 | |
| Predecessors |
|
|---|---|
| Founded | June 1995; 30 years ago (1995-06) |
| Defunct | October 1999 (1999-10) |
| Successor | Pogo.com, Inc. |
| Headquarters | , United States |
Total Entertainment Network (TEN) was anonline gaming service that existed from September 1996[1] until October 1999.[2] T E Network, Inc., which created and operated the TEN service, was formed from the merger[3] of Optigon Interactive and Outland[4] in June 1995 when they received their first round ofventure capital funding fromVinod Khosla, a general partner atKleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Total Entertainment Network was the first online gaming provider to go live.[5] Operating out ofSan Francisco,[6] the service allowed games forMS-DOS andWindows to be online with and against other players, and let players chat and download game-related content. The service was bundled with many PC games and offered as a subscription service.[6] The games supported on TEN includeDuke Nukem 3D,[7]NASCAR Racing Online Series,[8]Quake,[9]Command & Conquer,[10]Panzer General,[10] andBig Red Racing.[11]
Many online games, especially PC games adapted for online game play, require low and consistent latency to play well. It was a major challenge circa 1996 for consumers to find consistentlow-latency connections to central servers or to other game players because of the latency intrinsic to dial-upmodems and the heavy congestion at theInternet peering points. T E Network, Inc. partnered withConcentric Network Corporation to offer consumers Internet access dial-up numbers that would provide the reliable low latencies they needed to play online games.[12] Concentric optimized their network and their dial-up technology for the TEN service. Concentric also receivedventure capital financing fromKleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Even with the combined revenues of subscriptions and advertising, TEN remained unprofitable, failing to reach the critical mass numbers of subscribers needed to cover their costs.[13][14] After the success ofBlizzard Entertainment's freeBattle.net service forDiablo and their claim that offering online play as a feature of the game boosted retail sales by 10%, PC game publishers started following Blizzard's lead and offering free online game play. This undermined thesubscription business model of TEN and their strategy to be the exclusive place to play popular PC games online. As Internet advertising was starting to gain traction, T E Network decided to focus on easy-to-access and easy-to-play browser-based games that would appeal to a broad audience and attract enough unique users to drive an advertising-based business model. T E Network, Inc. becamePogo.com, Inc. to pursue this new strategy.[14]
The first Total Entertainment Network (TEN) service was an online gaming network and community portal developed by Optigon Interactive. Optigon Interactive was founded by Daniel Goldman and Janice Linden-Reed in 1991 and launched a beta nationally in 1994 via Sprint's X.25 dial-up network.[16] The brand was developed in conjunction with Alan Buder, from Colossal Picture, and Michael Lipscomb. It was an online service with a DOS client that offered Chess, Checkers, SimCity, email, and chat[1]. The entire executive management team Optigon went on to become the executive management team for TE Network, joined by CTO David King from Outland.
In 1996 TEN hosted a first of its kind, nationally participated in "online tournament" rewarding the champions with cash and prizes sparking an immediate surge in online gaming. Some of the first prizes were $500 cash and a lifetime membership to the service. The only Duke tournament was won by one of the first cyber athletes, Christopher S Carpentier, aka "Creamator", who battled over 14 thousand entries to claim the title of “One True Duke!” Most of these newly declared cyber athletes later went on to the PGL "Professional Gamers League" after TEN converted its business model to Pogo. Organizations like the PGL enhanced the awards, and in 1997 Dennis Fong, also known as Thresh, a professional gamer, won John Carmack's Ferrari at the Red Annihilation tournament. During his career as a professional gamer, it is believed that he made over US$100,000 in endorsements alone.
The Total Entertainment Network was shut down in October 1999[2] due to the rapid development of online gaming services during the time. From the closure, TEN transformed intoPogo.com and then was acquired byElectronic Arts in 2001.[2] The Total Entertainment Network website in 1997 can still be explored and viewed athttp://ten.net.