Halo 2 Effect Threatens Broadband

darkstar949 writes "There is an article on CNET News.com that reports the so called 'Halo 2' effect is threatening broadband users. Because of this some ISPs are being pressured for more reliability and low latency. Perhaps this marks a new trend for the internet as online gaming becomes more popular." From the article: "Sandvine's latest statistics showed that Xbox Live traffic quadrupled when "Halo 2" was launched on Nov. 9, and it has stayed at that level since. Sandvine claims that this will put added pressure on ISPs to improve the quality of their broadband offerings, as users will demand reliability and low latency."

I agree

[MentalMooMan]

Yes, I think this is a very dangerous issue, but might also encourage the isps to improve the speed and quality of their serviec. Who knows, this could be a geed thing!

Threaten?

[humuhumunukunukuapu']

What in this article is a threat to broadband? What editor at CNet wrote this headline?

quote: ISPs see online games as an application that could tempt many people-- both PC and console users--to broadband.

yeah, they sound really scared.

maybe they meant "opportunity" but threat got posted instead. Damn spellchecker :)

Oh NO!

[Alkaiser]

A demand for RELIABILITY?! How will these corporations ever stay competitive?!

Seriously, these complaints are as stupid as the ones made by the insurance companies that insured the buildings after 9/11. Complaining about how they wouldn't be able to stay in business if they had to pay for these buildings.

Your ENTIRE BUSINESS MODEL is based off of people paying you money in case something like this happens. That is the ONLY service you provide. And then they're saying that they can't provide it. Freaking brilliant. I hate corporations.

P2P

[Anonymous Coward]

This is no different from when p2p applications began to become mainstream.. Even with the huge numbers of halo 2 players online, I still think that filesharing uses more bandwidth.

Re:This isn't anything new - Prioritize!

[Have Blue]

Packet prioritization does not work in the real world beyond the LAN because of the potential for abuse. If ISPs were known to obey packet priority settings, everyone (or at least a number of scummy people large enough to break the system) would set all their packets to maximum priority, and enjoy improved speed at everyone else's expense until ISPs switched back to FCFS.

I believe TCP/IP has always supported packet prioritization, but it's always been ignored for this reason.

Re:Stop advertising Halo 2

[MMaestro]

Really now? I didn't see crowds of people standing outside my local EBGames for the Half-Life 2 launch. Instead of hearing Half-Life 2 breaking sales records, I hear complaints about Steam, loading issues and copy protection preventing people from playing the game. Take your pick : you can have the larger userbase but a system that blows, or a smaller userbase but is refined and polished so Joe Average can use it. Either way Halo 2 outdoes Half-Life 2 in the media.

Re:shades of power play?

[Doomstalk]

This is because xbox can use a better encryption because of a faster processor.

You mean "compression" not "encryption", right?