Cracking Down on Xbox One Cloud Computing

"At gamescom 2015, Microsoft revealed details on Crackdown 3’s 100% destructibility, and how it will utilize cloud computing to accomplish the very complex computations required for this feat. With this information, Daily Reaction is jumping into the discussion to ask the important questions about cloud computing, and explore if the future of technological processing is really in the mysterious entity known only as “The Cloud.”" -PSLS

[KingKionic]

"Sony, of course, has their own cloud service, which should theoretically be able to offer a similar concept, but much like Chandler, I don’t work directly in those markets, or know enough to positively state that it can. "

Hell no Gaikai cant offer the same thing.

[TheGreatGamer]

Sony does not have the infrastructure to do this with their games just look at Mark Cerny's comments on the cloud he admits it

[TheGreatGamer]

Dude you summed it up well. MS demonstrating impressive new tech not possible on your ps4? Downplay it out of jealousy

[nveenio]

What we saw wasn't impressive. Yes, a whole building fell. But so what? Why couldn't that be faked how it is in other games? Am the only person who noticed the fragments disappearing? It just seems a little too basic to be impressive. Hopefully future iterations are more inline with expectations.

[GameNameFame]

You do realize that Sony's cloud has the lowest latency of all cloud services?

Yes that includes MS. That is because Sony is the only one making a lot of local server farms. Instead of just having one large centralized on in one continent, you have one like 50 miles from your home.

Result is lower latency. Lower the latency more you can do with it. There is nothing unique about this whole "cloud" thing. It just does exactly same as dedicated servers do.

Only difference will be that it cost to run dedicated servers and Sony may not want to offer that for free.

[poppinslops]

If cloud-processing is "exactly the same as dedicated servers", why then can no other game do what Crackdown does?

[GameNameFame]

@poppinslops

They do. MMO server created physics exist. EVERQUEST NEXT
( https://www.youtube.com/wat...
They also run AI on servers too.
They also make custom or random generated map or stuff.

It has been all been done before.

It isn't particularly popular cause dedicated servers have cost money always.

Sony can do it, Nintendo can do it(if they choose to rent servers), Activision can do it, EA can do it.

But it cost money, so they probably won't. Unless Crackdown becomes huge success then those company may want to get in the train.

@Poppinslops

I did. Everquest NEXT. Cloud driven Physics. Or what educated people just call physics on dedicated servers.

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

I didnt see sony fans yelling CLOUD PHYSIZZZZZZZ! OMG!!

Edit2
LOl. Denial setting in already?

It has fully destructable environment. All buildings have Voxels.

Meaning you can break down buidlings by blowing a hole. Walking through it.

You want ot get to next level? You can make a hole in the ground. You can actually dig dirt by physics.

With millions of people playing in one world ofc.

LOL.Quit your desperate straw grasp.

[poppinslops]

Okay then... name ONE game that can do what Crackdown does.

Edit: THAT?
That's not even close.

You really need to let go of this... you were wrong - digging in your heels won't make a difference.

[sinspirit]

@poppinslopps

Yeah friggin right dude.

Everquest is an enormous voxel based world with far more polygons in complex shapes that are entirely destructible rather than many basic polygons making up one building. This also with vastly more players and far more AI and complex gameplay and creation systems in place. It doesn't matter? Get out of here.

What Crackdown 3 does is sweet and all and I'm sure it will be better fun but it seriously is not even that much better than Roblox. Obviously it is. It's less blocky and is more realistic. But, it isn't more far ahead of a decade old children's block game. The application is better. The technology is not new or original.

Do you seriously think that Sony can't do the same? They have servers to emulate entire games rather than just part of the work. Microsoft does NOT have high end server hardware. They only have a large cluster of decent servers to work together. They do NOT dedicate all of it nor as many as it takes to XBOX. If this were true then there would have never been connectivity issues from server load. And, no matter how many servers there are latency is always a factor. Your won't get anything out of this world or far and beyond what these consoles can do on their own. You should have seen the ps4 physics demo by now to get a idea of what they can do for this scale from basic physics with the quality of C3's graphics. The cloud has no gpu hardware to run this. It's very inefficient. It isn't hard to believe with all the RAM and with the GPU crunching numbers faster that this is possible.

[Kal0psia]

@GameNamelame

You're desperate buddy, so toss some salt on that crow and accept it. Xbox One, true next-gen capabilities and innovation. Everything you've stated has been reaching comments proving nothgin!

Everquest Next uses in-game engine for it's physics. Just because it's an MMO doesn't mean it uses cloud computing, otherwise like Crackdown 3 it would be 100% destructible environments. The desperate video you posted proves nothing related to cloud computing. You're arguments are vague.

Crackdown will be the first and innovative retail title to provide the power of cloud computing. Point is the potential is amazing. I can only imagine what future MOBA games like Smite can provide for graphics fidelity.

If this doesn't peak you're interest as a gamer, you're not a gamer. You love your plastic too much. That is sad.

[sinspirit]

@Kal0psia

Hello! JerdDaNERD7.

The fact that it is a mmo is proof the physics are cloud computed. Every player observes the same physics.

That is like saying your inventory in WoW isn't on the cloud because the items are in-engine and only you see them. It is all hosted and calculated on a server. No, this isn't a proper example for physics because they are basically non existant in WoW. Roblox, Everquest, MineCraft, Garry's Mod, Star Citizen, No Man's Sky, etc. Are all examples of games that have cloud based physics so long as you are online on a server. You may be wondering.. "oh, but MineCraft Garry's Mod, and Roblox can be played offline locally on my computer". True. But that doesn't mean that when you go online that they still process physics and everything else
on your system. The server takes care of it so that everyone sees everything the same and has a seamless experience. Otherwise people would be in every online game ever seeing enemies get shot but the enemy never saw himself get shot.

[donthate]

Apart from what XBLSkull said, but this articles' description of a cloud is "the internet", because it is not local is just plain stupid!!!

A simple search on google will yield wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

Seriously amateur gaming journalist, do SOME research PLEASE!

We don't want your opinion, if you don't even know what you are talking about!

@GameNameFame

"You do realize that Sony's cloud has the lowest latency of all cloud services?"

Do you have any data to back this up?

Latency isn't just distance, it is also routing and backbone. That is why, in some instances routing your traffic through a VPN helps speed even though it shouldn't.

In Xbox Live's infancy, MS would work with ISP to configure their network so XBL was optimized.

Apart from that, I also suggest you read that link I posted, because clearly you are confusing dedicated servers with "cloud computing".

If a dedicated server was "cloud computing", I have a few cloud's at my home. Here let me pop up another Virtual Machine and make another "cloud"!!!

Surely anything that does computation is a server, and if it is "dedicated" it is a dedicated server which is a CLOUD. HURRAY!

Please stop spreading BS and FUD!

PS, PS Now is only available in North America and Europe.... That latency will be very high anywhere else in the world.

"Sony can do it, Nintendo can do it(if they choose to rent servers), Activision can do it, EA can do it."

Sony can't even get their servers on PSN to update without taking the entire infrastructure down. Nintendo doesn't even have a real existing gaming network to speak of. Activision still runs most of CoD on P2P they claim is only a backup. EA had massive failure with BF4 and the game barely recovered.

MS is the only one that has consistently shown that they can do this. Azure has top notch reliability with mission critical software running on it all over the world.

@sinspirit:

Discussing if physics is done on a server is "cloud" is moot, because they are all fixed resources. It isn't scaled, and used more like a dedicated server environment i.e. fixed resources on ONE dedicated server. It isn't scalable. It's like going single core vs multi-core! (You know, like DX12 and 1600% gain)

The innovation in MS/Cloudgine approach is that it is scalable on the fly service that gives you result that no-one else has done so far and is beyond anything seen before in a game intended for a console!

This is huge and super innovative. There aren't even that many companies that can do this, but MS with Azure!!!

[sinspirit]

@donthate

Scale-able doesn't change what it is. Other servers have been processing physics for well over a decade. The only reason it is referred to as "scale-able" is because they have a ton of extra servers reserved for game servers, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Business, and all sorts of random content. They still had Live issues occur from player load. It isn't a full proof system. It won't be like you are drag racing and have access to a horsepower button whenever you need more to beat whatever pulls ahead of you.

It's not like everyone else builds servers that magically handle immense loads of players without having enough power. They aren't made to match a specific number at launch.

When Sony and other companies build servers they are proper and can handle what is thrown at them. They aren't refered to as "scale-able" because they don't have a massive cluster of unused servers to turn on if they need them, because the truth is that they have specific servers dedicated to each product and these servers already handle more than what is thrown at them.

A cloud is a cloud no matter how big in scale. Performance varies.

There is an intense amount of proof needed to justify what we are seeing here. The fact is every player, every AI, every physical interaction. It all adds up more and more numbers that are sent to the server, to then be processed, and then be sent back to you for everything you had done, as well as everyone else in your game, and then it's just a back and forth game of all this information stacked on top of itself to everyone in the game and it just keeps growing. It is extremely skeptical to actually release at this same level of destruction. My only guess is that in desperation they are going all out and dedicating an overly insane amount of servers to crunch these numbers as a team in order to dish them out faster, but it's still an insane amount to keep up with and to then keep up with what had already fallen and is still there and physical. We will see in time. I'm always skeptical of Microsoft for good reason.

[SquidBuck]

They could create a way to do this, they're not broke. And with how many PS4's that are selling, Sony will have some extra pocket cash to throw down on the same concept if they really want too.

[UnHoly_One]

@inveni0

What we saw wasn't impressive?

http://www.ign.com/videos/2...

So, a bunch of console games are doing this I suppose?

Name me one.

[mike_honcho]

"MS demonstrating impressive new tech not possible on your ps4?"

Check this out.

http://www.polygon.com/2013...

So according to Shu it's possible. Anyone will agree that Shu > Cerny. Furthermore if you do some research you will find that cloud computing is possible on any device with a data/internet connection, even smartphones. I don't believe Sony is set up to do cloud computing as proficently as MS(my guess) but it is certainly possible.

However, as impressive as cloud computing potential is, I'm much more hyped on Microsoft paving the way for mods being utilized in games(Fallout 4). MS helping introduce mods to consoles is a huge deal for me and hopefully everyone else.

[ABizzel1]

It's not the infrastructure it's simply not having the server count to do it. MS has the server count, because their cloud was being used for business services back int he 360 days, here we are nearly 10 years later, and they have tons of servers to use for their Cloud Compute. Sony doesn't have the number of servers MS does, and thus they can't compete on that scale for now, this is one of the reasons they made PS+ mandatory so they could buy more server space.

[Kal0psia]

@SiNoSpirit

Sorry you're wrong. All the physics in those games you mentioned are in game engine (client server) specific. MMO servers are scaled and act as a "host server" to a large volume of people playing online. That's it!

There isn't any specific cloud computation in MMO games except for connecting gamers scaling that process which which is the sole purpose of MMO servers. Otherwise it would be disastrous just running using MMO server for other processes other than connecting millions of people.

[sinspirit]

@kal0psia

Wrong. This doesn't mean the server does no work. The client typically allows the player to perform a set amount of actions before giving or getting feedback from the server. This is basically universally adopted to give the server breathing room and not to knock the player offline for lack of connection for a mere fraction of a second. Much of the time the client does process some of the physics but the server does as well and it gives the final result back to the player. This is why you see laggy servers where players, projectiles, vehicles, etc. move forward and then backward, like its rewinding. This is that same effect except when lag makes it skip back and forth. If the players calculated everything and then sent the results to the server to then give to everyone then server hosting would not be near as demanding as it gets.

Another super easy method to test this is to be in an online game that allows only one player to attack a specific ai at one time. Try to attack them when you disconnect yourself for a split second. Does your game hang and nothing happens or does it let you attack but the target doesn't move? The server is processing it all and you have to wait for it to decide what it wants it to do. And on the physics subject. Most will hang and not let you do a thing or the physics will not happen but you will see a bullet hit the bottle you shot. Heck. Even Halo 1 servers did this. You disconnect for a split second and you threw aa grenade under the warthog? Yeah,nothing happens until the server connects and tells you what it decided the result was and surprise it's a dozen feet away or still in motion because the server was already moving it.

Like, really. What about multiple people hitting one object? It doesnt get the physics calculation from one person. This one situation disproves it without me explaining it to you.

[Kal0psia]

^^^

Again, you're taking a very simple and straight forward concept and trying desperately to prove a point. So far you've only come across vague and stating moot points we all know already. So I never stated the servers don't work, it's just not a straight forward cloud computation you think it is in comparison to what being done for Crackdown on Xbox.

Simple if I were to play an MMO offline, it doesn't matter. I'll play the game at it's designed graphics fidelity. If I play online, no graphics fidelity is scaled further. MMO severs are just large volume host providers. Fact.

[grumpygamr]

Does anyone on this thread not talk out their ass. Sony could set up this in a second. It's no different then playing any online game with a dedicated server. Its jusy forcing you to use the dedicated server, when most onlone games its optional. Having the server calculate physics is a cool idea that anyone can easily do. Got news for all u xbox fanboys, you don't have it yet either do you. All these people pretending like it's something amazing when all they have seen is a demo with a ton of marketting talk. Xbox fanboys are idiots. Sorry, keep acting like one I have to do you a favor and call it out. It's basically the same as when the building collapses in battlefield. Except battlefield can be done without dedicated server as well.

All that is going on is the server is calculating the complex destruction and then sending the information back to you in a small packet so the xbox one can show it.

A) it doesn't exist in the real world yet, game is Pre-alpha.
B) it's not like Microsoft over hypes stuff ever. You all remember Kinect right.

Xbox fanboys are pathetic. Can't enjoy the games, you got to eat up all the nonsense and regurgitate it like it means anything.

[sinspirit]

@kal0psia

I am being thorough. I explained everything and gave thorough examples. The servers DO process everything. The reason it is not the same degree as Crackdown 3 is not because its servers are any different. It is doing the exact same process for processing physics. The reason for the different level of physics is because of the scale at which they are taking the same process to. I would like someone or you to respond and tell me how thorough I am and what I haven't been thorough with. Oh, and be thorough with it.

Same process. Different SCALE.

That's the same as player hosting. Generally you could host a 16 player match on your pc. Maybe more up to around 64. Just on any standard PC. But, a professional server doing the same process will handle a ton more because of the scale at which the hardware is prepared to.

Don't belittle thorough explanations like you do on Disqus. You will argue with pure misconception and assumption all day, ask for proof, and no matter what level of proof is provided you keep naysaying and claiming your unconfirmed details as fact.

Do not respond with something to plot and get rid of my last bubble so that you get the last response in order to troll and pretend in front of others that I dont have any more argument because I can't leave a public reply. Yes. I am thorough. I covered our future arguments as well to prevent a fake victory due to bubble limitations.

[Sonyslave3]

GAikai before sony brought them I couldn't even play their Mass Effect 2 Demo or any demo on their website without massive lag and I had 15mb Comcast wire connection.

But then again Comcast do have a history of false advertisement

[tmh3593]

Never heard of speed test.net?

[ABizzel1]

Gaikai worked fine for me well before Sony bought them out, I played plenty of games on it on a 6MBps U-Verse connection.

That was Comcast all the way.

[Azmatik]

I think the bigest thing is Microsoft cant even handle windows 10 streaming to Xbone, with unplayble streaming on the same wifi. How does anyone believe they can support lets say 1mil players online at once? Because we all know betas or even live demos mean nothing compared to when a game launches. This games not even going to come out till feb 2017 so i dont know what the fuss is all about Microsoft is basically just throwing all Xbots hope of "tha cloud" to get sales, which is not even close to being released to the public. Maybe in 3 more years we will see "tha cloud" lol the "live" demo should be called extremly isolated demo of a very early alpha with horrible GFX that any console could easily run this, fully destructible multiplayer without "tha cloud" straight up ive played many fully destructible online games with even better gfx and more player count then this crap, stop being so desperate.

[Rookie_Monster]

Gaikai and Onlive that Sony have are not even in the same league as the Azure.

Gaika is a Software as a service (SaaS) "on-demand software"

Azure is a Platform as a service (PaaS) "delivers a computing platform"

In simpler terms, Gaika = Netflix style delivery for games.
Azure = Powerful remote rented servers that handle scalable workload and calculations.

At the XB1 launch, MS had 300,000 servers dedicated for gaming used around the world and that figure no doubt is much higher now. That is why they are the only one of the console makers that can offer what we are seeing from Crackdown.

[Dewitt]

This is exactly right and what I was trying to get across to people

[GameNameFame]

I do not think you understand how it works.

Gaikai= 100 % computation on server PLUS post process and encode. HEAVY COMPUTATION

Azure= Rely heavy on local compute while adding help.LIGHTER COMPUTATION

It was also built for MS office/Skydrive/Skype/Outlook (MS said this on their earning report) Then after thought for games.

@Dewitt

Was that sarcasm or are just xbox fan this desperate to believe?

@deadpoolio316

Exactly. MS announced that in the earning report all the time. Servers are for office stuff. They dont even mention gamine uses in those reports. It literally is afterthought.

[Rookie_Monster]

@gamenamefame,

"Gaikai= 100 % computation on server PLUS post process and encode. HEAVY COMPUTATION"

-lol, As in heavy computation, do you mean running a PS3 game on server and delivering it to my Samsung Blu-Ray player and only requires PS4/PS3 controller to work? So kind of like Netflix then where I can watch a DVD movie using HEAVY COMPUTATION from Netflix and delivering it to my PS4 or my cappy cellphone. "on-demand non-native software" --gotcha. ;)

"Azure= Rely heavy on local compute while adding help.LIGHTER COMPUTATION"

-lol, so I guess you had missed the Crackdown demo then where the larger the destruction, the system direct adding more Azure servers to compute the physics to eventually blowing up the whole city with the help of multiple servers to help calculate and processed physics. LIGHTER COMPUTATION indeed. Eyes roll. Lol

[AngelicIceDiamond]

People are having a really difficult time accepting this. MS announced CC 2 years ago, 2 years later its real(surprise, surprise). And everyone here or most ppl claimed it wasn't real.

Folks need to own up to their own BS.

[donthate]

@GameNameFame:

Gakai isn't 100% computation on a server. It is a souped up PS3 farm with video encoding. That's it!

It isn't equipped to do general computing, load distribution or scaling. It is literally performs the function of an Xbox One/PS4 when streaming a game on your internal network!

It isn't designed for computation, let alone anything for gaming. It can't scale, it can't load balance, it can't really do much of anything. I suppose it could add the power of a single PS3 to your PS4 if you happen to only be in North America or Europe.

It is mostly just useful to play PS3 games and store saves to a storage facility.

Sony wasted a lot fo money on buying Gakai while everyone else was fleeing. The last remaining survivor basically sold their patents pennies on the dollar after MS passed them up for good reason.

I'm sorry, but I will take the "office stuff" that is meant for mission critical applications to run on and trusted by some of the largest companies in the world over Gakai, that can power games like Crackdown 3.

I don't particularly enjoy a laggy experience on PS Now especially for the current price. Don't think I would even use them if it was free. Very frustrating experience that the input are several frames behind.

[Sweep14]

Azure is a platform dedicated first and foremost to business (office etc..) It's NOT and never will be a pure gaming server farm

Those 300000 servers are virtual for the most part and are not solely dedicated to gaming

I can't imagine the backlash MS will face when Crackdown 3 will not work as demonstrated/advertised when released in the real world, with hundred thousands consoles requiring server's calculations and dealing with each player's different bandwith and latency on an un-doctored environment,

[ABizzel1]

There's one thing about Gaikai you forgot to mention.

Gaikai is Open Platform, which is why it can have other services and features added to it.

Gaikai can become a cloud computing service, it's just not happening anytime soon, at best we'll see it next-gen if MS's Cloud truly innovates for the rest of this gen. But then Sony will be a ways behind.

What Sony really needs is for Worldwide Internet Bandwidth to take a massive jump, because that is where Gaikai streaming will completely blow up. At that point they can simply cluster consoles and offer gaming experiences via streaming (1 GB/s) that a single console will never be able to match.

The only thing with that is it becomes a gray area for how games will be sold (most likely annual subscription services, and hopefully not per game).

That would be revolutionary, but it also would be so limiting for the gamer who no longer owns their content, simply renting their games on the console they bought.....if console seven exist, but that's PS6 / PS7 type stuff.

For now MS wins the Cloud Compute, and there's really nothing Sony can do about it. Sony needs to build the tech, and buy more servers to use it efficiently.

[d_g]

agree

and the one who wrote this article just Can't handle the truth that Cloud gaming is real thing !

[Tedakin]

Cerny said this stuff wasn't possible just a year or 2 ago. I doubt they have something set up like this at the moment.

[FlexLuger]

"Cerny said this stuff wasn't possible just a year or 2 ago. I doubt they have something set up like this at the moment."

^^This. You dont go from saying a rival companies tech doesnt work, because you deemed it unfeasable, to suddenly saying, your product can do it too. Smells like BS, to be honest.

[ChronoJoe]

He said trying to boost the quality of the graphics wouldn't work well in the cloud.

Where did he say anything about something like this? Server side physics computation isn't what he wrote about, and it isn't a new concept either.

[Sweep14]

That's what Mark Cerny said :

“To the extent that it’s possible to do computing in the cloud,” said Cerny, “PS4 can do computing in the cloud.

“We do some things today,” added Cerny. “Matchmaking is done in the cloud and it works very well. If we think about things that don’t work well, trying to boost the quality of the graphics, that won’t work well in the cloud.”

[ChronoJoe]

Gaikai can't offer the same thing? this is just silly. It's entirely dependent on what the developers / publishers want to do with their networked resource. Gaikai is a gameplay streaming service... that's something entirely different to this. So it to say Gaikai can't do it makes about as much sense as saying Netflix can't do it. You're right! but that's not what those servers or their software were built for. Could Sony, or another company do it? Yes, of course.

MMOs use 'cloud' driven AI, and often cloud based physics. It just depends what you want to with your game, it's perfectly possible for any developer to use server side physics calculations, but it just depends if it's worth it.

Generally I think the answer would be no, you have to provide a whole load of network resources to an individual game, and because of that distribution of resources it's not realistically possible to provide this kind of support for all titles on your platform, therefore it doesn't make sense on a more universal scale, so it's easy to see why most developers wouldn't opt to use server side physics calculation.

There's also the issue that it's networked, and lag is a factor. Crackdown 3 demoed at gamescom was run on a local network (no lag) and it's not clear how these systems run outside of artificial networks like these. MMOs that are running server side physics calculations often feature a delay before the object moves.

Either way, any developer / publisher could do it, but how financially viable is it to run 11 servers per lobby within a game? Not that much so, I wouldn't imagine! However for Microsoft, it's a nice advertisement that helps show off their console, even if it is, at the end of the day, nothing that the XBOX ONE specifically accomplishes.

It's kind of like pointing fingers at Planetside 2, with 1000+ players in massive environments, and saying 'look at what the PS4 can do'. Well, there's a lot of things you can do with a hefty amount of networked resources!

[ninsigma]

You're right. Gaikai can't offer it. But all Sony have to do is set up remote servers and ps4 is then capable doing the same thing. This isn't magic what crackdown is doing. Any machine that can connect to the Internet is capable of doing this.

[ABizzel1]

@KionicWarlord222

Actually it can, their cloud was build to be expanded upon with new services, new technologies, etc... The problem is it's not happening within the next several years. For this gen at least, MS has the Cloud Computing realm to itself, and even if Sony decides to jump on board MS has had their Azure Cloud since the 360 days, although it's just now being used for games. So Sony has a lot of catching up to do regardless.

That being said what is PSL doing commenting on this, especially for those not in the know.

[Professor_K]

To all the people in disillusion

if sony can do this, Why arent they :D?

[ninsigma]

They can, they just aren't using it as a marketing ploy because it's nothing revolutionary as a lot of uninformed people around here would have you believe.

http://www.polygon.com/2013...

[Professor_K]

Marketing ploy? LOL k

Your comment showed nothing and ps has yet to come up with something as impressive as CD3

they basically cant

[ninsigma]

Actually my comment showed that playstation is capable of such things...because all it needs is an Internet connection. Even if they don't have dedicated servers there are servers for hire example amazon db.

It's a marketing ploy because there are other games out there that do the same thing (physics calculations on a remote server) yet none of those games are screaming it from the rooftops. They utilise the tech and get on with it. Ms are the only ones touting this as something special.

If you really think it's not possible on ps4 then you have no knowledge whatsoever on computing and networking. In which case you really shouldn't be commenting on the subject.

[TheXgamerLive]

Well said my friend:)

[DevilOgreFish]

The cloud physics in crackdown 3 was nuts. I was thinking though it would be nice if MS could offer both online, and a local Cloud computing solution via through windows 10. so that gamers could enjoy the experience both ways.

[parentsbasement]

that would be brilliant , let my pc which is connected to my x1 handle some of the workload...

[FlexLuger]

Thats a pretty cool idea, actually.

[Mystogan]

Your PC would not be powerful enough though. Watch the 17minute demo. They used 11 servers at one point.

[Mystogan]

Your PC would not be powerful enough. In the demo they used up to 11 servers to blow up a city.

[windblowsagain]

I thought it looked ok, But not the way most are going on about it.

Watch the video.

https://youtu.be/rFWIpAPvF-...

As more falls, loads of it disappears. Cheap particle fx and graphics were so so.

You don't need 20xbox's to do that. lol

[KingKionic]

Cheap fx?

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Show me a multiplayer game that has 100 percent destruction in a entire city.

Hell Bf4 got destruction that`s not even persistent. All destruction in crackdown 3 can be picked up and thrown at players.

You can take down a skyscraper that can collide into others and create a real domino effect.

You can go into EVERY building in crackdown 3. You can shoot gas pipes inside the building to individually take out floors he did so in the video and mine i posted above.

Denial is real.

[windblowsagain]

Games are not designed with this. What would be the point of having BF4 total destruction. People get stuck on objects, you get tons of clipping. It's nothing to do with power.

@dewitt, open you eyes and take off the green goggles. It disappears and looks like paper. Not weight to anything. He even pushes concrete around around with his feet.

lmao.

[Dewitt]

Nothing disappears, it is all persistent on the cloud cluster it falls into. He shoots the debris to make it finer, it never actually fades from the scene.

[Mystogan]

Graphics looked fine and nothing disappears.

[nveenio]

I saw stuff disappear, too. I don't know why people are saying it doesn't disappear. If j could stomach looking at last ten graphics again, I'd pull up a video and give a time stamp as proof, but people will still disagree. It's like the flat Earth society in here.

[StrayaKNT]

PlayStation lifestyle - taking horrible
Journalism and damage control to a whole new level. Why can't those so called "gamers" be excited for the first true next gen game to date? How can you actually downtalk a game that looks as good as crackdown lol

[LamerTamer]

Maybe not everyone thinks "always online" is good. MS tried to shove that on us and then told us to "deal with it". Now though always online is ok because they throw some effects in?

What happens when the internet traffic is bad, you have slow internet or just don't want to be online? What happens to the game when they eventually drop support for it on the servers? All of these things are a problem with "cloud" based instead of local.

This could be a big issue if everything eventually relies on "the cloud" and I don't care if it is X1, PS4, or PC.

[Mystogan]

You can't play ANY game online if you don't have internet! Your logic baffles me.

Destiny, Titanfall any MMO ever made are always online but people are fine with it. Have always been. Everything is online. Online is the future. If not. You can just get yourself a GameCube or any other offline-gen console and stop complaining about an industry that is moving forward.

Damn hipsters.

[vinniects]

crackdown 3 has an online multiplayer game mode. U can't play an online game without being online anyway. In the case the internet goes down i can always turn on my ps4 which is the most powerful console ever made and play my single player indie game junk. reality is ever since the first xbox I fell in love with online mulltiplayer, I want that to expand to another level,I don't care if its from xbox sony or nintendo. Thank you microsoft for trying to push the tech, now hopefully the competition will push back.

[Professor_K]

Maybe they just jelly, always online is the sony ponies favorite buzz word yet they flip flopped to things like Destinny and PSnow

pathetic bunch

[Wedge19]

Did you read the piece? We're stoked for it and the tech. It's impressive. We're excited for what it's bringing to the industry.

[yellowgerbil]

maybe it is just because I've always hated the crackdown games, but that didn't look too good to me. I'm sure from a tech standpoint it is but looking at it I couldn't help feel like everything was legos and not real. The chunks of debri falling from the skyscraper looked so fake it really didn't give me hope. With that said this could be just a first step and once a GOOD developer uses it it could be something really impressive

[KingKionic]

Jesus the amount of reaction that people are having in here now that the facts the crackdown 3 really is pushing destruction from the microsoft compute platform is amazing.

People have gone from not believing to now believing it and assuming that sony can match what microsoft is doing.

Maybe people commenting should go back to 2013 and rememeber what Sony`s World Wide Studios Boss Yoshida said :

"We've been clear on what cloud gaming means, and that's getting games to run on the server and sending that video signal to a distant device," - Yoshida

"The way they are using cloud computing seems very different and I totally don't understand what they mean by that. So we can't react to what they are saying because we don't understand."

"[Digital Foundry] went through all the computing tasks a game goes through," Yoshida continued, "and for each one they checked off if it can actually be done on the server versus the client, and most of the tasks a game has to perform, they said, cannot be done on the server because of the huge latency and the bandwidth.

"There's so much data going back and forth between the CPU and memory and GPU inside the console compared to going through the internet... There were maybe four or five tasks that actually could be done on the server. So that was very educational to me. After reading the article, the Microsoft message was even more confusing to me" - Yoshida

http://www.videogamer.com/n...

[kstuffs]

LOL you get disagree for stating facts and actual quotes directly from the CEO of Sony. I mean what more can anyone present?

[christocolus]

They just keep downplaying the tech.It's unbelievable. Lmao.

[98xpresent]

I can't wait to see more.

Why are so many users in this comment section being marked as "trolling" or "off topic" for telling the truth

[kstuffs]

You should know that facts against Sony is usually noted as trolling or off topics even when direct quotes from Sony CEO is given. It's sad really.

[mark_parch]

why is it that over the last 2 years ps4 owners were all saying the ms cloud doesn't do anything and now it's been proven that it does in fact to a lot ps4 owners are now saying the they have access to the same tech

[Sonyslave3]

Sony can't do what MS is doing with Cloud here Sony Ceo saying MS ideal on the cloud make no sense.

Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida has branded Microsoft's messaging over Xbox One's cloud computing capabilities as "confusing", and admitted that he "totally doesn't understand" the way his rival plans to use cloud processing.

yoshida -
"We've been clear on what cloud gaming means, and that's getting games to run on the server and sending that video signal to a distant device," Yoshida told GamesIndustry.biz.

The way they are using cloud computing seems very different and I totally don't understand what they mean by that. So we can't react to what they are saying because we don't understand."

Yoshida admits that he had to read an article produced by tech experts Digital Foundry to get an understanding of Microsoft's plans, but suggests that he still doesn't fully understand how it will work.

"[Digital Foundry] went through all the computing tasks a game goes through," Yoshida continued, "and for each one they checked off if it can actually be done on the server versus the client, and most of the tasks a game has to perform, they said, cannot be done on the server because of the huge latency and the bandwidth.
http://www.videogamer.com/n...

But sony can do it even tho the Ceo say they can't.

[bsquwhere]

Are you KionicWarlord222 as well or just unoriginal in your comments. You should relax bro don't you have some X1 game to play

[MCTJim]

Wait, let me get this straight.. a basically PS only site saying it wont work and Sony has the exact same thing with their network. Really? Please enlighten me. Please just keep downplaying it, but no matter what you say or attempt to do, its real and it was shown live and in a sit down and people got to play it LIVE on the Internet.

Get over it and let the X1 fans just enjoy what is coming their way.

[slane3]

am i missing something ? Crackdown 3 looks terrible. Xbox fans have starving for any type of positive news. So what the Ps4 is 12mil. consoles ahead......X1 has the power of the Cloud now. Ps4 can do cloud computing also.....Whats the big deal ?

[Necrochasm]

Lol, reading this then seeing you only have two bubbles. Makes perfect sense!

[bsquwhere]

Red......Faction. Remember that game.

[Father__Merrin]

Red faction did exactly the same without cloud. I see nothing impressive about blowing up a building

[dreadz74]

Really red faction did the same thing? No freking way was the destruction even close this looks like it is even in the same league to you? https://www.youtube.com/wat...
https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Please try again such B.S saying that red faction did this the scale is much much smaller your talking skscrapers and entire cities being destroyed and the physics are real world and real time not even close. You hear Neogaf say Red faction did this and believe it without watching how red faction did it which was a much much smaller scale and physics were crap lol

Yes it is incredible why certain gamers are trying to downplay this huge advancement in gaming is asinine. No PS4 can't do this as the system was not built with this in mind Cerny said that ps4 can't do it the creator of PS4!! Sony does not have the servers either they are barely managing users now. Gaki is not capable of this either as it can only stream games it can't do compute.

Gamers are going to have to accept that this can't and won't be done on the ps4 and stop hating on a true next gen advancement. Not like MS did not say this & the beginning of this generation gamers choose not to believe so the crow being served is well deserved .

[Godmars290]

Pretty sure he's talking about general destructible environments rather than the increase in scale, which should be expected given how powerful 8th gen consoles are over 7th.

By all count, cloud distribution allows for increased particle effects. Handles the physics calculations so that the destruction looks smoother. But when an Xbox is offline you can still do everything, except that looks rougher.

[DrumBeat]

Cloud compute on Xbox One is here as promised.

Get angry. Get upset. Become enraged. Nevertheless, here it is, and it looks damn impressive.

[Godmars290]

No, its still on the way. It will be "here" when the general consumer gets access to it.

Nevermind that it'll be three years at least after it was promised that it will actually be "here".

[DrumBeat]

So hostile.

I, and any other general consumer purchasing Crackdown 3 will have access to it.

Of course, games that utilize cloud compute will be limited, especially in the early on. The service is still in its infancy, but it has indeed arrived on the scene.

I also don't recall any actual promises that cloud compute (on this scale) would be available from the get-go. Touted at the wrong time? Possibly. Promised out of the gate. Definitely not.

[lolosgolos]

Couldn't have said it any better

[Godmars290]

What hostility?

Aside from repeating, "I, and any other general consumer purchasing Crackdown 3 will have access to it" all I'm hearing is denial that Cloud distribution represents the last of the always online/DRM policies the old Xbox management dreamed up.

[freshslicepizza]

what does drm have to do with crackdown 3? either you are excited for what crackdown 3 is going to do or you aren't, which is it?

[DrumBeat]

Your quoting of 'here' not once, but twice, I would say is indicative of anger and hostility.

You also didn't follow up on your allegation that Microsoft promised this level of cloud compute three years ago. They didn't promise that, by the way.

DRM? Who's talking about DRM? I merely stated that what I saw was impressive, that it's here to stay, and that opposition critics were likely to get angry and upset.

[windblowsagain]

Looks like paper buildings with poor graphics and even cheaper fx.

The disappearing debris or the small wall being shot and everything lands in a neat pile.

Smoke and mirrors and per usual.

[dreadz74]

ur user name says it blowing wind indeed . My god the denial is real.. why so salty if you consider yourself a true gamer this is next gen tech. If PS4 was doing this i bet a million dollars your response would be my god PS4 does it again look @ the power of the cloud. This is such a joke all those in denial the cloud is real deal with it and enjoy your crow if not tasty enough apply your salty tears for flavor lol

[kingPoS]

Wait a minute! Does this mean Borderlands uses the cloud as well? Who's or what's controlling the game's AI or bullet calculations if my PS3/PS4 isn't crunching that metadata locally?

Whoa!

Gateway MT6706 2008

[mysteryraz11]

if the cloud was great and powerful why none of the previous xb1 games using it

[BRINGSOCOMBACK]

Interesting idea but we'll have to see how it works when tons of users are on the cloud at once.

Looking forward to see it in action.

PS: Fanboys on both sides be cray.