Tech Shout!

In an intention to attract more subscribers to its fiber-optic internet service called FiOS, Verizon is planning to introduce a free gaming service, reported the Wall Street Journal on Thursday. Dubbed PlayLinc, the service would enable up to 32 players to have a conversation with each other through voice or AOL Instant Messenger, along with creating private servers for invite-only games.

The New York City-based telecommunications company previously acquired a stake in Super Computer International, which resulted in the creation of the PlayLinc service. According to Verizon, steps like this are taken to help the company find new ways to produce revenue, as its traditional landline phone business continues to meet ends.

In its most recent quarter, the company reported a 7.4 percent decline in the number of landline phone customers over last year. The drop can be blamed to a very great extent on users opting to use their mobile phone as their primary phone.

Gamers prefer faster internet connections, as the “lag,” or the delay between a requested action and its execution in a online game, is significantly less on faster connections. This gives the player an advantage, they say. Verizon feels that hardcore gamers will find the speed enhancement in FiOS a good reason to subscribe to the service, which is competing with cable and DSL.

The current games supported for free hosting are Quake IV, Counter-Strike, Half-Life 2, Day of Defeat and UT 2004. Most LAN-enabled games look to support player hosted servers, including console games according to the site. The servers can be made private or public, depending on whether you want to shoot at people you know or people you don’t know.

Verizon recently sponsored a tournament using PlayLinc as a test of the service. Results were positive, with appreciation for the private server feature.

PlayLinc is currently available as a beta download for those interested to see how the feature set is shaping up.