THQ Chooses Joyent For Social Networking Infrastructure

Publisher THQ has tapped cloud computing firm Joyent for its social networking infrastructure services, which it'll employ within its social gaming development teams. With this deal, THQ intends to expand its presence in the social space using Joyent's development and publishing environment. The self-styled "infrastructure-as-a-service"/"platform-as-a-service" provider will manage server infrastructure, bandwidth, hosting, and network operations for the company. Joyent says its services are designed to enable rapid prototyping and deployment of online games while lowering operating costs and improving scalability. THQ says it chose the company's solutions rather than take on the added task of developing its own infrastructure, allowing its developers to focus on making games. The publisher has previously said that it believes "gaming can come roaring back" with emerging technologies like cloud computing, as well as the brand extension opportunities offered by social gaming. The company will soon launch a free-to-play online version of Relic Entertainment's Company of Heroes series. "We’re pleased to be providing smart computing infrastructure to THQ’s developers," says Joyent Field Operations EVP Chris Arisian. "Joyent’s extensive experience supporting some of the leading developers of social games have helped us refine our technology specifically for online games. Arisian adds, "We support the entire development lifecycle and have optimized our platform to deliver an end-to-end performance and scalability required by game developers. From prototyping through production, Joyent provides the infrastructure solutions to deliver the entire game."