340°

Microsoft investing $700 million to support cloud

It looks like Microsoft is investing $700 million for a new data center in Des Moines, Iowa, United States. This facility will help meet the growing demand for cloud computing services and Xbox Live.

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blogs.desmoinesregister.com
Hatsune-Miku3959d ago

Microsoft said windows vista was amazing

nukeitall3959d ago

@Hatsune-Miku:

"Microsoft said windows vista was amazing"

... and it was! The idiotic sheeps needed a name change to Windows 7 to see the beauty.

:D

humbleopinion3959d ago

Windows 7 is practically a Vista with more relaxed UAC and a cool WinKey+P to switch between multiple screen combinations :)

3-4-53959d ago

Vista was so amazing they immediately abandoned it for Windows 7

CoLD FiRE3959d ago

@3-4-5 Vista was releases in 2006 and Windows 7 was released in 2009. That's a 3 year difference which doesn't seem like "they immediately abandoned it". Vista sucked at first, thanks to hardware manufacturers not releasing good drivers and OEMs shipping laptops with 512MB Ram and also MS for making a heavy OS.

Windows Vista was the foundation at which W7 built upon so if it wasn't for Windows Vista you wouldn't have your precious Windows 7.

CoolBeansRus3959d ago

Hopefully cloud does improve the gaming performance by a lot. If it does then this would be great for improving the size of game maps and multiplayer.

Wigriff3958d ago (Edited 3958d ago )

Anything accomplished by the cloud in real time will be bottle-necked by the end-user's bandwidth. People acting like the cloud is going to make the XBone exponentially more powerful are disillusioned.

GameSpawn3958d ago

@Cold fire

You do realize the primary reason for Vista's failure is because Microsoft forced the product out the door too early. Microsoft low-balled the true required specs to vendors and they started shipping the OS on systems that weren't truly up to the task of running Vista and should have shipped with XP.

Why did Microsoft low-ball the true specs? Because at the time they were forcing Vista out the door only $2000-3000 systems (high end laptops at the time; shift $1000 down for desktops) could run it remotely well. It's not good if you can't ship your new OS on time if it will only run on the top 10% of systems sold. Microsoft fudged the requirements of Vista so $300-600 systems (low end) would meet the new requirements and manufacturers would buy up the licenses (which they get stuck with once they have them) and start shipping them on what Microsoft has told them it will work on [supposedly].

Windows 7 is built around the same core that Vista was except that it has been optimized and streamlined to work as well (if not better) with less resources, essentially a FINALIZED version of Vista. Vista can barely run on ANY machine with 2GB of RAM, yet Windows 7 has no problems (it's a little slow, but not unbearable like Vista).

Windows 8 is just Windows 7 with Metro skinned over it. The problem with Windows 8 (currently; 8.1 allows 8 to become 7 by turning Metro off and bringing the Start Menu back) is you are FORCED to use Metro regardless of whether or not you have a touch screen to make full use of it. Metro has forced them to move so much of the OS around to accommodate the touch interface that it makes your traditional Windows 98/XP/Vista/7 desktop user want to rip their damn hair out. Microsoft wanted to "unify" the experience between Windows Phone 8, Windows 8 RT (tablets), and Windows 8 (desktops/laptops), but the point is that the touch heavy Metro interface breaks workflow too much in the desktop/laptop environment. You spend too much time going back and forth between the Desktop and Metro (a WHOLE screen changing experience).

Just imagine (if you're a Mac user) having to use launchpad in 10.7 and 10.8 as your primary menu for everything as well as the start point. Seriously, how many people even use launchpad on Mac OS X? I sure the hell don't because it takes over my ENTIRE screen (hint, hint...Metro) and it's a convoluted hunk of crap.

+ Show (5) more repliesLast reply 3958d ago
allformats3959d ago (Edited 3959d ago )

I wrote this elsewhere: Microsoft couldn't get away with its anti-consumer policies by feeding us lies, now they're feeding us "cloud" lies, too.

Remember folks, "cloud" is just a glorified name for "severs". Any company that wants to invest in them can. It's not something exclusive to MS... In fact, wasn't it Sony who first spoke of the cloud for next-gen consoles at the PS Meeting in February? Yes it was... But whatever..

nukeitall3959d ago (Edited 3959d ago )

@allformats:

"Remember folks, "cloud" is just a glorified name for "severs"."

That is a gross simplification. Since I have a server at home, does that qualify as a cloud?

Point being, it isn't just the servers, it is the software and tools to enable fast access to services.

Depending on what these services are and how automated they are is where the grey zone of cloud is.

Also, MS cloud, Azure, is on it's way to beating Amazon cloud, so it is a lot more to it than just a bunch of servers. Speed and reliability is of utmost importance when there is dependence on latency:

""Not only did Microsoft outperform the competition [google and amazon] significantly during the raw performance tests, it was the only cloud storage platform to post zero errors during 100 million reads and writes. In those categories where Microsoft was not the top performer (uptime and scalability variance), it was a close second," Nasuni notes."

http://www.zdnet.com/micros...

Remember we are talking heavyweights like amazon and google. Who else has the muscle of these guys?

One other benefit MS has is being a cloud computing provider, means all this infrastructure isn't necessarily an addition. If resources aren't used by Xbox Live, it can free them to other Azure customers so the amount of power should far exceed what is just needed for Xbox One.

kneon3959d ago

Actually there are another 5 or 6 companies between Google and Microsoft, they still have a lot of catching up to do before they can take on the top two.

Mystogan3959d ago (Edited 3959d ago )

A 9 billion dollar lie?

The $700 million is just one datacenter.

Azure has dozens.

So yeah a 9 billion dollar lie.

malokevi3959d ago

"In fact, wasn't it Sony who first spoke of the cloud for next-gen consoles at the PS Meeting in February? Yes it was... But whatever.. "

Jesus, your post sounds like it was written by a jealous child, brimming with angst.

You can't seriously expect that Sony will have the upper hand in every category... particularly on Microsofts home court.

Does it matter who said what first? MS clearly has the money and the infrastructure to support Xbox Live with some serious computing power. How is it that you manage to turn that into a negative?

Instead of sounding all butthurt and depressed, why not wait to see how things play out? This may or may not become one reason to seriously consider investing in an Xbox.

3-4-53959d ago

Is this where their 300,000 servers come from ?

So how many do they have not on cloud ?

3959d ago
joefrost003959d ago

Actually you are
Everything sony said at there meeting even the Gaikai
With the exception of streaming old games
Everything MShad already said two years ago
It was even in there leaked document
You all suck sony balls enough dont start giving them innovations they did not do

ShwankyShpanky3958d ago (Edited 3958d ago )

"That is a gross simplification. Since I have a server at home, does that qualify as a cloud?"

I'd say, yeah... kinda. Although maybe more like one of those tiny cartoon clouds that follows someone around.

For years I would email files to myself (uploading to the company email server) so I could access them anywhere. Now I'm being told by various companies that I can "access my files from anywhere, thanks to the power of the cloud!"

Edit: From Respawn
( http://n4g.com/news/1289522... )
"Let me explain this simply: when companies talk about their cloud, all they are saying is that they have a huge amount of servers ready to run whatever you need them to run. That’s all."

So while a single server could be classified as a "cloud" is debatable, the functionality is essentially the same, with a multi-server cloud really just having the added element of scalability.

rainslacker3958d ago

MS currently has 9 data centers.

North America
North-central US - Chicago, IL
South-central US - San Antonio, TX
West US - California
East US - Virginia
Asia
East Asia - Hong Kong, China
South East Asia - Singapore
Europe
North Europe - Dublin, Ireland
West Europe - Amsterdam, Netherlands

I guess this will make 10. It has CDN nodes located in 24 countries, although I guess they could up those in the future if demand increases.

Azure, and cloud computing in general, is pretty interesting actually. It does have a lot of benefits to companies and end users for practically every computer application you could dream of, it's highly scalable, and easy to develop for.

For those interested in Azure wikipedia has a good reference for it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

+ Show (6) more repliesLast reply 3958d ago
dedicatedtogamers3959d ago

Microsoft keeps throwing numbers around. 500 million for Kinect advertisements. 1 billion invested in games. 400 million for NFL partnership. 700 million to support cloud.

Why not throw around screenshots, game announcements, and features?

Oh, wait. We're talking about Microsoft here...

DiRtY3959d ago

You are so 2009.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.a...

MS did a GREAT job at E3 for Games. The DRM talk ruined it, but now that this is out of the way, the games are still there and they look cool.

dedicatedtogamers3959d ago

@ DiRtY

Oh, so NOW exclusives matter all over again (even though Sony said 20 PS4 exclusives in the first year, while Microsoft said 15)?

I thought it was all about multiplats. That's what the Xbox camp has been saying since - ironic - 2009.

The goalpost aren't just moving. They've launched into the stratosphere.

Loki863959d ago

They have the multiplats as well, FFXV, KH3, MG5, pretty much all third parties are either exclusive or developing for MS as well.

DiRtY3959d ago

I don't get your point. You are the one moving goalposts.

1st comment:
"Why not throw around screenshots, game announcements, and features?"

my comment:
"Here are the games"

2nd comment:
"Alright, you never cared about exclusive games at all!"

oO

Crazy logic.

The point is that a lot of Sony fans hyped their exclusives up like they would actually be huge games (Starhawk, Twisted Metal, LBP Karting, MAG) and nobody bought those games at the end of the day. 8 of the exclusive games MS announced at E3 are actually going to sell beyond 1 million copies each.

Anyway, my point was you can't hate on MS for announcing not enough (exclusive) games for the Xbox One. They did a great job.

And excuse me for not being excited about the 20 exclusive games for the PS4 in the first year. I bet most of those will be indie games (nothing bad about it, but rarely anything special either). It is just not my cup of tea.

dedicatedtogamers3959d ago (Edited 3959d ago )

@ DiRtY

Excuse me for not being excited for the 15 Xbox One exclusives. I bet most of those will be Kinect minigames and late-2014 titles.

See? Two can play at that game.

My comment about the "oh, so NOW exclusives matter" was not a direct response to you, but rather a comment on the general attitude of the Xbox fanbase who has said for years "exclusives are on the decline anyway. The games I want to play are multiplat anyway" and now suddenly we're back to making comparison lists of exclusives now that...Xbox had exclusives?

Lemme guess: are we gonna bring back the Metacritic score comparisons, too? Man, it's like 2005-2008 all over again. Forgive me for being cynical, but I've seen this song-and-dance before, and it gets more annoying each time it repeats itself.

DiRtY3959d ago

"Excuse me for not being excited for the 15 Xbox One exclusives. I bet most of those will be Kinect minigames and late-2014 titles.

See? Two can play at that game."

Except that only 2 of those games are Kinect games so far... Kinect Sports 3 and Fantasia Music evolved. MS lineup is not vague at all - It is filled with big budget core games.

Skips3959d ago (Edited 3959d ago )

@DiRtY

You seem to be very hypocritical in one of your arguments... MAG has sold over a million, but according to you, only when Xbox exclusives sell over a million does it mean. "People bought it" LMFAO!!!!

"8 of the exclusive games MS announced at E3 are actually going to sell beyond 1 million copies each."

Awesome logic. -_-

Or are you referring to how NOBODY PLAYS it anymore??? Because I got news for you kiddo....

http://www.cinemablend.com/...

*GASP!

Twisted Metal??? LBP Karting??? Starhawk???

Sorta like how Xbox fans hyped up The Witcher 2 as being console exclusive? Oh wait .... but nobody bought it.

Or how Xbox fans hyped up Steel Battalion, saying it would be the hardcore Kinect game we've ALL been waiting for? Oh wait .... but nobody bought it.

Or how how nobody bought Forza: Horizon??? Because according to you, ONLY selling over a million means nobody cares for, or bought it right?

Or does that only count for PS exclusives?

"And excuse me for not being excited about the 20 exclusive games for the PS4 in the first year. I bet most of those will be indie games (nothing bad about it, but rarely anything special either)."

And you are wrong on this point as well... 20 of those exclusives will come from Sony's 1st party, such as Sony Santa Monica, Naughty Dog, Sucker Punch, Sony Bend... ect. etc. Studios ACTUALLY worth mentioning, that actually HAVE a decent portfolio, and not to mention TALENT.

Unlike the VAST majority of Microsoft's studios... Excuse me, but I just have a hard time getting hyped for games from no name studios, studios who've worked on nothing but shovelware and other garbage their whole careers, or other small XBLA games not worth mentioning...

malokevi3959d ago

@dedicatedtogamers

What a horribly cynical attitude you appear to have. MS showed off some fabulous games at E3. I was far more impressed with their lineup than with the PS4 lineup.

I'm not even going to pretend to understand this pissing contest. You seem so set in your ways that your not willing to recognize a good thing when you see it.

Which is fine, but there's no need to moan and complain whenever somebody speaks favorably about MS' new platform. DRM and always on have been reversed, the games have been put on display, the money is being put to work, and things seem to be falling into place.

What, pray tell, is so bad about that? For any gamer?

joefrost003959d ago

Actually they threw around way more games than sony at there conference
Lets be honest here if it wasnt for sony taking shots at MS that would have been a pretty boring conference
Cause what matters most was the games and MS beat them at that
That is a fact
Lol you said throw.around screen shots I forgot how much you sony fanboys love your non gameplay pictures
2005 movies sony showed ring a bell
But sony has a halo and there so honest where MS is the devil and they buy everything they never did anything on there own

rainslacker3958d ago

Azure is a huge service for MS. They put this out because it's for all their clients that use cloud, or want better use of it, and they had some PR stuff about how they care about Iowa and stuff. This is one of those times when you have to see MS as a whole, and not just the Xbox division. This goes for both sides of the fan boy fence, I might add.

Azure isn't entirely for Xbox. I would imagine Xbox won't even get 10% of all of Azures resources at peak times, and that's aiming high.

Azure itself is a very good cloud service apparently. From my prior research into cloud for a client it was one I looked into heavily due to it's development tools available. It is somewhat costly though for a corporate level use, which is what I needed. I imagine the cost for MS would be solely in the cost to run and maintain the servers though.

maniacmayhem3958d ago (Edited 3958d ago )

@Dedicated

Waitaminute...

you're asking MS for screenshots, game announcements and features...

Did you miss their whole E3 conference, where they showed Games, Game play, Game Demos, Game trailers and did you miss their conference before E3 where they talked about the X1 features?

I know you didn't miss that because you posted a blog about it 1 minute after it ended.

"(even though Sony said 20 PS4 exclusives in the first year, while Microsoft said 15)"

Shouldn't you be asking Sony for screenshots and game announcements of these mysterious 20 games since they didn't show anything new at their E3. And most of the game they did feature were multiplats.

Edit:
I also love how you totally tried to shift points and bring up mud from the far past in your third post. It's as if you were scrambling to get out of your insane MS rant when the spotlight was shined on you.

+ Show (8) more repliesLast reply 3958d ago
THamm3959d ago (Edited 3959d ago )

For everyone who wants to put a negative spin on this or for everyone claiming that the MS and X1 isn't getting the recognition it deserves, and for everyone who says that all the PS4 preorders ruined the future of gaming____well the PS4 is $100 cheaper and that is the #1 reason that the PS4 is going to out do the X1. So all this cloud stuff and othe PR crap can lay down to one Benjamin Franklin, because with the specs so close to most consumers that's all that matters. So no Sony fans didn't ruin the MS evolution revolution cloud freedom gaming takeover, MS vision ruined themselves

sAVAge_bEaST3959d ago (Edited 3959d ago )

wow, MS .shills are thick on this article, (why wouldn't they be) 12 disagrees, at time of writing, for speaking TRUTH.
It's M$ such anti-truth attitude, -smoke and mirrors, through clouds.,
This is the attitude that is hurting them the most.

Yomommabinladin3957d ago

Ps fans cant find a argument about the xbox after Ms took off DRM so the only argument is the price "its cheaper so lets buy it, take my money" Without doing research just cause its cheaper dosent mean it beats other products in every single category, xbox One Dosent just play games unlike ps4, xbox one cost more because of ton of features and Kinect turns your HDtv into a smart tv Sure beats Samsung smart tv. If your just a gamer buy the ps4 but if you Want all in one entertainment even games pearson buy the xbox one if your wealthly why not buy both

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 3957d ago
FrigidDARKNESS3959d ago (Edited 3959d ago )

Very nice. ...keep in mind folks Microsoft and Samsung collaborated to build the worlds fastes most efficient cloud servers.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Why o why3959d ago (Edited 3959d ago )

Never knew that. Samsung have a bag of money floating around. A part of the samsung group manufacture ships yeah ships with an 's'... they also acquired rolex a while back. They have deep pockets and why the spend so much on marketing even more than apple.....madness

TheLyonKing3959d ago

700 to cloud support but it won't just be for xbone, they will share the same servers as their main portfolio of software.

The Meerkat3959d ago

You seem to put that in a negative way.
I see that as a plus point, if multiple sources can effectively use the same cloud then doesn't that bode well for cross platform gaming in the future?

TheLyonKing3959d ago

Sorry it wasn't meant to spin of negativly, cloud is the furture and its great ms are investing fairly heavily in it.

Just don't want people to think it is solely for xb1

morganfell3959d ago

It isn't a matter of negativity but of facts. It will be shared with Xbox chief among them.

Also if you dig down into the facts you will notice the building has yet to be constructed. The idea that a data center will be built from the ground up and then servers installed, up, tested and fully functional by launch will likely not happen. I doubt MS will go with a butler building and a concrete pad.

The idea of building a single massive data center is not the best thing for customers where latency is your biggest enemy. Gaikai tech utilizes dispersed server farms to handle geographic areas. Depending on the one large NSA center will severly limit applications.

Geezus3959d ago (Edited 3959d ago )

@morganfell microsoft has tons of data centers spread out across the world especially here in the U.S. this building project seems to be adding support for that specific area of the country (iowa) for the allocation of their cloud services in general (phones, tablets, business centers...etc). sure some might operate soley for the xbox one in that area but they will prob. most likely allocate alot of the servers being built there to strengthen their Azure coverage in that area in general not as the main base of operation for the 300000 servers they specifically allocated to the One which most likely already exist as they are an extension of their current data centers . As you said a single server farm wont work and im sure MS knows that cuz they run a pretty succesful cloud service in general and know what they are doing when it comes to data center/ servers/ cloud computing and all that good stuff. their 300000 servers are probably spread around the world to service the 45 mill + of xbox live subscribers.

Diver3959d ago (Edited 3959d ago )

Just having data centers isn't a qualifier. It requires they got the right servers an server structure. An virtual servers well ha ha.

Besides the point was that the data center cost 700 mil ain't built.

rainslacker3958d ago

@morgan and Geezus

There are 9 datacenters located around the world(this one will make 10). 4 in the US, 2 in Asia, and 2 in Europe. There are CDN(Content Delivery Network) nodes in 24 countries. The largest datacenter is in dublin, Ireland which houses 100K servers.

The cloud works as sort of a insular internet, which runs on top of the regular internet. It is extremely fast actually. MS Azure cloud is also "dispersed" and can run applications from any datacenter it see's fit to offload tasks if necessary.

Seriously N4G mods. Can't we make the wikipedia page for Azure a sticky on the front page so people will stop assuming that cloud is everywhere and people can read an article about the basics of how it works?

morganfell3957d ago

And most of those are virtual servers. Which is where people keep missing the point. Cloud cloud cloud. One big desperate PR attempt to make up for the lack of raw onboard power.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 3957d ago
green3959d ago (Edited 3959d ago )

Off course they will share the servers with other Microsoft services but it is good to know that XBOX Live will be the main benefactor

"The data centre will support a number of Microsoft's cloud services, but Xbox Live will be chief among them. "
http://www.gamesindustry.bi...

Mustang300C20123959d ago (Edited 3959d ago )

Yeah okay man. This is Azure 2010.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Swiggins3959d ago

If Microsoft can SOMEHOW pull this whole cloud business off then it's going to be one of the next big things in the industry.

However, when presented with all of the elements I still don't see how it's going to work...can somebody put this in perspective for me, I'm not much of a technology guy.

Skynetone3959d ago (Edited 3959d ago )

its so you can play games online

ms and google believe, in the future everything will be in the cloud, your programs your os your pictures/videos etc etc so if you connect to any pc in the world youll have access to all your stuff, will people want all there stuff on the internet is anyone's guess

this is ms where talking about, they have zero interest in gaming, I suspect all this cloud talk has got to do with windows 9 and other features they have in mind, of course it will work for xbox live aswell but I don't thing its there primary reason in fact I thinks its pretty far down there list, ms are not investing billions of dollars so people can game online

ms record last gen has been pretty bad, for such a big company, sony had more games with dedicated servers, in fact most first party games had them

NeoRatt3959d ago

MS has had the cloud business for several years now. MS Azure its known as allows you to host thinks like e-mail, web portals, databases, software applications, and the MS Windows Server OS in the cloud. MS adds new cloud accounts for development at a rate of 5,000 - 7,000 per week. MS also has shifted a lot of focus to Office 365 as well, which is MS Office in the cloud. Finally, MS has SkyDrive which is their version of drop box.

This is a well established business that has picked up steam and is making them good money.

Xbox Live is a small extension to this business. Meaning they already have the systems in place to do this, all they are doing is adding another service on the list.

One final thing. Apparently MS can add 8,000 servers to this infrastructure with 24 hours notice. They have a standard trailer config and arrangements with hardware vendors that allows them to simply order and receive delivery quickly.

Show all comments (92)
210°

Microsoft’s Surface and Xbox hardware revenues take a big hit in Q3

Microsoft just posted the third quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $61.9 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during Q3. Revenue is up 17 percent, and net income has increased by 20 percent.

Read Full Story >>
theverge.com
darthv7217h ago

Xbox content + services up 62% while hardware down 31%... seems about right with the way they tout you don't need the hardware to play. People can play on their phones or smart tv or other means. I don't hardly play on my consoles directly since getting devices like the logitech g-cloud and ps portal. Which is to also say I have been playing more digital than physical because of these devices.

solideagle4h ago

you should apply in MS PR team buddy, I think you will do a great job in my humble opinion :)

Sonic18811h ago

I thought darthv72 and Obscure_Observer already work for Microsoft 🤔

dveio1h ago

MS: "Xbox services and content without AB up 1%, with AB up 62%. Hardware down 31%. In total a loss of 350 mill."

darthv72: "Seems about right."

MS: "Excuse m ..."

darthv72: "I don't hardly play on my consoles directly."

MS:

Cacabunga3h ago

I can tell people like you are an absolute minority..

If service is up means their fans and fanboys accepted this model and subscribed to it. The near future you will see a big decline because the service is saturated.

shinoff21832h ago

But that's been ms for years. When things aren't going their way they try to change the way things are said. For instance console sales are down, they stop telling how many sold instead telling us how many hours spent in halo or headshots. So it makes sense console sales down just say people are playing on more devices then previous. What they won't say is how many xbox players jumped ship to ps5.

Cacabunga1h ago

Hardware sales are so bad that Sony and Nintendo are blowing the sales off the water with their hardware.

If Xbox are losers, others aren’t..
Xbox already tried everything with Xbox live then subscriptions went down so much that they had to find something else. Their fans subscribed then reached saturation rather quickly.

Hardware and exclusive games is where it’s at! Keep gamers excited, announce decent software and people will support you

purple1016h ago

Xbox hardware revenue tanks to lowest point of Xbox Series generation

Profchaos5h ago

I'm not surprised surface is struggling they aren't relevant anymore

XBManiac5h ago

Too expensive hardware when others offer the same or more for less? Good work, Green Team.

SimpleDad4h ago(Edited 4h ago)

"Despite some early successes for Xbox games on rival platforms, Xbox hardware is down by a massive 31 percent this quarter."
"Without Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue would have actually declined this quarter."
"Xbox content and services would have only been up a single percent without Activision Blizzard..."
"It looks like next quarter is going to be a similar story for gaming at Microsoft, too."

That is crazy... so A/B/K is carrying the whole Xbox gaming.
Oh and Microsoft will be fine. Windows, Office and Cloud are growing with each pc purchase.

purple1014h ago

Activision: "we gonna need a bigger rucksack/backpack please"

Microsoft: "why's that"

Activision: "to carry yo' weak ass'

Profchaos4h ago(Edited 4h ago)

Top brass have also wanted to start seeing returns on the 100 billion they have put into various Xbox related moves so seeing more multiplatform games is highly likely especially from abk

It's basically saying that PlayStation is the reason Xbox is afloat right now thinks to Ps5 versions of COD

Kornholic2h ago

So basically PS and PC gamers' money is keeping Xbox on life support.

Show all comments (21)
300°

Microsoft Seemingly Closes Bethesda France

As part of its plans to cut 1,900 jobs, Microsoft has reportedly shut down operations at Bethesda France, letting go roughly 15 people

Read Full Story >>
insider-gaming.com
Hereandthere1d 13h ago

Microsoft should have left them stay 3rd party

GamerRN1d 11h ago

If they are let go, they can be whatever they want. They ARE 3rd party now... 🤦

Barlos1d 8h ago

Yeah, they're also jobless.

GamerRN1d 1h ago

They can form a company if they want, they are just as jobless as if "Microsoft had left them as 3rd party".

peppeaccardo1d 3h ago

"MIcrosoft leaves Bethesda do what they know how to do best" ... close! Oh the irony ....
(Citation from a week old article)

ChasterMies23h ago

I think Microsoft and other game publishers are letting people go because they think ai will replace them. Doesn’t matter how much profit they make. They were always going to be let go.

PassNextquestion1d 13h ago (Edited 1d 13h ago )

Bethesda France was made up of roughly 15 people... they couldn't of being doing much

Bethesda France mainly did publishing and marketing within the region

blacktiger1d 11h ago

that's a shame for you to say that, i'm sure Elite loves hearing what you just said.

Mr Logic21h ago

What a stupid thing to say. The elites give 0 fucks what we say on an obscure website in the comments section.

Crows9020h ago

You can always reach out and give them jobs at your company man. Don't wait

Profchaos1d 13h ago (Edited 1d 13h ago )

Bethesda France focused on publishing and marketing in the region. And 15 people lost their jobs as part of the closure.

I wonder if this is part of Microsoft's strategy to abandoned physical media or possibly gamepass advertising makes their roles redundant you don't need to market a game as hard when the majority of players get the game as part of a sub which already promoted upcoming games

Tacoboto1d 12h ago

It's France too, there's a high likelihood only 1-2 people on the team even had an Xbox.

Profchaos1d 12h ago

Possibly guven all the leaks we know the Xbox brand is really struggling in the region.

Yi-Long1d 9h ago

Well, if your consoles and games are barely found in any stores any more, of course you're gonna struggle finding consumers ...

XiNatsuDragnel1d 11h ago

Tbh Microsoft I think Bethesda being 3rd party same with Activision would probably more competitive than thus scenario imo

Profchaos1d 10h ago (Edited 1d 10h ago )

I think it would have been better for all parties really especially gamers

TheColbertinator1d 11h ago

The recently purchased Activision French offices might take over all the licensing and marketing for Microsoft in France from now on.

Show all comments (21)
280°

Xbox's Preservation Step Sets A Much-Needed Example, Especially For Nintendo

Hanzla from eXputer inquires: "If Xbox can care about preserving its games and legacy, what exactly is wrong with Nintendo, trying to kill game preservation single-handedly?"

purple10112d ago

Ahh yes the good old game preservation of saving all your games to a removable hhd on the Xbox 360, taking it round your mates house, setting up multiple tvs to
Be met with “save data corrupted, please re download”

Or how about removing 360 games
From the store
, download them now or else, and, better hope to god that save data doesn’t corrupt, or it’s lost for ever

Nice one ☝️

Zeref12d ago

It's better than what Nintendo and Playstation is doing. It might not be perfect but at least they are TRYING. Unlike the others.

DarXyde12d ago

Trying? Take off the blinders for a moment, mate.

1. A failure to preserve games is just that: a failure to preserve games. Don't try to sugarcoat it: NO ONE is doing it properly. Better than awful is nothing to write home about.

2. At the time of this comment, isn't it the case that you need an internet connection to play Xbox games even if you buy physical discs that are hardly in circulation anymore? I don't have a Series X and I can't verify, but I think that is correct. I'm fairly certain you can at least play PS5 games at version 1.0 (not much of a win really when many games require day one patches). I think Microsoft's all digital, licensing approach is by far more aggressive than anyone else's. They really try to push you to game pass where you lose your entire library by umm.... Skipping a month of payments.

I don't think anyone is doing it right whatsoever. Don't get me started on Nintendo, who goes after anyone looking to preserve their games better than they ever would with extreme litigation.

Don't be a simp for any of these companies. Get it together.

PhillyDonJawn12d ago (Edited 12d ago )

@DarX never speak on Xbox again. You lost all credibility with your internet connection comment. Smh you have 0 clue and misinformed yet speaking on something you don't no squat about.

Einhander197211d ago

What has Sony done exactly? You guys keep deflecting to Sony but I am not actually seeing any results, and ai am certain nothing that you can come up with even comes close to what Microsoft has done and what they have tried and failed to do, like tie all your disks to your account on xbone.

Microsoft removed their whole indie section when they moved to the xbone because they were going to only allow games on the service that came from a publisher, id@xbox started after xbone launched and it only exists because Sony embraced indie and Microsoft was forced to cancel their plans and reverse course.

And every single game that was part of games for windows live including disk games (I have gta 4 on disk that won't work) so hundreds of games that use that DRM no longer work unless the company themselves patched it out which of course very few did.

MrBaskerville11d ago

Not trying. Tried. they killed of the backcomp program years ago. They set something up again, but sounds like it's more of an attempt to save the current library on whatever they are planning next. With luck they save everything and more, but let's see. I could see them killing off parts of the OG xbox and 360 libraries. Can't imagine that they would allow us to play Forza 5-7 in the future.

With that said, I do like what they've done and really wish they could have done more.

shinoff218311d ago

Zeref

So killing off physical media is trying what exactly. Ms don't really give a fk if you think they do your kidding yourself.

Profchaos11d ago

They are not trying this team is established for forward compatability the team is. It interested in preserving Xbox or 360 games.

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isarai12d ago

Is that why Hellblade 2 is digital only?

Zeref12d ago

Just because it's digital only doesn't mean you can't preserve it. Just put it on an external and you have the exact same functionality of what a disc does.

MrNinosan12d ago

Guess you're trolling, but if you actually think that's how it works, I'd recommend buying some braincells.

mkis00711d ago (Edited 11d ago )

Volitile vs nonvolitile data. A disc will not corrupt either. A drive can be corrupted.

Einhander197212d ago

This is just a scammy PR move to distract from the fact they are going digital only and trying to push streaming and subscriptions only.

No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft.

Without discs there is no preservation, preservation can't be done by the rights holders it can only be done by the consumers, anything else is a lie.

12d ago Replies(3)
Einhander197212d ago

Anyone remember xblig which Microsoft removed their whole 360 indie section removing hundreds of games from people?

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Zeref12d ago

Do you know you can put your games on an external and preserve them that way? There are no benefits to discs. ZERO. Idk why some of you are still obsessed with them.

DarXyde12d ago

Because games like Persona 5 exist. It's STILL V1.00. On Playstation, that's a win because 1.00 is installed on the disc—no need to download anything.

If a game does not require any updates, it's all on the disc.

Extremely low bar in the modern era, of course. It's not much of a win by any stretch.

But for now, physical media does have a purpose, at least on Playstation.

Einhander197212d ago

That is factually not how game licensing works, try plugging your hard drive into someone else xbox, It's not going to work, and it won't work if the licensing servers ever go down.

Einhander197212d ago

Anyone remember games for windows live.

I have around a dozen games, some on Steam itself that will not work because Microsoft shut off the licensing servers.

BehindTheRows12d ago (Edited 11d ago )

I do. I STILL have games (Gears of War being the big one) I cannot access because Games for Windows LIVE is total garbage and no one has held Microsoft accountable.

Zeref11d ago (Edited 11d ago )

You don't have an Xbox apparently. Because you can 100 percent plug in your external and play games from it on any Xbox console lol. You just have to be logged in to prove ownership.

Chevalier11d ago

"You don't have an Xbox apparently. Because you can 100 percent plug in your external and play games from it on any Xbox console lol. You just have to be logged in to prove ownership."

Damn how many times do people got to explain your idiocy to you? You can take a copy of Persona 5 like someone used as an example and play that game on ANY console WITHOUT logging in which means I can lend the game to a friend without internet and they can play my game. Can you lend your hard drive to anyone without logging in for them to play? NOPE. That is a huge difference and if you think otherwise then sorry you're an idiot.

Tacoboto11d ago

"No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft."

Ubisoft is literally erasing games people bought from their libraries... My PS1-3 discs are useless on modern hardware. Nintendo's re-published and resold almost their entire Wii U library, and the eShop is completely dead with no BC mechanism in the Switch software. Microsoft publishes everything they make today day one on Steam and Xbox/Windows. Sony only brings to PC the titles they think you might want some years later and Nintendo won't even design a functional long-lasting joystick.

You're absolutely trolling and not serious if you think Microsoft today is the worst offender.

shinoff218311d ago

Yay steam

Not everyone fks with computers though. The disc is still the best way as a console player. Period.

Tacoboto11d ago

How do Sony and Nintendo feel about these discs from 2001-2013?

Don't be stupid, you know Xbox is the best at this today.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 11d ago
Hofstaderman12d ago

Nobody wants this. Sales or the lack of it in the case of XBOX is very telling. I wonder how the adorably all digital series X will fare. Adorably dismal perhaps?

crazyCoconuts11d ago

Only time will tell, but for from someone like me suspecting that Xbox is trying to gracefully exit the console market, that "forward compatibility" team is trying to get Xbox games playing on Windows PCs. I mean, it's nice that they're not planning on exiting with a "enjoy your games while the hardware still works" message, so that's nice. They still have a brand to protect via Microsoft so probably feel obligated to have a better exit strategy.

Xeofate11d ago (Edited 11d ago )

That is not their plan, their plan is to transfer users accounts to the cloud.

Phil Spencer himself said as much a few months back, plans could have changed but I think people are reading way too much into one statement where Phil said he would allow Epic on xbox because he wants to be able to sell xbox games directly on other platforms. Aka, instead of selling Sea of Thives through PSN he wants to have an xbox store to sell his games on PlayStation without giving PlayStation any money.

Again, it's extremely unlikely that Phil plans to put PC on xbox and licensing would prevent them from just giving out other publishers games purchased on xbox copies of thier games on PC, Microsoft does not own their games.

crazyCoconuts11d ago

The thing that doesn't align with the cloud strategy is the giving up on exclusives. You'd still need strong exclusives for cloud streaming - it's still a "platform" , just with a lower upfront hardware investment. I feel like they've learned what PS learned with PSNow long ago. We're not ready to stream games and it's only gonna lose them money to try at this point

FinalFantasyFanatic11d ago

I would love that, I'd buy up some of the Xbox games if they could run on PC, like the Rare Replay, Lost Odyssey and Dead or Alive Ultimate, probably a pipe dream though.

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