also a significant investor.