A start-up, Butterfly.net Inc., and computing giant IBM , have created a global network for online video games capable of supporting a million players or more that will be rented to major game publishers, the companies said on Thursday.
The "Butterfly Grid" will also be one of the first major commercial applications for IBM's concept of "grid computing," in which far-flung computers are linked using open-source software to create powerful computing networks, IBM said.
The Internet already exists as a platform for interactive games, but the costs of developing for the Web are high and games can be interrupted by glitches in Internet traffic.
Software development kits for console- and PC-games that would plug into the Butterfly Grid are available, after two years of development work on the project designed to reduce the cost for game publishers, David Levine, Butterfly's chief executive, told Reuters.
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