Online gaming finds its voice

Software and voice-over-IP upstarts are integrating sophisticated voice communications into popular online games

Headset-wearing online gamers are used to talking smack when gunning down or dunking on an opponent, but yesterday's often-flaky peer-to-peer voice connections are giving way to more sophisticated deployments.

Although incumbent carriers consider game-centric voice conferencing a key feature of next-generation services, today's most sophisticated voice-enabled online games are coming from newer upstarts.

In recent weeks, for instance, software and hosted voice-over-IP provider Vivox inked a deal with Sony Online Entertainment (maker of games such as EverQuest), and voice-encoding vendor Spirit DSP released a new voice conferencing engine specifically for the multiplayer gaming market. In addition to Sony's games, Vivox enables voice communications in popular multiplayer environments such as Second Life and EVE Online. Spirit DSP's TeamSpirit voice engine powers a number of games, including Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft.

The challenge for incumbent carriers is that while they'll control IPTV-based online gaming on set-top boxes, such deployments are rare right now even as PC- and console-based gaming continues to evolve by leaps and bounds.

“We've never seen a traditional carrier in any of the deals we've done,” said Monty Sharman, vice president of product management and marketing for Vivox. “There's two reasons: business model and technology. We have a whole bunch of customized software to make this work properly, and right now it's not in the telco's mentality to write and own this type of software.”

Indeed, what sets apart gaming-oriented voice solutions from Spirit DSP, Vivox and other providers such as TeamSpeak and Ventrilo is that voice is becoming an integral part of the gaming experience, not a simple overlay. As a result, game developers need a sophisticated software development kit that they can integrate into their own code to enable massively multiplayer communications, directional stereo sound, distance attenuation and other features.

For instance, a fleet commander in EVE Online can command up to 256 different ships, each of which can talk back to the lead pilot as well as one another. “So for instance,” said Sharman, “when I as a fleet commander speak, all the other channels go softer so they can hear my voice. We can have six different audio sources come in as one stream and position them around your head virtually.”

“When you add voice, you now have neither a normal online gaming experience or a normal voice experience,” said Andrew Sviridenko, chairman of Spirit DSP. “It's something altogether new.”