Xbox One Live content distribution servers in SA?

Microsoft’s Xbox One gaming console is boasting a lot of fancy new features, including a range of cloud services on its Live network, such as peer-to-peer game matchmaking servers, Skype calling, and online content storage and delivery – but will local service providers be stepping up to enable all this for gamers?

Microsoft also announced that they are expanding their existing Xbox Live service; a roll-out of 300,000 servers across the world. It should be noted that Microsoft wasn’t clear on the nature of these servers, so we aren’t sure if this means 300,000 sets of physical hardware servers, or many virtual servers set up on powerful hardware. Either way, it’s an impressive claim.

In light of the notoriously patchy support for Live services in South Africa during the era of the Xbox 360, this raises questions about what the future holds for Xbox One. Specifically, we asked Microsoft SA and local content hosting and server infrastructure providers if they had any plans in motion to enable local support for Xbox One Live services.

Xbox One is shown during a press event unveiling by Microsoft in Redmond – click to enlarge

Teraco

Teraco and its NAPAfrica service provides a centralised, manageable and openly-peered location for Internet service providers.

When asked if Teraco has entered into discussion or partnership with Microsoft SA to provide infrastructure for Xbox Live services, a representative said: “Teraco is in discussion with Microsoft SA and the outcome of a possible partnership is dependent on Microsoft’s strategy and business case for Africa.”

“The distribution of gaming content is important in Africa and also a key focus point of the NAPAfrica exchange. Global players, such as Jagex and Steam, are already peering directly onto the vendor neutral and settlement free exchange, NAPAfrica, in order to distribute their content throughout Africa,” said Teraco.

“Teraco is in continued discussion with global players, to assist in building the business case for Africa, which will therefore improve gaming quality and costs. Teraco is in discussion with Microsoft on possible opportunities that will be mutually beneficial to the distribution of all Microsoft services in Africa.”

Xbox One teardown

MWEB

“MWEB has made it known to Microsoft SA in several previous discussions that we would certainly be interested in providing infrastructure to host XBOX Live Services,” said Mweb Online Gaming Manager Desmond Kurz. “Having these services locally would certainly improve the local gaming experience on XBOX, providing at the very least, faster download speeds for Xbox Live Arcade content.”

“It’s our understanding that Microsoft SA have not had the opportunity to explore the plans for the additional capacity roll out and therefore are not yet in position to progress further with local partnership agreements.”

“MWEB has always tried to investigate as many avenues as possible to improve the experience of our local gaming customers, so pursuing a conversation to host Xbox Live Services is something we will continue to do,” said Kurz. “The announcement of the 300,000 servers across the world certainly gives us hope that South Africa may be included, given that it’s such a large scale rollout.”

MTN

When asked if MTN had had entered into discussion or partnership with Microsoft SA to provide infrastructure for Xbox Live services, Mike Fairon, GM: Products and Solutions at MTN SA said: “MTN is a customer centric organisation, continually looking at solutions and products that satisfy its customer needs, and we are exploring our options in this regards. MTN will make the appropriate announcement should there be any developments in this regard.”

Internet Solutions, Vodacom, Telkom, and Microsoft SA did not respond by the time of publication.