Ok, this Powerplay thing is finally making a little more sense. If you're wondering what the partnership between Valve Software and Cisco was all about Gamecenter has a respectable write-up on the subject. It looks like they plan to work directly with several of the major ISPs (enter: Cisco) to of course offer better connections and ping times. Tim Sweeney is actually on board as well stating that Unreal Tournament will feature Powerplay enhancements in future versions. Looking at the list of developers supporting Powerplay, id Software is not among them. Although Ritual Entertainment, a Quake3 licensee is.

To help garner support for PowerPlay, Cisco embarked on an analyst tour, while Valve spent time talking with the game developers. As a result, a major ISP will throw its support behind PowerPlay, and Newell has obtained support from some of the game industry's biggest development studios. (See sidebar for a complete list of companies that will support PowerPlay in their products.) Cisco will address router and access concentrator issues; the ISP will handle deployment; and Valve will offer expertise and technology related to client application design.

To help prove that this concept will work, PowerPlay 1.0 will be rolled out sometime within the next couple months. The major ISP partner will launch a PowerPlay dial-up service--which will include a free 30-day trial--and Valve will issue a standalone version of Team Fortress Classic.