 |
|
|
|
|
Company Success Stories - NCsoft
AMD Helps NCSOFT® Declare Victory In Online Gaming Industry
Profile
NCsoft
"The AMD Opteron™ processor helped launch Lineage® II, City of Heroes® and City of Villains® online video games with astounding success. By supporting tens of thousands of simultaneous users with zero server downtime, AMD64 helped place both games among the most popular Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) and grow our total customer base in our western territories to nearly six million. In addition, AMD’s technological power is complemented by the industry’s best price/performance and performance-per-watt — allowing NCsoft® to take a leadership position in the competitive MMOG market without paying a hefty IT ransom.”— Peter Jarvis, chief information officer, NCsoft"
Challenge:
- NCsoft® is a leading developer and publisher of online games. Described by NCsoft Chief Information Officer Peter Jarvis as “an ASP for gamers,” the company was intent to capitalize on a rapidly-growing market by launching a series of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG), including the innovative titles City of Heroes® and City of Villains®.
- MMOGs are played via the Internet by hundreds or thousands of people simultaneously. Previous MMOG launches by competitors experienced failures in service as the infrastructures supporting the games collapsed under the influx of users.
- Critical to NCsoft’s success was a powerful infrastructure that could support countless users while keeping overall costs low. Cost was a major concern for NCsoft for two reasons: the company’s data center providers charged a premium for high density power and cooling, and NCsoft planned to migrate to a 64-bit dual-core architecture.
- NCsoft also required a standards-based infrastructure that would provide investment protection, offering a seamless upgrade path to 64-bit computing and flexibility to better manage an ever-increasing number of customers across several products.
Solution:
- Extensive benchmarking revealed that the AMD Opteron™ processor delivered superior performance and performance-per-watt.
- “Our data center providers charge a premium for high density power and cooling, so naturally keeping that cost to a minimum was a priority for NCsoft,” said Jarvis. “The AMD Opteron processor was by far the most powerful processor technology available for our gaming applications and consumed the least amount of energy. Our research proved that, in a three-year period, the AMD Opteron processor would deliver the lowest possible total cost of ownership (TCO).”
Impact:
- Running on the AMD Opteron processor, NCsoft introduced Lineage® II and City of Heroes to the public on the same day amid outstanding results. “Prior to our introductions of Lineage II and City of Heroes, the vast majority of competitors’ MMOGs crashed during their launches because the companies’ infrastructures could not handle the surge in volume,” said Jarvis. “The AMD Opteron processor delivered a flawless execution by supporting two simultaneous game launches with tens of thousands of simultaneous users within days of launch — a feat unheard of until NCsoft pulled it off.” NCsoft followed up with a flawless launch of City of Villains® on AMD technology and continues with this trend by supporting hundreds of thousands of accounts on AMD Opteron processors throughout the company’s product lines.
- The system, which also supports Guild Wars®, delivered superior performance at lower overall costs; NCsoft attributes the increased performance to helping the company acquire more than two million customers for the Guild Wars franchise.
Organizational Profile
Headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, NCsoft Corporation is the world’s leading developer and publisher of online games. Founded in 1997, NCsoft is home to some of the world’s most successful online role-playing games, including Lineage®, Lineage II, City of Heroes®, City of Villains®, Auto Assault® and the Guild Wars® franchise. NCsoft has joint venture offices located in Japan, Taiwan, and China, as well as branches in North America and the United Kingdom. In fiscal year 2005, NCsoft posted revenues of KRW338 billion, or approximately US $361 million.
For more information, please visit www.plaync.com
Challenge
Described as “an ASP for gamers” by NCsoft Chief Information Officer Peter Jarvis, the company is a leading developer and publisher of online games. NCsoft was intent to capitalize on the rapidly-growing online gaming market. DFC Intelligence, a game-industry research company, predicted the worldwide-online-gaming market could surge to $6.8 billion by 2011. As such, NCsoft was preparing to launch Lineage II, plus a series of innovative Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), over two years entitled City of Heroes and City of Villains. MMOGs are played via the Internet by hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously.
Previous MMOGs were exclusively medieval-themed but City of Heroes, among the first games the company prepared to unveil to the public, offered something new: an MMOG inspired by the comic book genre, where players could create their own unique super-powered heroes and defend citizens of a contemporary city. The company planned to introduce City of Villains, the stand-alone sequel in which evil characters could play against characters from City of Heroes, within eighteen months after the successful launch of City of Heroes.
With such a leap from traditional MMOGs, the company required a launch that was flawless — a challenge in today’s demanding and competitive ASP gaming environments. Prior to the introductions of Lineage II and City of Heroes, the vast majority of competitors’ game launches experienced a failure at some point as their IT infrastructures failed to handle the dramatic influx of users. “Players download the game client and play against the back-end infrastructure. As we can have tens of thousands of users playing together, we needed to provide immediate access for our gamers, particularly in our ‘city zones’ where users log in,” said Jarvis. “If there is any delay in signing up, especially for a unique genre, we can lose those customers — sometimes for good.”
In addition to requiring a robust infrastructure that could support tens of thousands of simultaneous users, the company aimed to keep IT costs low. Cost was a large concern for NCsoft for two reasons: the company’s data center charged for power and cooling, and NCsoft planned to migrate to a 64-bit dual-core architecture.
NCsoft required a standards-based infrastructure that would provide investment protection, offering a seamless upgrade path to 64-bit computing and flexibility to better manage an ever-increasing number of customers.
Solution
Extensive internal benchmarking revealed that the AMD Opteron™ processor delivered superior performance and performance-per-watt — the latter of which was especially critical for keeping costs low. As such, AMD Opteron processor-based servers running current hits like the Lineage and “City of” series is providing the foundation for launching new games.
Specifically, the company created an infrastructure based on more than 1,000 AMD Opteron processors powering AMD64 technology-based systems.
“Our data centers charge for power and cooling, so naturally that was a primary issue for us to address,” said Jarvis. “The AMD Opteron processor was by far the most powerful technology and consumed the least amount of energy. Our research proved that, in a three-year period, the AMD Opteron processor would deliver us the industry’s lowest total cost of ownership (TCO).”
Impact
NCsoft introduced Lineage II, City of Heroes and City of Villains to the public amid outstanding results. Unlike other MMOG launches, NCsoft’s games experienced zero server downtime, even during peak usage. “Prior to our launches of Lineage II and City of Heroes, the vast majority of competitors’ MMOGs crashed during their launches because the companies’ infrastructures could not handle the surge in volume,” said Jarvis. “The AMD Opteron processor delivered a flawless execution by supporting tens of thousands of simultaneous players.” Later, when City of Villains launched, NCsoft experienced the same success — a smooth launch with no server downtime.
Jarvis elaborated on the performance by stating, “The textbook introductions of our games helped us build a stellar reputation in the highly competitive gaming industry. Being able to support so many users provides a better gaming experience for our customers, which has contributed to building NCsoft’s total customer base to nearly six million.”
Another AMD benefit is the company’s HyperTransport™ technology, which is integrated in every AMD Opteron processor. It provides a scalable bandwidth interconnect between processors, I/O subsystems, and other chipsets to deliver exceptional performance levels. HyperTransport also offers lower power consumption (1.2 volts) to help reduce a system’s thermal budget, which contributes to overall lower power and cooling bills.
Additionally, the AMD Opteron processor provides essential investment protection both in terms of the flexibility of the system and keeping costs low as the company upgrades to a 64-bit architecture.
Also, as the company migrates to 64-bit Microsoft® SQL Server 2005, the combination of AMD64 and Microsoft helps the company address much more memory without needing to upgrade to a costly new operating system.
“The AMD Opteron processor helped launch Lineage II, City of Heroes and City of Villains online computer games with astounding success. By supporting tens of thousands of simultaneous users with zero downtime, AMD64 helped place both games among the most popular Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOG) and grow our total customer base in our western territories to nearly six million. In addition, AMD’s technological power is complemented by the industry’s best price/performance and performance-per-watt — allowing NCsoft to take a leadership position in the competitive MMOG market without paying a hefty IT ransom.” — Peter Jarvis, chief information officer, NCsoft
About AMD
Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) is a leading global provider of innovative microprocessor solutions for computing, communications and consumer electronics markets. Founded in 1969, AMD is dedicated to delivering superior computing solutions based on customer needs that empower users worldwide. For more information visit www.amd.com.
AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, AMD Opteron, and combinations thereof, are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. HyperTransport is a licensed trademark of the HyperTransport Technology Consortium. Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. NCsoft, the interlocking NC logo, PlayNC, Lineage, Guild Wars, Guild Wars Factions, Auto Assault and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCsoft Corporation. City of Heroes, City of Villains and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cryptic Studios, Inc. and NCsoft Corporation. Cryptic Studios is a trademark of Cryptic Studios, Inc. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners. |
|
|
|
|
