Interview: How Cloud Computing Changes Trion’s Game

Trion CEO Lars Buttler promises that platforms like his company’s will evolve the way we play online. The company recently announced some ambitious plans – to develop a persistent MMO that ties into an ongoing Sci-Fi Channel television series, to create a new fantasy MMO helmed by Might and Magic creator Jon Van Caneghem, and to publish PlayStation 3 games through an agreement with Sony.

Though Trion has just recently announced its games, the company has been quietly at work on its technology infrastructure since last year, when it scored $US 30 million in investments from Time Warner and NBC Universal, among others. It’s this infrastructure, says Buttler, that aims to shift the paradigm for multiplayer gaming.

Trion’s World Network server cloud, Buttler said, will allow high volumes of players to participate in a fully persistent online world that can be evolved at any point by the game operators – or affected by the users. And the company has big cross-platform visions, promising mobile access to the worlds as well as console or PC, on the heels of the Sony partnership.

What about the Xbox 360? Is Trion talking to Microsoft, too?