Kesmai's Big Adventure

After a week of hints, Kesmai Corporation today came clean and disclosed its plans for the future.

A week after hinting at its intentions to bring nirvana to gamers, Kesmai Corporation today fully disclosed its plans using the Jupiter Communications online games conference as its forum. Its efforts are centered around the relaunch of its online gaming service, GameStorm.

However, this relaunch extends far beyond any other the industry has seen before. It is actually a collaborative online gaming effort that creates one of the most comprehensive online gaming destinations on the Internet. In addition to the current offerings from Kesmai, the new GameStorm will also include online gaming elements from SegaSoft's Heat.Net, Engage Games Online, and GameSpot. As a result, GameStorm members will have access to one of the largest collections of online games available under one virtual roof all for a monthly fee of US$9.95.

According to Chris Holden, CEO of Kesmai, these partnerships will give gamers something that until now has been missing in the online gaming arena. "For the first time, all the threads of this industry - massive, persistent universe games, fast action games, and deep editorial content - come together in one simple package. And I think consumers will finally have a price point and value proposition that they can embrace," said Holden.

Kesmai's approach is something Jupiter Communications' Mark Mooradian sees as a way to remain competitive in the market. "One of the biggest challenges facing a company with online games is getting traffic to the service. By becoming an aggregator, if you can build up enough of a critical base by offering a wide selection of games, you stand a good chance of staying in for the long haul," said Mooradian. He cites AOL as a successful example of this approach.

From purely a game perspective, GameStorm will offer one of the most comprehensive and varied groups of games with everything from classic card and board games to strategy and action games to massive multiplayer games.

The list includes games such as Air Warrior II, Quake, Red Alert, Duke Nukem 3D, Multiplayer BattleTech, WarCraft II, Aliens Online, Jack Nicklaus Online Golf Tour, Legends of Kesmai, CatchWord, Stellar Emperor, Harpoon, Diablo, Descent, as well as a wide variety of poker and casino games, family card and board games such as bridge, hearts, spades, backgammon, chess, and much more. Other features of the new GameStorm include full chat and message boards, free e-mail accounts, web pages for members, and self-updating software.

The first month will be free. Heat.Net's premium membership will be available for a discount.

Time will tell if GameStorm will truly become a nirvana for gamers, but so far it sounds like a pretty cool place to play. Stay tuned for more information.