With gamers having so many features and options on a wide range of consoles available to them today, it becomes easy to take the technological advancements that led to these for granted. One of the most impressive, yet underrated breakthroughs of gaming was the XBAND online gaming service.
Initially available for the SNES and Genesis consoles. This modem based hardware allowed gamers to connect online for multiplayer purposes, while it was not widespread at the time, today it is considered a milestone. Tragically there are many interesting facts most gamers don’t know about this predecessor to modern online gaming.
10 Virtually Exclusive To The United States
Online gaming today is a universal phenomenon. In the days of XBAND, this was not the case. Virtually all marketing and network support was based in the United States. The reasons for this were market viability, with American consumers being willing to spend on new experiences and infrastructure.
This would continue to be an early trend in online gaming, with the US market being an experiment for what would become a driving force in gaming today.
9 Pricing
Many would assume that the concentration on the US market may have been a decision based on pricing, however XBAND’s service and equipment had unexpectedly reasonable pricing. The initial modem cost $19.95, ($35.00 adjusted for inflation), an unlimited data plan cost $9.95 ($17.00 today).
While this may seem high by today’s online gaming network standards, it certainly was not out of reach for most gamers in the 90’s.
8 Niche Market
Despite the fact that XBAND is revered today as the forefather of online gaming, and one of the industries most important endeavors, at the time it was focused on a mere niche market. By no means could it have been considered a commercial success.
In the 90’s, home console gaming was viewed more as a home arcade than anything else, players simply wanted to relax for a an hour or two as opposed to delve into deep multiplayer competitions. Because of this reason XBAND only managed to have a total of 15,000 subscribers at the height of it’s popularity.
7 One On One Gaming
Today multiplayer service capabilities are massive when compared to XBAND. While in the 90’s this was considered a monumental task, the latency of XBAND could only handle one on one matches while maintaining stability and integrity. While by no means a minor feat 25+ years ago, this pales in comparison to what online gamers wanted then, and expect now.
6 Cheating
From aim-bots, in game code exploitation, to lag abuse, cheating in online gaming continues to be a a massive problem. This trend goes back far longer than many may assume. Even during the dawn of multiplayer, gamers were finding ways to cheat the system. A common way to cheat on XBAND was to simply disconnect ones phoneline if losing a match, the software would simply count the match as null and void, with neither player getting a win or a loss. The practice was so common it gained the moniker “cord-pulling”.
5 Real-Life Scams
The abuse of XBAND’s hardware was not only limited to in game cheating. Unscrupulous users found a way to make free long distance calls via the service, which would instead be charged to the XBAND’s parent company Catapult. This cost the company a-lot of revenue, and showed that gamers simply were not ready to utilize an online gaming service exclusively for it’s main purpose.
4 Email And Newsletter Service
Subscribers to XBAND received much more than just the ability to play online. They would also gain access to an email service known as Xmail. While this could have been used as an orthodox email, most users simply referred to it for the XBAND newsletter.
Interestingly enough, this newsletter reported on everyday news as well as gaming related updates.
3 Competitive Tournaments
Today competitive gaming can be a genuine and lucrative career choice. In the 90’s this was not the case. Despite this, XBAND would still hold multiple nationwide tournaments and even hand out prizes. Most of these tournaments focused around either the Madden or Doom series of games, and were a far cry from the high stakes, highly professional tournaments we see today. Nonetheless they can be considered a forerunner to the massive internet-breaking events that are held in modern times.
2 Eventual Failure
While producing a cutting edge technology will in most cases be a very successful and profitable venture, sometimes it’s possible to be too ahead of the times. This was the case with XBAND, as gamers were simply not ready for online multiplayer in the 90’s.
The service only managed to gain a few thousand subscribers, and never gained marketing traction. These indicators showed, and XBAND’s parent company would eventually go under in the late 90’s due to lack of revenue, internal resources, and console support.
1 Legacy And Recent Revival
While the XBAND was by all accounts, a major commercial failure, it was a gaming success, and it’s legacy is massive. Without the trailblazing innovation of the 90’s online gaming service, modern day multiplayer would not have been as viable. Finally, on a positive note, XBAND games have began to receive a recent revival. With communities popping up to support the online play of their favorite 90’s titles.
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