Jul, 2001 : Sega Moves Internet Subscribers to Earthlink
📅 - The Internet arm of video game company Sega Corp.(sega.com), announced Friday that it willtransfer subscribers of its Internet service provider and SegaNet, itsgaming network, to EarthLink Inc. and open the platform toonline game players.
SegaNet subscribers will now automatically become EarthLink customers butwill continue to pay the $19.95 service fee. On June 26, EarthLinkannounced it was raising its monthly ISP fee by $2.00 to $21.95 a month,coinciding with a recent similar price hike by AOL Time Warner Inc.'s America Online.
SegaNet launched last September as a traditional ISP that also serves as anetwork for gamers on both PCs and Sega's Dreamcast console to playmultiplayer interactive games. SegaNet also offers community features likechat rooms and gaming tournaments.
"It makes total sense that Sega is charging for content and not for access,"Billy Pidgeon, an analyst at Jupiter Media Metrix told Reuters. "I thinkSega's trying to put out the message that they're ... completely ready to donetworked software for all platforms."
Pidgeon said he expects there will be almost 10 million subscribers toonline gaming platforms by 2005, drawing insubscription revenue alone of $1.17 billion. He also estimated that theSegaNet ISP could have as many as 200,000 subscribers in the U.S.
Atlanta-based Earthlink, the second-largest ISP in the U.S., has about 4.9million subscribers.
SegaNet subscribers will now automatically become EarthLink customers butwill continue to pay the $19.95 service fee. On June 26, EarthLinkannounced it was raising its monthly ISP fee by $2.00 to $21.95 a month,coinciding with a recent similar price hike by AOL Time Warner Inc.'s America Online.
SegaNet launched last September as a traditional ISP that also serves as anetwork for gamers on both PCs and Sega's Dreamcast console to playmultiplayer interactive games. SegaNet also offers community features likechat rooms and gaming tournaments.
"It makes total sense that Sega is charging for content and not for access,"Billy Pidgeon, an analyst at Jupiter Media Metrix told Reuters. "I thinkSega's trying to put out the message that they're ... completely ready to donetworked software for all platforms."
Pidgeon said he expects there will be almost 10 million subscribers toonline gaming platforms by 2005, drawing insubscription revenue alone of $1.17 billion. He also estimated that theSegaNet ISP could have as many as 200,000 subscribers in the U.S.
Atlanta-based Earthlink, the second-largest ISP in the U.S., has about 4.9million subscribers.
Reads: 1781 | Category: General | Source: TheWHIR : Web Host Industry Reviews
URL source: http://www.thewhir.com/marketwatch/sega722.cfm
Want to add a website news or press release ? Just do it, it's free! Use add web hosting news!
📅 -