Microsoft Announce Xbox Live Partner News
Chris Leyton
03/05/2005
Limelight Networks set to evolve the Xbox Live service as we chat to the guys with the facts...
Microsoft today announced an agreement with Limelight Networks to become the sole Content Delivery Network for Xbox Live. The agreement promises to expand the Xbox Live service, providing subscribers access to an unprecedented array of games, content and downloads from Microsoft and other leading game developers.
In addition, Xbox Live will utilise Limelight Networks technology and high-performance distributed network to provide on-demand games and âotherâ multimedia content.
âLimelight has an unmatched track record of fast, reliable delivery of rich digital content, ensuring that our customers will continue to have a superior online entertainment experience,â said Xbox Live Operations Manager Eric Neustadter. âThe Limelight Networks platform has demonstrated it can support the needs of Xbox Live subscribers today, and can scale with Xbox Live as we continue our rapid growth.â
âLeveraging our powerful content delivery infrastructure, the enhanced Microsoft Xbox Live online service is sure to prove a big win for Xbox users accessing the Internet," said Nathan Raciborski, chief network architect for Limelight Networks. "Microsoftâs planned content and audience size presented massive performance and scalability requirements for this project. Our technology, distributed infrastructure, and proven delivery performance made Limelight the clear choice for delivery of high-speed downloads of Xbox Live content to a large and growing community of subscribers."
TVG had the opportunity to chat briefly with a Limelight Networks spokesperson, who confirmed that the agreement went live on April 25th with the Halo 2 content download and that no additional costs would face Xbox Live subscribers. When asked what the agreement would fundamentally mean to Xbox Live subscribers, a Limelight Networks spokesperson claimed âAs Xbox Live continues to grow in popularityâ”1.4 million subscribers strong as of January, 2005 and growing. By signing on with Limelight, Xbox Live will have the ability to accommodate all delivery requests for games or content no matter the demand, and ensure a consistently great experience for all users, even as demand grows, which it is expected to do as a variety of new product releases come to market.â
When asked about the strengths that attracted Microsoft to Limelight Networks and the need for their service, TVG was informed, âWe believe we were selected for our network ability, technical ability, and performance. Microsoft had a range of performance requirements perfectly matched to the services Limelight provides. Xbox Live continues to grow in number of subscribers as well as number of games and amount of content offered. They needed a partner that could accommodate the growth in delivery traffic associated with that. Limelight is massively peered with commercial and private networks at a variety of domestic and international locations. This means we're not limited to the capacity of any specific backbone or network we work with, or location we deliver from. We also have a massively scalable platform that can easily accommodate large continuous or peak demands for content.â
âAs to Microsoftâs technical needs, delivering media content to an ip-enabled device like the Xbox is usually very different from run-of-the-mill PC content delivery. This includes technical requirements, manageability issues, and scale. Limelight designed and built our CDN from day one anticipating not only digital Lifestyle content, but also the now-emerging world of digital lifestyle devices.â
Weâll have further information soon.