IBM Gets Into Gaming, Animation

IBM is helping three companies innovate in the gaming and animation industries.

IBM announced Tuesday that it joined with Hoplon Infotainment, Online Game Services Incorporated and RenderRocket under separate agreements. The arrangements are part of IBM's larger effort to help small and medium sized gaming companies around the globe.

IBM announced that it is creating an on-demand animation service with RenderRocket, a first-of-its-kind game hosting service with OGSI and an on-demand hosting environment for Hoplon, which supports a game design running on an IBM mainframe.

Brazilian online game developer Hoplon Infotainment was considering cluster or grid technology as a game platform but changed course toward IBM's On Demand Business model and service-oriented architecture (SOA). Now its new game, TaikoDom is hosted on demand by IBM mainframe technology. The move will place all users into a single game environment. Dedicated software modules handle specific functions for all players. Computing functions are packaged. More modules are added as needed.

OGSI bases its platform on IBM BladeCenter server solutions. It provides game services, including hardware, bandwidth and support, for a recurring monthly fee.

RenderRocket provides 3D rendering services to broadcasters, producers, visual effects companies, animators, video game creators, product designers and photographers. Animators can reserve time and send work to an IBM Deep Computing Capacity on Demand render farm.