BigWorld

BigWorld
Subsidiary
Industry Video games
Founded Sydney, Australia (2002)
Headquarters Sydney, Australia
Key people
 Steve Wang (CEO)
Simon Hayes (CTO)
Number of employees
 ~65 (2013)
Parent Wargaming.net
Website www.bigworldtech.com

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

BigWorld captured the majority of the MMO middleware market with many of its customers based in China, Taiwan and the USA.

On 7 August 2012, Wargaming.net acquired BigWorld middleware firm for $45M.[2] By a statement of the development in January 2015, BigWorld stopped the development and support of the Indie Edition.

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.net), Realm of the Titans (Aeria Games), VIE: Virtual Island of Entertainment (enVie Interactive LLC), Hokuto no ken ONLINE (GungHo Online Entertainment), (Meteor Games),[3] Moego (Userjoy), World of Warplanes (Wargaming.net), and Secret Kingdoms Online (Globex Studios). Games currently being built on BigWorld include World of Warships (Wargaming.net), and Tian Xia III (Netease).

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.[22] 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.[23]

Licenses

BigWorld Technology is offered in the following licenses:

  • BigWorld Technology: Commercial Edition
  • BigWorld Technology: Indie Edition (Development, Support) Sales were stopped after the company was acquired.

Guinness 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.[24] In November 2011 World of Tanks reached a new concurrency level of 250,000 players.[25]

Awards

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

  • Winner 2008 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific Awards (ranked 93)[26]
  • Winner 2008 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Australia Award (ranked 7 - 526% growth)[27]
  • Deloitte Technology Fast 500[28]
  • Asia Pacific 2008 Winner - (Ranked 93)[28]
  • Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Australia 2008 Program - (7th Fastest growing technology company in Australia)[28]
  • 2007 Australian Export Awards - Austrade Arts, Entertainment & Design Award Finalist[28]
  • 2007 Finalist of Australian Technology Showcase Patrons Awards[28]
  • 2006 Cool Company Awards[28][29]
  • 2006 Finalist of the Secrets of Australian IT Innovation competition, Arts and Entertainment category[28][30]
  • 2005 Winner ACT Chief Minister's Export Award in Art and Entertainment Award[28][31]
  • Red Herring 100 Private Companies of Asia (2005)[28][32]
  • 2005 Australian Game Developer Awards – Award for Outstanding Innovation[28][33][34]
  • 2005 Sumea Awards for Best Engine Technology[28]
  • Secrets of Australian IT Innovation 2005 Winner – 2nd Prize in Entertainment Category[28]
  • 2003 Winner ACT Chief Ministers Export Award in the Arts and Entertainment[28]
  • 2003 Winner of the Secrets of Australian IT Innovation competition in the Arts and entertainment category[28]
  • 2003 Australian Game Developers Awards – Award for Outstanding Innovation[28]
  • 2003 National Finalist of the Austrade Australian Export Award – Arts and Entertainment[28]
  • 2003 Territory Winner in the Panasonic Australia Business Award Category of the Telstra and ACT Government Small Business Awards[28]
  • 2003 National Winner in the Panasonic Australia Business Award Category of the Telstra and Australian Government Small Business Awards[28]
  • 2002 National Finalist of the Austrade Australian Export Award – Arts and Entertainment[28]
  • 2002 Winner ACT Chief Ministers Export Award in the Arts and Entertainment[28]
  • 2002 Australian Winner of The Asia Pacific ICT Award (APICTA), Creative Digital Industries category[28]

References

  1. ↑ "MMO Engine Round-Up". Develop Magazine.
  2. ↑ "Wargaming acquires BigWorld middleware firm for $45M (exclusive)". 7 August 2012.
  3. ↑ "Meteor Games Licenses BigWorld Technology Suite For MMOG".
  4. ↑ ({cite web|url=https://wotblitz.eu%7Ctitle=World of Tanks: Blitz|publisher=Wargaming.net})
  5. ↑ "World of Tanks". Wargaming.net.
  6. ↑ "World of Warplanes". Wargaming.net.
  7. ↑ "Realm of the Titans". Aeria Games.
  8. ↑ "Moego". Userjoy.
  9. 1 2 "Aeria Acquires 2 new MMOS". MMOCulture.com.
  10. ↑ "Tian Xia II". Netease.
  11. ↑ "Tian Xia III". Netease.
  12. ↑ "Gung Ho Licenses BigWorld for Grandia Online". Gamesindustry.biz.
  13. ↑ "Secret Kingdoms Online Game Details Revealed". MMOCulture.com.
  14. ↑ "States at War". Sunhome Entertainment.
  15. ↑ "Kai Xun". Zhejiang Kai Xun Technology Co., Ltd.
  16. ↑ "Twinity". Metaversum.
  17. ↑ "Genesis: Journey to the West". Netease.
  18. ↑ "Legendary Champions Gameplay - First Look HD - YouTube". MMOHut.
  19. ↑ "Hokuto no ken Online / 北斗の拳ONLINE HEROES - 2009 - YouTube". MMOHut.
  20. ↑ "Interzone Futebol". Interzone.
  21. ↑ "CTS-Games". Cybertime System Company.
  22. ↑ "[1999] BigWorld Server 900 Entity Concurrency on Vimeo". BigWorld Pty Ltd.
  23. ↑ "BigWorld and IBM: Large-scale testing for online games". IBM. Archived from the original on 25 January 2013.
  24. ↑ "World of Tanks sets Guinness World Record". Joystiq.
  25. ↑ "World of Tanks Sets a New Guinness World Record". MMOSite.com.
  26. ↑ "2008 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific Awards" (PDF). Deloitte.
  27. ↑ "2008 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Australia Awards" (PDF). Deloitte.
  28. 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.
  29. ↑ "Cool Company Awards 2006". Australian Anthill Magazine. Aug–Sep 2006.
  30. ↑ "IT Secrets Competition Winners 2002-2005" (PDF). Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy. 2005.
  31. ↑ "2007 Australian Export Awards". Austrade.
  32. ↑ "Red Herring's Top 100 Private Firms in Asia". Red Herring Magazine. Sep 2005.
  33. ↑ "Australian Game Developers Award Winners Announced". Gamasutra. 9 Dec 2005.
  34. ↑ "Australian Game Developers Conference 2005 Award winners". AGDC. 2005.
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