MWEB launches 53 online games

2011-03-07 16:09

Duncan Alfreds

Cape Town - MWEB is pushing ahead with its gaming strategy, offering users a further 53 online games after the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops in 2010.

"Online gaming is a key focus for us in 2011 and we are excited by the growth that we’re seeing in this space. Our goal is to position MWEB at the forefront of online gaming in South Africa," said MWEB ISP CEO Derek Hershaw.

Through its partnership with Gameservers.com, the ISP will offer games including Counter Strike, Battlefield and Medal of Honour.

This strategy underscores MWEB's strategic direction of becoming a telecom rather than an internet service provider, but the success of the model depends largely on users having access to cable broadband.

This remains out of reach for the majority of South Africans because of the high cost of infrastructure.

Steam Server

Uncapped broadband was introduced in SA in 2010 and MWEB said it is determined to lobby for reduction of costs for cable broadband, as some commentators argue that wireless access is already the primary means to get on the web.

"The South African consumer is hungry and we underestimated that. We have plenty of international capacity, but we don't want to get to the point where Telkom is irrelevant. We'd like Telkom to get their act together," Hershaw told News24 in December.

Telkom currently packages landline telephone and data services, implying that broadband users have to pay for services that they may not want in order to access data services where available.

To ease the experience for users, MWEB has deployed a Steam Server in Cape Town and Johannesburg allowing South African gamers to get automatic updates of their favourite games.

"The decision to deploy a Steam Server is another value added service to our customers and means that they won't need to worry about hunting for patches and spending hours downloading updates on unsolicited websites," said Hershaw.


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