Sega make a bold promise: 60 frames per second online play

Sega, Nortel Networks and ISAO Corp are teaming up to bring Virtual On's online component to reality in Japan, and they're promising that the system will be capable of 60 frames per second play, with more than 5,000 users connected simultaneously to a server.

In fact, according to Sega, this is the first network system in the world to achieve such a feat, and it does it all with minimal delay. Sega also promise that playing games through the network will be user-friendly and free of line congestion. Gamers wanting to play online will just have to dial in directly to a server, incurring the standard local Japanese phone charge.

In addition, Sega have clarified some details regarding one of Virtual On's more innovative online features. Apparently, you'll be able to observe other players fighting in real-time. Sega have stated that doing this is akin to going to an arcade and viewing a couple of players fighting using the big arcade machines. We're going to have to play around with the online features of the game in order to see exactly what this entails, though. Will you be downloading the replay data from someone else's fight and viewing that, or will you actually be observing a fight while it's in progress?

More as soon as we find out.


Courtesy of IGN.com