<em>Gears of War</em> thrusts gamers into a deep and harrowing story of humankinds epic battle for survival against the Locust Horde, a nightmarish race of creatures that surface from the bowels of the planet.</p>
<p>In this third-person tactical shooter, gamers live and breathe the role
of Marcus Fenix. A disgraced former war hero, Marcus seeks personal redemption as he leads his fire team against an onslaught of merciless warrior fiends. Gamers immerse themselves in an experience so intensely emotional and
gut-wrenching that playing will be like controlling a blockbuster action
movie.</p>"The effect Gears of War and other games are having on networks indicates to service providers that online gaming is not just a craze. Their networks must be equipped to protect this increasingly valuable traffic from the effects of a best-effort network," says Dave Caputo, president and CEO of Sandvine. "Other multimedia applications like video downloads onto iPods are increasingly becoming popular, so service providers need to identify these trends early in order to proactively ensure there is adequate capacity to support the extra bandwidth usage."
This spike in Xbox Live traffic following the launch of a highly anticipated game is reminiscent of Halo II's release in 2004 (www.sandvine.com/news/pr_detail.asp?ID=65), marking the first boom in online gaming and resulting in the sustainable popularity of Xbox Live.
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