New Ongame Poker Engine revealed at EiG Expo

[Mika Ollila]

Gibraltar, September 22, 2008

During the European i-Gaming Congress and Expo this week in Barcelona, Ongame Network Ltd. will showcase the first ever game engine designed specifically for online poker. Ongame Network is a subsidiary of Vienna-based bwin Interactive Entertainment AG - the world’s largest online gaming company.

The new P5 Poker Engine will dramatically improve the performance of the company’s online poker platform and change the way online poker is played, experienced and perceived.

“We decided to go to the very heart of our platform and rethink every line of code – and re-write it if necessary. P5 represents a shift in mentality as much as it represents a shift in technology. We are already very excited about what P5 enables us to – but this is nothing compared to what you will see in the months to come.” says Kevin O’Neal, Press Officer at bwin.

Ongame Network currently has several products and gaming environments based on P5 technology in production. Interested parties will be able to a get a first glimpse of P5’s potential at the company’s stand at EiG in Barcelona (Stand No. 320) from September 23–25.

The Ongame P5 engine has its own website at http://www.p5pokerengine.com/

[phosphorescence]

sooooooo pkr?

i don't get it, what does it do differently?

[bowlaman]

looks to me like they are trying to turn online poker into a video game experience.

[Mika Ollila]

The first version of the Ongame P5 Poker Engine is now live in Italy, as part of Ongame's Italian stand alone poker network. They claim the engine has been running well with 5500 concurrent players.

Ongame P5 Poker Engine was showcased at the International Gaming Expo (IGE) in London last week, but an official release date of the engine to the Ongame Network has not been accounced yet.

The front end of the poker client will support 21 different languages, and players can choose to download an extended poker client with additional plug-in style features, play directly in the browser or in 80 supported mobile devices.

Ongame P5 Poker Engine Framework
The engine has been designed as free standing modules, which should improve performance of its various layers and keep the games running at speed even under heavy traffic. Maintenance work and updating should also be easier, which leads to less downtime and interruptions.

Do we have any Italian players who have played with the new P5 Engine yet, and could offer their opinions on how it performs?

[Fictive]

Yes... The new engine... Hmm...

It f-ing blows!!! Seriously, it's horrible. Only good thing is that you can now change the tablesize to your liking, not just normal/miniview. That's about it.

First of all, and worst of all as well, it eats up waaaaayyyy too much memory. I played yesterday 4 tables (no more tables open), and it's lagging a whole lot. Some people were saying that they can't multitable and listen to music at the same time, their computers freeze.

No waiting list-option... What on earth is that about? People are expected to follow a ton of tables watching when a seat opens up and race to get it?

Lots of other crap as well, I just wanted to vent a little. Someone mentioned in the lobby chat that there are updates on the way to fix a lot of problems. Okay, nice... but why would they put out a new engine/software update that just does not work???

I dunno, might be a time to cash out and go somewhere else.