Crackdown 3 Cloud Tech Could Come To Non-Microsoft Platforms,Tech Allows Ground Breaking Experiences

CEO Maurizio Sciglio also talks about the differences between PS Now and Cloudgine.

[Foehammer]

"I can see his point- the cloud in the case of PS Now is a delivery mechanism, but that is really all it is- a delivery mechanism. The games are not cloud assisted. This is not like what Microsoft and Cloudgine are promising with Crackdown 3- which, if it comes to pass, would truly lead to the next paradigm shift in video gaming."

Looking forward to seeing where this takes us...true next gen experience incoming.

Edit, the funniest part of reading the comment section is how some ppl feel they know more than the engineers at MS.

Do ppl really think that MS engineers, years ago, already asked and answered the same questions, plus 1000 more that most ppl couldn't even postulate?

What happened to backwards compatibility not being possible? MS engineers worked it out.

I guess we'll all know soon enough, 2016 is just around the corner.

[gameseveryday]

Indeed...But I need to see more games supported by this tech!

[TLG1991]

also want to see it supported in normal single player experiences.

[nveenio]

I don't think we'll see too many games using this. Why? Because imagine a game uses it and sells three million copies in the first year. At any given time during that year, perhaps 10,000 players are online at once, asking the cloud to process tons of data. Now, a new game comes out. It's also a smash hit. It sells a million copies in the first weekend (think GTA6). At any given time, there are now 310,000 people asking the cloud to make demanding calculations. What if TES5 uses it and releases two months after GTA6? Uh oh. The cloud needs some growth. Will developers even pay Microsoft to leverage the high demands of the cloud?

The question is, can it process 500,000 games at once? If not, we'll just see it on first-party titles with lots of space between them. If so, then more power to 'em!

[freshslicepizza]

sony and nintendo are capable of using the cloud services microsoft provides but it's doubtful they want to. microsoft has servers all over the globe and rents them out.

this is the future for gaming.

[dcbronco]

Invenio you're forgetting each server only handles a small part of the map. It probably runs a VM for each game with a couple of hundred games overlapping on the same server. Each server already knows what assets are in it's region and gets a heads up on what is coming it's way. It's like two ships firing on each other at sea but working together. One works out a firing solution to hit the other ship, it then sends that information ahead to the target letting know it's coming and exactly what it is. The target can now do calculations for damages before the shot even arrives. Once the shot arrives it just runs the results. A powerful server does billions of calculations a second, this is probably what Microsoft was talking about when they said 800,000 adjustments a second.

Plus the servers scale up or down probably for quality of service but also to keep the load light on each server.

[Kingthrash360]

Here we go again. First we need to see exactly how it works in action. Anything online hasn't been stable ever. I do hope this delivers but history shows that online gaming isnt a stable environment. If anyone has the money to pull this off its MS...but like dx12 there is too much hype for something that hasn't been proven. I'll sit back wait and see how it goes, hoping it works...but I'm not gunna jump the gun and say it's the next generation experience. Nobody knows what kind of experience this will be until we experience it.

[nveenio]

@dcbronco

It's simply not possible for things to be infinitely scalable. A virtual machine still uses machine resources (I use these all of the time when testing software against different platforms.) You can't just say, "Oh, I need more resources…let's fire up another virtual machine." Those resources come from the physical machine.

But let's pretend you CAN do that. There is still the issue of I/O, which is going to be the biggest limitation.

This model is a great idea, but we simply don't have the infrastructure to support it on a large enough scale that all publishers can leverage it simultaneously. The cutoff has to exist somewhere. That's not opinion. That's physics.

[Silly Mammo]

I'm not very good at tech talk, but what keeps me from getting too excited about the Crackdown 3 footage is the fact it was basically a tech demo. I'd like to see it in a nearly completed game. Saying this is how games is going to be soon, is like saying all games will look like such and such after seeing a graphic engine demo. Everyone knows things get downgraded once its implemented into actual games.

So I'm reserving judgement until it is put into a full fledged game not simply a closed tech demo.

[pinkcrocodile75]

OK, I was going to keep my mouth shut on this one, but looks like I can't handle people running around saying things that are wrong.

OK, where to begin?

XBOX One:

"The xbox was designed for cloud" What they mean my this is the inclusion of "Move engines" in xbox one that allow computes to be compressed, and uncompressed very very quickly.

Crash Course In virtualisation:

Think thousands of servers lashed together like a raft, but all with tiny hard disks; Now lets pool all the CPU's and Memory
together and manage that with a bare metal hypervisor.

Through a management interface we can build Virtual servers (Windows 2012 R2 or Core, Linux etc).

All the data sits on a massive storage array (SAN... Well unless you use the Nutanix process and replicated over a heartbeat cluster model)

So no issues with resources when spinning up either a full blown server or a process engine doesn't matter which.

Now consider applications that are HA aware. Multiple instances of process applications on each VM (node) AND over multiple nodes all horizontally and vertically clustered for high performance and high availability.

So those limitations no longer exist.

Now combine applications in such a clustered dynamic where we can scale the application instances over more VM's / Nodes as and when we need them over as many nodes as you like.

Now add to that the Xbox One move engine and you have the perfect storm.

[THC CELL]

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

[stuna1]

People are of the frame of mind that if one can do it, it automatically disqualifies anyone else from doing it!? There is no doubt that Microsoft aren't the only ones experimenting with Cloud technology.

And many don't really realize the correlation and significance of GPU's and Cloud computing interaction.

[TheCommentator]

Stuna, Sony doesn't even have the infrastructure to do cloud assisted computing right now. They also don't have dedicated hardware to handle cloud assisted computing, so when they can do it MS will still do it better.

PS4 isn't going to be better than XB1 at everything, as you'll see more and more over the next few years. MS designed a 10 year system with Win10, DX12, cloud, and unique hardware that still needs the proper OS, API, and servers to make use of. Sony built a "safe" console that will peak in two more years, and since all it's hardware is already being used for traditional computing, PS4 would lose local processing when trying to cloud compute.

[ArmrdChaos]

Amusing read. So now matchmaking is the same as in game fully destructible environments. I would have expected Sony to downplay it because they have nothing to compete with it other than the processing power of their console. Sony bought a media streaming company...that is what they have. This is something entirely different that would have to be developed from the ground up. IF Sony's board members even allow them to invest in this type of tech (not cheap) they will always be behind Microsoft in this arena.

[TheCommentator]

@johndoe

The consoles were both less powerful than expected by devs, and their traditional usefulness will be shortened as a result. 5 years is what the industry has suggested for both consoles, not me. It's MS themselves that claim 10 years, and considering devs are just starting to work with DX12 and haven't used the cloud yet either, they have greater longevity than Sony. As for the childish attack...

I think that your comment, coupled with your 9 bubbles, is more of a testament to the ignorance of some of the people here. I'm just saying...

[uth11]

Although PS Now is only delivering PS3 games at the moment, in the future it could become a development platform of its own and deliver games requiring much more horsepower than consoles can provide. If it ever gets to that point it would be more in line with that type of cloud tech.

[CYCLEGAMER]

But wait....judging by the comments in the past, the cloud is fake. Now its real, it is so real that anyone can do it.

Let make up our minds people.

[nix]

If you don't show a proper demo, people are likely to not believe it. People have seen enough smoke n mirror from MS. Remember that game for Kinect? Project Milo?

Only recently they've shown us the Crackdown demo. Now people know what it does. Yes, people are still waiting to see it work outside the controlled environment. That's with every new tech demos.

[nitus10]

Remote IT Services or as it is known now by it's buzzword Da' Cloud has been around since the early 1980's. At least that is when I got involved with it.

One of the major short comings of the so called cloud is the infrastructure between the servers and the machine(s) being serviced. This we know or should know is the Internet.

The Internet has improved over 30 years but for most people they are lucky if they can get a 1MB transfer rate and that is assuming they have an Internet connection.

One major limiting factor is the speed of light which ideally takes 42ms for a signal to travel around our planet (21ms for half way around) which can translate three to ten times that when you consider the latency of each router a signal has to go though.

It must be noted I am only describing ideal circumstances since it becomes much more complex when you have thousands or hundreds of thousands of individual signals which all have to be routed to their correct destinations and decoded and yes I am well aware of multiplexing which in turn adds to latency.

Of course if anyone has a mechanism whereby a signal can exceed the speed of light please let everyone know since you have a Nobel prize and an incredible amount of money waiting for you.

[Angeljuice]

@Melman
Nobody ever claimed the cloud was fake, they just mocked the idiots that made the ridiculous claims about it being the second coming and making the XBone 4x more powerful.

The Crackdown video demonstrates cloud based physics calculations, that is not what Xboners were saying about the cloud. They were saying that the cloud would make the graphics 4x better and bridge the resolution gap to the PS4.

Now they've moved the goalposts to claim a win, but the graphical divide hasn't changed at all.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

Sony is using its cloud for services while MS is using to enhance games but MS cloud sounds like its versatile so MS could use it as service as well down the line.

[Automatic79]

Well said Foehammer. Cloud tech and Crackdown 3 should pave the way and subsequently be a lot of fun. Can't wait to destroy enemies with building. Easily a highly anticipated game for me.

[alabtrosMyster]

The truly interesting way to process physics would be locally on beefier GPUs and with more RAM... the way crackdown 3 does it would be only good for MP games, IF they desire to have that level of destructibility (maybe they want to do other things with it?)

Doing it on the cloud also pretty much limit them to 30fps, doing physics on a beefy GPU let them taylor the thing without worrying about syncing with the online infrastructure... and possibly run at 60fps.

Anyway, this is not without trade offs, but the worst one is that this cloud computing needs to be paid some way, so games depending on it would either come with publicity bundled in or some monthly charges (covered by either the gold service or PS+).. and you are at the risk of your favorite game being taken offline whenever the publisher decide not enough people play it (like all console MP games).

[GUTZnPAPERCUTZ]

What people ALWAYS forget about and never mention are the 4 move engines on the X1 APU dye where PS4's has more shader cores on the GPU block in the same spot. The Move engines were put in for future cloud use as well, it takes data (pre-rendered or tasked) and just moves it around the memory paths @ 26gb/sec to give less overhead on the CPU/GPU. Other consoles don't have this, so I think PS4 would require to use more of it's processing power to get the same results, so it might no benefit them as much.

[THC CELL]

Psnow should come to xbox consoles let's all play together in cod bf and mp games we been shouting for years for this to happen

[slate91]

Does psnow work that way?

[ritchi45]

You know what? Well said!
For the next gen (or one after) I'd like Sony and MS to join up. Unifying the two systems into one super system would not only eliminate petty fanboys, but would give all devs equal playing grounds in terms of technology. Games could be made without having to make compromises to support the lower powered platform, no parity bs, exclusive content etc.

[Aenea]

Oh hell no! No teaming up please!

I would love it if they did a cross-deal to allow players of one platform to play against players of the other, that would be fun!

[THC CELL]

Why no team up it would be great a real xbox vs ps4 online console war not drive by arguments.

[arkard]

Let's say they unify, without a competing console (yes I know Nintendo but if all xbox/PS exclusives were on one platform would anyone really look at Nintendo?) they could charge 120$ a year for online play, console price would have no reason to come down because if people want to play they have to buy, there isn't a competitor to get a similar experience. The list goes on, competition is good for the consumer.

[AizenSosuke]

The cloud experiment is coming along well.

[AizenSosuke]

@Disagrees

Until an actual home use this tech and proven successful then I won't call it an experiment sorry folks.

[WeAreLegion]

Well, duh. They could even use Microsoft's technology to do it, if they wanted to.

[MikleDemi]

Please, anyone can rent servers from Amazon or Microsoft and take advantage of this, or hell a good dev can even get their own data center(s) to cater to their own game(s).

Cloud technology is not platform specific. It is in fact, by its definition, platform agnostic.

[RiseofScorpio]

One word: Cost.

Microsoft doesn't pay anyone they have their own servers which makes it very easy to have Cloud features in all first party games. Microsoft has spent billions to get their infrastructure to where it is today.

[FlexLuger]

"One word: Cost."

Bingo. MS spent to the tune of $24 billion on azure...just for comparisons sake , sony are worth about 18 billion....How much does it cost to run a game like crackdown 3? how many examples can you run? for MS these questions are moot because they own their own servers and are constantly adding and extending azure. they just added an Nvidia GPU farm into the mix, with more to come......sony are renting servers....And how many servers do you need to run something like this and support millions of consoles using the tech on multiple games?

But alas...its amusing hearing the change in language...before it was.."its MS PR bullshit"...now we hear..."sony can do the same thing"..news flash...PSnow is NOT cloud compute...that is simple DATA streaming. BIG difference.

[BitbyDeath]

@Flex, didn't they also spend 100M just on a controller that barely changed and 2.5 billion on Minecraft? Or even 50 million on GTA for some timed DLC.

They have money but what they pay isn't always what it is actually worth.

[_-EDMIX-_]

@BitbyDeath- Agreed.

http://www.businessinsider....

Soooooo.....we just going to ignore this happened huh? lol

[joeorc]

@FlexLuger + 20h ago
"One word: Cost."

sony are renting servers....And how many servers do you need to run something like this and support millions of consoles using the tech on multiple games?

"Sony is renting Servers"

Lmao, just stop..stop right there, you are trying to imply that Sony are renting servers ? After paying over 380 million $ for a renting server structure?

Lmao, umm yeah if you really believe that, than you really do and have no freaking idea what you are talking about.

And as for your comment about network size, yes Microsoft has a very large server network structure, but your claim Sony is only worth 18 Billion, vs Microsoft networth..yes you try to purchase Sony Corp for only 18 billion hell 100 billion, and guess what , your offer would be laughed @ because by holdings alone in physical assets Sony's property holdings are in net worth over 120 Billion!

Sony Employs over 130 thousand people. World wide, if you think a companies evaluation of what a company is worth is based on S&P, or some other rating agency based on financial analysts "Opinion"

Market Cap does not = True valuation of said Company.

You have another thing Coming.
The reality of the situation is Microsoft's network is for more than just gaming, and was set up for a majority not tied to gaming, while Sony purchased a cloud network structure that was made for gaming!

Sony indeed owns those Servers, just because they are renting the space to where those housed servers are located does not mean they do not own the servers themselves.

[xasz]

@joeorc

Gakai is a streaming service.

It was not set up for cloud-assisted computing.

Azure and Gakai are NOT the same thing.

[triple_c]

I don't like to jump the gun on things that I don't really know about or I'm not sure about so I won't say Sony can or can't do this but even if Sony didn't have the infastructure to do this I assume Microsoft might license this technology out just like they're doing with Havok

Also, I noticed that 1 group of people are pointing out the fact that another group of people stated that Microsoft and the Xbox One couldn't do cloud computing and it wasn't possible but these same people are now saying Sony and the PS4 can't do cloud computing. I just find that funny, ironic and hypocritical. People are now doing what they've accused other of doing and complained about others doing.

Have both groups of people (especially Xbox fanboys) not learned their lesson when it comes to jumping the gun on these types of things??

@FlexLuger

Are you seriously hanging on to 3 year old information? Sony is not worth $18 billion. Sony's market value is about $30 billion and they're stocks have nearly doubled since then. You seriously should consider doing a little more research before leaving comments. Seriously dude, you're entitled to your opinion just like everybody else but at least make sure your info is correct and up to date before making points..

[Father__Merrin]

we may see proper games in 10 years. tbh I don't believe a word they say, highly destructible environments has been done before dynamically or otherwise

[Team_Litt]

Pics of dynamic destruction on open world scale or it didn't happen.

[Antifan]

Just Cause 3. Go look at the new gameplay.

[Team_Litt]

Try again. Not every building on JC3 can be dynamically reduced to rubble.

[nitus10]

Just having highly destructible environments may be fine for the "if it moves kill it and if doesn't kill it anyways" crowd but for people like myself who likes Action/Adventure and RPG's I would prefer randomly generated environments where as each time you restart the game things change.

In many respects randomly generated environments, enemies as well as NPC actions would not put that much of a load on the cloud servers and would definitely add to the replay value of the game. Of course assuming that the game is worth playing.

Somehow I don't think I will see this. Taking an example such as Skyrim imagine that each time you restart the game the land including caves, burial sites, ruins, events, enemies and items have changed. Why would you bother getting another RPG?

[polow got sol]

People mocked MS for the cloud now people want to use it, crazy how things workout.

[AizenSosuke]

Still an experiment bro.

[n4rc]

no, it isnt.

[generic-user-name]

2 years in and still no X1 game is using it like it was promised. Crackdown shows potential but it's not out til next year some time and we'll see how well it works out in the wild rather than in the ideal conditions they've shown off so far.

[RiseofScorpio]

So that's your argument now?

"B..b..but let's wait till its released first"

[generic-user-name]

@Waluigi

Yes dude, waiting til it's released is the safe and logical thing to do. I think Crackdown 3 looks amazing and I really hope it works as advertised. But I'm 90% sure that someone like me with my crappy internet connection won't be able to enjoy stuff like that without issues.

Maybe if people waited until the MCC released to get super hyped, they wouldn't have been so let down either.

[Ron_Danger]

@waluigi

"Wait and see" is an understandable argument. It's only been shown in closed controlled conditions so no one knows how it'll actually work in the wild.

Also you can't rip on people for saying wait and see with this when every May for the past 6 years the comment sections have been littered with "wait till E3" comments from one camp.

Cautious optimism is at best what people should be feeling about this until public closed alpha/ beta tests are done.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

@generic MS doesn't work on your time no company does. Your not the dev, the R&D manager, business exec.

I agree with one your arguments bc I said it myself. We have to see a real world home scenario, out in the wild.

But MS has proved allot from 2 years ago. What will your excuse be next when CC3 actually does deliver?

[generic-user-name]

@Angelic

What are you talking about excuse? All I'm saying is maybe let's not get ahead of ourselves when we look to cloud gaming for the future, this isn't just a MS thing, if Crackdown 3 works well (and I hope it does), then you can expect Sony and other studios to start looking into it too. Cloud gaming is not exclusive to anybody.

[ColonelHugh]

For the record, I think cloud tech will be used on many AAA Xbox titles to good effect in the future, and I'm gonna call it now: Microsoft will do something similar on PC through exclusives to their Store there.

@Waluigi

People have a right to be suspicious of an unproven product, especially when it is such a big change from previous work, or when the previous work was undesirable. I would think you would understand if you thought about why you said this:

"Until Dawn? I'm sorry but after Beyond Two Souls and The Order I'm waiting for reviews on this one." #1.4.2

You were talking about the story-oriented gameplay, I think, and was just as understandable as generic's comment. Of course, the reviews were very good, and I'm sure you were happy to hear about that.

[_-EDMIX-_]

Its shown itself to be useful and that it can very well do what they've claimed it can do.

Thats sorta not even the issue. The issue is they planned an entire online only console, that had Kinect built in...

Yet, where is this feature today? its going to be 2 years and we've yet to get a major game actually even using this feature, we are not even seeing many Kinect games....yet they where trying to force this BS on consumers?

Soooooooo what did they really have planned if after 2 years...THIS is where we are at with it?

I'm sorry but that is extremely questionable. Why are they trying to sell a system on features they are not even getting years into its life? I get some features take time, but lets not forget this damn system at one point was going to be online only to push this EXACT concept, a concept being revealed that is show they don't even have much game even using it.

Its good they got it some what working and have a plan for it, but this goes to show many, many gamers that they were trying to sell hardware for something they are still working on.

Yet go always online, for a feature 2 to 3 years later down the line to get? Mind you, only 1 major title is even using said feature correctly...

Um...I see.

[blackout]

How about this. 2013 Microsoft touts the cloud in an extensive interview. 2014 Crackdown 3 is announced. 2015 Crackdown 3 is being built from the ground up using clod compute. Games take time to be built, just ask those PlayStation fan how long The Last Guardian is taking. I know Sony gets a pass but please get real. One more thing, every building in crackdown 3 is being built from the ground up ( Thats a lot of work) so that not only are they destructible but you can walk around on every level of every building. And the beta is just around the corner gentlemen. With the new vision at Microsoft I don't think there in the business of letting people down Satay is the man. Loving the change of thought on this hypercritical site, a whole new change. Just get on the boat and enjoy the ride.

[MrDead]

The people that mocked MS are just as stupid as the ones that believe MS are the only company that can use this tech.

[RiseofScorpio]

Unless Amazon makes a console, you won't see many Cloud powered games that aren't Xbox first party.

[MrDead]

@Waluigi_isunderrated

It's up to the dev’s, if they need it they will use it. This tech is not and has never been exclusive.

[THC CELL]

Cloudgine is not owned by Ms

[THC CELL]

Scroll down a little

[joeorc]

@polow got sol + 21h ago
"People mocked MS for the cloud now people want to use it, crazy how things workout."

Just like all of last cycle , When Sony was Mocked over and over with cloud compute and grid computing, Folding @ Home, warhawk cloud compute, using just PS3's themselves to rendering raytracing and physics based cloud computing last generation.

Ironic you betcha it is.

[QuickdrawMcgraw]

I have so much confidence in MS's announced game changing tech for console...I believe the cloud will work great with all the Kinect games....

[ScorpiusX]

MS needs to buy this tech and turning profit from it, plus with them owning it will give them the advantage that all thing done for Xbox can't be shared with others .Come on Phil get the CEO approval to buy the tech .

[LexHazard79]

MS owns cloudgine. And they're the only ones at the momnet using it for cloud compute on games. Also it gonna be on Havok so devs using the middleware will be able to use it if they want.

Some fanboy comments are ridiculous. We know MS doesnt own the cloud. But what seperates them from everyone else is they have the game tech and the cloud servers to do whatever they want. Sony doesnt have the servers to run this. Its not the same as PS Now and altho Amzazon destroys everyone with their server farms. They are not using it for gaming at the moment.

[ScorpiusX]

They don't own it, they have investment deal I would guess, but all MS needs to do is get these guys Dave Jones(President & Co-Founder),Marco Anastasi (CTO & Co-Founder), Maurizio Sciglio
(CEO & Co-Founder) to sell or become partners and all is good

[FlexLuger]

Probably will happen soon after CD3. Makes sense. I mean sure others can use this tech, but how many can afford to? how many have the infrastucture and funds? MS is best equipped to deal with this.

[LexHazard79]

Man guess I was wrong. I assumed they owned then since theyre working on Crackdown 3. But hey here hoping MS does get a deal done or maybe buy them.

[yewles1]

"Sciglio also differentiated between the cloud technology as it is in Crackdown 3, and the Gaikai powered cloud streaming service for PS3 video games that Sony provides via PS Now,"

Why do people bring up PSNow for comparison when the specific servers for that service are different from the actual Gaikai servers?

http://www.eurogamer.net/ar...

[i3eyond the Circle]

Looking forward to seeing more from Cloudgine and Granite SDK.

Texture streaming will be the future for open world games and Xbox One is built around moving data with innovative compression methods.

Read up on the SDK from graphinesoftware.com

With Havoc, Cloudgine and Graphine Microsoft is set up to create some of the biggest most innovative games that will push visual boundaries past what even top dog pc users experience.

They were not playing when they said beta tested in the future.

[TheCommentator]

Irides from MS is an example of cloud assisted VR/AR technology that could be what will allow for Oculus Rift and Hololens to function as true VR/AR devices as well.

[MannGamer]

I cannot wait for this game to come out. Thee gaming world will go crazy. If work accordingly doubters will be ripped apart. If doesnt work like advertise believers will be making fun of. Either way I will just grab my popcorns and enjoy the spectacle.

[blest]

I was really surprise when i seen there approach on how to make this game awesome really ground breaking what there doing. more games need to push their limits like this and no mans sky.

[kenwonobi]

People just said it's not exclusive. It's not a advantage if anyone can do it.

[Lennoxb63]

It's not exclusive, sure. But anyone isn't capable of doing it. You have to have the hardware to receive those type of signals with minimal lag. Not only that. The server infrastructure has to be there. The only gaming company with this type of infrastructure is MS. Unless Google or Amazon decide to drop a console.

It's going to be a long time before Sony and Nintendo develop that amount of servers. Even when they do accomplish it, MS will be years ahead already.

[The_BlackHeart__]

What if I tell you that No Man's Sky will simulate an entire cloud based Universe. That to me is already years ahead of a destructible arena. Because, as you may know already, CrackDown's multiplayer is not open world.

[xasz]

@The_BlackHeart__

"What if I tell you that No Man's Sky will simulate an entire cloud based Universe."

WTF?????

And fyi, the Crackdown series are open-world games.

[gangsta_red]

It'll be good to see this type of tech in other games like Battlefield, a huge RPG game, any type of robot mech game.

[FN4GM]

If it works and it truly makes games better it most certainly will come to other platforms much to the ire and dismay of many a fanboy I'm sure.

[Godmars290]

And still, its currently down to one game to prove the tech while it repeatedly talked up what the will/can do, instead of several being announced in the dev pike that are using it.

How does that not sound suspect?

[boing1]

So far I've seen one game using it in a visible way, and it's only in multiplayer. I can give it a benefit of a doubt, but it's way too soon to say this is the future IMO. Not saying it isn't but personally, I need to see much more to jump on a hypetrain.

[parentsbasement]

That's why they call it the future , if you could already see it , it would be the present ...

[Ristul]

It's in the future, but will it become big, that's the question.

[boing1]

Correct me if I'm wrong but so far only one released game used cloud for something other than storage and that was Forza, which is also an exclusive. I'm not counting Crackdown as it's not released yet. So, after two years we have one exclusive game(?). It's not hard to see the future at this point. With that kind of adoption rate it will take years before we start seeing it in 3rd party titles.

[parentsbasement]

Yes, sometimes the future takes years to get here...

[Godmars290]

But when they were calling Kinect the future there was more than one game coming.

Nevermind that ass the tech was talked up repeatedly, that many of the games didn't work.

[parentsbasement]

That's why you hear phrases like "not sure what the future holds" or "the future is unpredictable " stuff like that...kudos to those that keep trying though....much easier to play it "safe"...

[cheameup]

Thing is while I don't agree with how they presented it , MS vision on the always online xbone would've pushed this tech faster.

At the time da cloud was a joke but it seems it may become the future.

[Azzanation]

Of course Cloud Tech can go multiplat. If the company has a multi billion dollar online infrastructure or plans on paying an arm and a leg to rent the servers.

[Budobear]

As many people have already said, it comes down to a cost issue. This is the only reason there is something that doesn't ring true about this. All the servers used cost money......will they be kept on line indefinitely?........what happens if not many people buy the game?........will I be paying a fee each month to keep the servers going that run the game or will they just be turned off? This has a wiff of subscription based gaming to me, which is what MSoft seem to want to bring in with office etc.
Also what happens if your connection is bad, would the game world lag?

[xasz]

Azure's servers don't have to be "kept on". They remain "on" for whatever task, period.

In this case, it's basically virtualized servers on-demand.

MS rents out Azure to numerous different firms and companies. A set of servers is not going to be focused on one game. Say one server finishes a Crackdown session, it will just move to something else, such as music streaming or calculating weather.

The amount of servers for Crackdown will be scaled up or down as needed.

[Budobear]

You say MS rents out servers........therefore there is a cost attached?

[corroios]

Its funny how this «news» of the cloud appear after the news about sales....

[IIFloodyII]

It'd be way better in the long run if they can get everyone onboard with it, limiting it to only 1 platform (maybe 2 with PC), would just turn 3rd Party away and slow it's growth down, which if it's as good as MS say, would be bad for everyone.
I doubt it'll take off this gen though, cost are too high, and the average person's Internet is too slow and not reliable enough.

[Tzuno]

And prepare to always online, i like how they set traps.

[Tedakin]

Remember when the Cloud was viciously mocked for 2 years?

I do.

[frostypants]

No, I don't remember people mocking the internet for 2 years. That's what the "Cloud" is. A marketing term for server-side computing on the internet. N4G is in "the cloud". Your email is in "the cloud".

What people mocked was the idea that simply having cloud services was "innovation".

As for Crackdown 3, we still have yet to see it perform in a real world environment on commodity ISP service. Until I see that, I'm skeptical of this application of server processing.

[IIFloodyII]

The Cloud has been around a lot longer than 2 years, and has never been mock, by all accounts it's inevitably going to be what everything uses in the future. Just because you think it's only the thing MS said will make the XB1 a god, doesn't mean it was mocked.

[user9950279]

ummmm yeah. Blowing stuff up is awesome.

[frostypants]

Freaking Gaming-Dolt.

Yes, the magical power of server-side processing will likely expand on all computing platforms, as it has been for decades. This should go without saying, but I guess they needed ad views and needed a break from the usual "Random Nobody from Who-gives-a-crap Games Says He Doesn't Like [insert whatever] on the [One/PS4]" flamebait.