Games.on.net, the video gaming wing of Internode, have just announced their exclusive rights to host Call of Duty: Black Ops servers in Australia, ending speculation that GameServers.com would be forced to provide for the entire continent (and possibly southeast Asia) with one Sydney data centre.
As part of the deal, official GameServers software will be set up on Internode infrastructure, using their existing network to service Australia. Internode already host many (good) servers for existing games, and this likely means that the service you currently receive from them is indicative of your future Black Ops experience.
As a part of the deal, Internode customers won’t be metered while connected to any GameServers.com hosted servers. Anyone will also be able to rent Black Ops servers from GameServers, which will be hosted on Internode hardware in Adelaide and Sydney.
Earlier this week it was revealed that GameServers.com had exclusive rights to host Black Ops servers, yet it was unclear what the international repercussions of the deal would be. GameServers.com has one Sydney data centre, which we ping yellow to.
So while it seems there are now two middle men between Treyarch and the public, at least we can rest easy in the knowledge that there will be nationwide Black Ops servers capable of dealing with demand.
As for whether a similar solution is being reached for southeast Asia, or whether the GameServers Sydney data centre will be flooded with interest from across the pond, Kotaku AU is waiting on answers from GameServers.
Also still unclear is the fate of LAN play. Tweets from a Treyarch developer have suggested it’s possible to have the host on LAN, but given the nature of the deal, it seems unlikely.
We’ll follow up soon on more about the deal.
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