BigWorld

Last updated

BigWorld Technology
Industry Video games
Founded Sydney, Australia (2002)
FateAcquired by Wargaming
HeadquartersSydney, Australia
Key people
Steve Wang (CEO)
Simon Hayes (CTO)
Number of employees
~65 (2013)
Website www.bigworldtech.com

BigWorld Technology was an Australian software company. It was the developer of BigWorld, a middleware development tool suite for creating massively multiplayer online games (MMO) and virtual worlds. It was formed in 2002 by John De Margheriti . It was the first company that developed such a middleware platform for the MMO market. In 2007, BigWorld was recognized by the UK's Develop magazine as an industry leader. [1]

Contents

On 7 August 2012, Wargaming — which had used BigWorld as part of the infrastructure for games such as World of Tanks — acquired BigWorld for US$45 million. Wargaming stated that it would continue to license and support BigWorld, and foresaw the possibility that it could offer its own technologies with BigWorld for third-party licensors as well. [2] [3] The studio was subsequently operated as Wargaming Sydney. On 17 October 2022, Wargaming sold the studio to Riot Games for an undisclosed amount, renaming it Riot Sydney; the sale excludes the BigWorld technology itself and the studio's publishing arm, which will be retained by Wargaming. [4]

Technical overview

BigWorld Technology provides an underlying software architecture needed for game developers to build MMO's and online games. The 3D client technology is built for Windows PC and browser, and is available on iOS, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 via network API. The back-end server solution is implemented under Linux, with a Python API scripting environment. The tool suite includes content creation tools, server monitoring tools and support. BigWorld Technology also integrates various third party plugins such as Umbra (occlusion culling), Scaleform (user interface creation), Speedtree (foliage), and Vivox (VOIP).

Games

Published games using BigWorld Technology include World of Tanks (Wargaming), World of Warplanes (Wargaming), World of Warships (Wargaming), Realm of the Titans (Aeria Games), VIE: Virtual Island of Entertainment (enVie Interactive LLC), Hokuto no ken ONLINE (GungHo Online Entertainment), (Meteor Games), [5] Moego (Userjoy), Tian Xia III (Netease) and Secret Kingdoms Online (Globex Studios).

List of games made with BigWorld technology

Server load balancing

BigWorld Server supports dynamic load balancing, a feature that automatically and dynamically spreads user load across multiple cell apps on the same game server, allowing for large numbers of concurrent users to inhabit the same game space. In 1999, BigWorld ran a test simulating 900 entities on the same server. [25] In 2005, large scale tests were carried out at the IBM Deep Computing facility in Poughkeepsie, NY. BigWorld successfully demonstrated the linear scalability of its load balancing technology by dynamically balancing 100,000 entities across various cell apps on a single server. [26]

Licenses

BigWorld Technology is offered in the following licenses:

Guinness World Record

World of Tanks is built on BigWorld Technology. On 23 January 2011, Guinness stated that the World of Tanks Russian server broke the previous record for Most Players Online Simultaneously on One MMO Server when they reached 91,311 concurrent users. [27] In November 2011 World of Tanks reached a new concurrency level of 250,000 players. [28]

Awards

BigWorld Technology has received a number of business and technology innovation related awards:

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References

  1. ↑ "MMO Engine Round-Up". Develop Magazine. Archived from the original on 6 February 2013. Retrieved 9 July 2008.
  2. ↑ Takahashi, Dean (7 August 2012). "Wargaming acquires BigWorld middleware firm for $45M (exclusive)". VentureBeat. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
  3. ↑ "Wargaming acquires BigWorld for $45 million". Engadget. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
  4. ↑ "Riot games acquires Wargaming Sydney Studio". GamesIndustry.biz. 17 October 2022. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
  5. ↑ "Meteor Games Licenses BigWorld Technology Suite For MMOG".
  6. ↑ "World of Tanks Blitz". Wargaming . Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  7. ↑ "World of Tanks". Wargaming.
  8. ↑ "World of Warplanes". Wargaming.
  9. ↑ "World of Warships". Wargaming.
  10. ↑ "Realm of the Titans". Aeria Games. Archived from the original on 16 April 2013.
  11. ↑ "Moego". Userjoy. Archived from the original on 8 February 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  12. 1 2 "Aeria Acquires 2 new MMOS". MMOCulture.com.[ permanent dead link ]
  13. ↑ "Tian Xia II". Netease.
  14. ↑ "Tian Xia III". Netease. Archived from the original on 13 January 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  15. ↑ "Gung Ho Licenses BigWorld for Grandia Online". Gamesindustry.biz.
  16. ↑ "Secret Kingdoms Online Game Details Revealed". MMOCulture.com.[ permanent dead link ]
  17. ↑ "States at War". Sunhome Entertainment. Archived from the original on 3 February 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  18. ↑ "Kai Xun". Zhejiang Kai Xun Technology Co., Ltd. Archived from the original on 7 February 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  19. ↑ "Twinity". Metaversum. Archived from the original on 8 February 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  20. ↑ "Genesis: Journey to the West". Netease. Archived from the original on 18 January 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  21. ↑ "Legendary Champions Gameplay - First Look HD - YouTube". MMOHut. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021.
  22. ↑ "Hokuto no ken Online / 北斗の拳ONLINE HEROES - 2009 - YouTube". MMOHut. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021.
  23. ↑ "Interzone Futebol". Interzone. Archived from the original on 15 March 2016. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  24. ↑ "CTS-Games". Cybertime System Company.
  25. ↑ "[1999] BigWorld Server 900 Entity Concurrency on Vimeo". BigWorld Pty Ltd.
  26. ↑ "BigWorld and IBM: Large-scale testing for online games". IBM. Archived from the original on 25 January 2013.
  27. ↑ "World of Tanks sets Guinness World Record". Joystiq. Archived from the original on 25 December 2013. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  28. ↑ "World of Tanks Sets a New Guinness World Record". MMOSite.com. Archived from the original on 3 January 2014. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  29. ↑ "2008 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific Awards" (PDF). Deloitte.[ permanent dead link ]
  30. ↑ "2008 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Australia Awards" (PDF). Deloitte.[ permanent dead link ]
  31. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 "Australia Training & Simulation Industry Capability Directory: BigWorld Pty Ltd". Australian Government/Simulation Australia. Archived from the original on 7 January 2013. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  32. ↑ "Cool Company Awards 2006". Australian Anthill Magazine. August–September 2006. Archived from the original on 18 July 2012. Retrieved 9 July 2008.
  33. ↑ "IT Secrets Competition Winners 2002-2005" (PDF). Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy. 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 May 2011. Retrieved 9 July 2008.
  34. ↑ "2007 Australian Export Awards". Austrade.[ permanent dead link ]
  35. ↑ "Red Herring's Top 100 Private Firms in Asia". Red Herring Magazine. September 2005. Archived from the original on 3 August 2008. Retrieved 10 July 2008.
  36. ↑ "Australian Game Developers Award Winners Announced". Gamasutra. 9 December 2005.
  37. ↑ "Australian Game Developers Conference 2005 Award winners". AGDC. 2005.
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