GameSpy Technology's VP Todd Northcutt is excited about the web's ability to enable everyone to aggregate and shape data to their needs. In response, he pushed his team to develop GameSpy Open, a new outgrowth of the matchmaking company's technology.
It allows developers to mine for data in their own titles and the community for the games to harness that data how they see fit, via GameSpy's APIs. This, he hopes, should allow better community engagement and hooks into social media.
GameSpy, whose networking technology drives Mario Kart Wii and games in the Battlefield and Grand Theft Auto series, among others, hopes that its new "pay-as-you-go" pricing structure and Open APIs will attract independent developers as well. "We're not a platform. We're out to help our developer partners succeed," says Northcutt.
After the recent announcement that Gamespy would no longer support hundreds of multiplayer games, a BF2 mod and a security analyst came together to create their own version of Gamespy that's open source for anyone.
From The Podcast...
"On this episode of The Podcast the Xbox One get dis-kinected as Microsoft has finally announced a Kinectless SKU at $100 less.
Gamespy is shutting its doors which means that gamers will lose access to more than a few classic multiplayer environments like the majority of the Battlefield series.
Sony’s E3 announcements have possibly leaked out on NeoGaf, and the boys dissect whether this could possibly come to pass.
Finally, the topic turns to the first image of Batfleck that’s been making the rounds, fake veins and all."
May 31st marks the end of an era as the GameSpy servers, the network behind countless multiplayer titles, is closing it’s virtual doors. Hundreds of titles across multiple platforms will be affected by the shutdown, some temporarily as multiplayer services are transferred to other services, while others will be shut down permanently.
noooooooo gamespy browser is crap, get out, leave it to the pro (thinking valve here)