MS and Sony to explore ‘strategic partnership’

You are clearly wrong because I work in the IT field and this is a must to have a really good infrastructure. MS cloud gets used far more than what you know.

Yep, the cloud is a given in IT at this point. It just may not be used in every single way yet (streaming, offloaded game processing), but it is a no-brainer part of gaming at the very least for multiplayer functionality.

Nobody builds server farms anymore. We don't build servers, we "spin up a new one".

At work, I couldn't tell you where any of our actual servers are located anymore.
 
"The company’s other online game service and main cash cow, PlayStation Network, enables multiplayer matches of games running on PlayStation 4 consoles. For now that is still hosted by the other giant of cloud computing: Amazon Web Services. Sony and Amazon held talks last year for a deeper collaboration on cloud gaming, but couldn’t agree on commercial terms, according to a person familiar with the matter. That led to Sony’s discussions with Microsoft, the person said. Amazon is currently developing its own cloud gaming service, the Information reported last year."

Yep, the server cloud now belongs to Microsoft, Amazon, and Google. All three also just happen to be launching a game streaming service. Of course Amazon is trying to get into the videogame fold, too. Also evidenced here. Microsoft is just scooping up all of its frien-emies because they now, under Phil Spencer, (and recently awakened, Satya Nadella) finally understand the fact that 'content is King'. This is why all those new studios are more important now than ever. Microsoft is in a unique position to own all of the the layers from server to content. They can partner with whomever has the content they don't own. Their own content servers can be completely written off, as those same servers are being used by 'the competition' anyway. Meanwhile, the real competition (Google and Amazon) will struggle harder without that content pipeline.
 
Following what I just said, I'd like to mention that Microsoft Build '19 ended with CEO Satya Nadella taking about the significance of the videogame industry, and how important the developers are. I cannot say that I've ever seen this side of Microsoft before.

One of the things they talked about during Build, is having Azure AI streamline the development process by play testing and even generating parts of gaming environments through AI. This could really lessen the cost for game developers, and be a huge win for the industry. AI will never replace real artists, but it can definitely help smaller studios stay small, as well as larger ones to meet quicker deadlines.
 
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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...microsoft-blindsided-its-own-playstation-team

(Bloomberg) -- When Sony Corp. unveiled a cloud gaming pact with archrival Microsoft Corp., it surprised the industry. Perhaps no one was more shocked than employees of Sony’s PlayStation division, who have spent almost two decades fighting the U.S. software giant in the $38 billion video game console market.

Last week, the companies announced a strategic partnership to co-develop game streaming technology and host some of PlayStation’s online services on the Redmond-based company’s Azure cloud platform. It comes after PlayStation spent seven years developing its own cloud gaming offering, with limited success.

Negotiations with Microsoft began last year and were handled directly by Sony’s senior management in Tokyo, largely without the involvement of the PlayStation unit, according to people familiar with the matter. Staff at the gaming division were caught off-guard by the news. Managers had to calm workers and assure them that plans for the company’s next-generation console weren’t affected, said the people, asking not to be identified discussing private matters.


The company’s other online game service and main cash cow, PlayStation Network, enables multiplayer matches of games running on PlayStation 4 consoles. For now that is still hosted by the other giant of cloud computing: Amazon Web Services. Sony and Amazon held talks last year for a deeper collaboration on cloud gaming, but couldn’t agree on commercial terms, according to a person familiar with the matter. That led to Sony’s discussions with Microsoft, the person said. Amazon is currently developing its own cloud gaming service, the Information reported last year.

Seems like many in the Xbox division didn't know about it either, crazy that so many in the divisions that have been in the trenches over the last three generations weren't privy to this happening.

https://www.eurogamer.net/amp/2019-...ecretive-cloud-deal?__twitter_impression=true

Eurogamer understands many at Xbox were similarly unaware of the decision, which was planned at a high level within Microsoft.
 
As of 2016, 85% of the Fortune 500 companies were using Azure. It's not proven in the gaming world, perhaps, but it's clearly the second-most leveraged cloud platform behind Amazon's AWS (which had a seven year head start) and growing at a faster pace than AWS did at the same point in its lifecycle.

I only care what it does for gaming. And what we seen so far is blah.
 
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So.."power of teh cloudz lolz" or "now Microsoft is giving away their advantage"...Which is it? It can't be both.
You saw that too, eh? Gotta love that little spin he put on it. Lol. F****** Jinca, man.

At any rate, this is good for all gamers. Can't wait for E3 info on Xcloud. I'm as thirsty about that as I am everything else. Next gen is goona be nuts! And its looking like Microsoft is providing the red carpet for all three of the industry juggernauts.
 
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Streaming itself is unproven. The cloud itself is no different. C3 is a bad demonstration of the cloud. And the last time we saw cloud streaming it was laughable. The control latency was horrible
Just because of you pick 1 game.

Keep in mind that at my job we dont have apps installed in our network. Not even the OS.

We pay the license of the OS and the app over the web and use the Active Directory on the cloud to grant people access. Also, don't get confuse with AD in local sites because they are not the same.

This is why MS is king when it comes to this. This is by far an IT dream to keep the network clean without worrying anything.
 
You saw that too, eh? Gotta love that little spin he put on it. Lol. F****** Jinca, man.

At any rate, this is good for all gamers. Can't wait for E3 info on Xcloud. I'm as thirsty about that as I am everything else. Next gen is goona be nuts! And its looking like Microsoft is providing the red carpet for all three of the industry juggernauts.

I already explained what I meant, you guys just keep taking things out of context if you want but there was a reason I put advantage in quotes. In case you missed it I said I don't think there is really anything that is an advantage there right now. BTW this whole deal seems to be very nonspecific, seems like they are just agreeing to see if they can find ways to work together on something so at least for now it's not as big of a deal as it was initially made out to be.
 
Just because of you pick 1 game.

Keep in mind that at my job we dont have apps installed in our network. Not even the OS.

We pay the license of the OS and the app over the web and use the Active Directory on the cloud to grant people access. Also, don't get confuse with AD in local sites because they are not the same.

This is why MS is king when it comes to this. This is by far an IT dream to keep the network clean without worrying anything.

You hype cloud but we haven't seen results.
 
Just because of you pick 1 game.

Keep in mind that at my job we dont have apps installed in our network. Not even the OS.

We pay the license of the OS and the app over the web and use the Active Directory on the cloud to grant people access. Also, don't get confuse with AD in local sites because they are not the same.

This is why MS is king when it comes to this. This is by far an IT dream to keep the network clean without worrying anything.
We only have one recent example from MS and it's a s***show.

I have hope for improvements though.
 
I
You hype cloud but we haven't seen results.
My man, I don't hype cloud. I worked with it which is REAL.

Now far as video games, Onlive was a small company and they almost had it back in 2010.

What you think after 9 years with the power and money MS have with their cloud infrastructure you think they are not going to make it work?

I doubt them back when my IT director was making the change from local to cloud and I was proven wrong.

It is fair to have doubts but dont be fooled if they can't pull it off.
 
I
My man, I don't hype cloud. I worked with it which is REAL.

Now far as video games, Onlive was a small company and they almost had it back in 2010.

What you think after 9 years with the power and money MS have with their cloud infrastructure you think they are not going to make it work?

I doubt them back when my IT director was making the change from local to cloud and I was proven wrong.

It is fair to have doubts but dont be fooled if they can't pull it off.

You are blindly hyping unproven technology. To be clear I'm not against streaming I'm against streaming only. We shouldn't be forced to rely on internet to play games. If you ask me it's straight up anti consumer.
 
You are blindly hyping unproven technology. To be clear I'm not against streaming I'm against streaming only. We shouldn't be forced to rely on internet to play games. If you ask me it's straight up anti consumer.

Plus it's not going to assure the same experience for everyone, I have a 300mbps connection and I still don't want to rely on streaming, I can only imagine what it'd be like for people who live in rural areas or in countries where high speed connections aren't widely available. This talk has been going on forever though and so far we haven't seen any proof that it's really any more than talk.
 
You are blindly hyping unproven technology. To be clear I'm not against streaming I'm against streaming only. We shouldn't be forced to rely on internet to play games. If you ask me it's straight up anti consumer.
But it's an option to do that, is not a permanent solution.

Or did I miss something here?
 
I'm pretty sure both manufacturers are releasing new powerful hardware. Streaming only is at least a generation off.

Hardware can be as powerful as they want. Most people won't have good enough broadband to stream large games.

Oh hey Xbox Live and PSN are down for maintenance... enjoy looking at those expensive bricks
 
Plus it's not going to assure the same experience for everyone, I have a 300mbps connection and I still don't want to rely on streaming, I can only imagine what it'd be like for people who live in rural areas or in countries where high speed connections aren't widely available. This talk has been going on forever though and so far we haven't seen any proof that it's really any more than talk.

Exactly. We all have unique situations and preferences. Gaming should cater to all audiences. Not just 1 crowd.

But it's an option to do that, is not a permanent solution.

Or did I miss something here?

All 3 companies are pushing for a streaming only. Their may not be consoles after next gen.
 
We only have one recent example from MS and it's a s***show.

I have hope for improvements though.
Cd3's cloud tech had to be rebuilt because the dev got bought, I thought, and they had the rights to the tech. The implications are great, but they are obviously very dependent on conditions outside of our control, or even home space. I've really come to hate perpetually connected systems that have no offline fallback to keep things flowing right.
 
Cd3's cloud tech had to be rebuilt because the dev got bought, I thought, and they had the rights to the tech. The implications are great, but they are obviously very dependent on conditions outside of our control, or even home space. I've really come to hate perpetually connected systems that have no offline fallback to keep things flowing right.

MS said that the company leaving had no impact on the game and that the tech that was being used for it from the start was always built for CD3 so that reason (I've seen others here make it, probably where you got it from too) isn't true.

Here’s a statement from a Microsoft spokesperson:


“We are excited to see gaming experiences get better with cloud-computing becoming part of UE4. Also, a sincere thanks for both studios’ work done in partnership with MS Studios to build the cloud-powered technology in “Crackdown 3” from scratch.”​
“Work continues on Crackdown 3 and is not impacted by this news. We look forward to sharing more on “Crackdown3” and having fans get their hands on the game when it launches later this year.”​
https://venturebeat.com/2018/01/22/...-devs-can-offload-game-processing-to-servers/
 
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MS said that the company leaving had no impact on the game and that the tech that was being used for it from the start was always built for CD3 so that reason (I've seen others here make it, probably where you got it from too) isn't true.


https://venturebeat.com/2018/01/22/...-devs-can-offload-game-processing-to-servers/

Sounds like damage control to me. Nothing about the MP section of CD3 looks anywhere close to what they were doing. Not even in the way the surfaces deteriorated. It absolutely looks like they were trying to figure out how it was done and achieved a cheap knockoff.

I swear I read something about the right to the tech R&D still belonged to the original dev.
 
Sounds like damage control to me. Nothing about the MP section of CD3 looks anywhere close to what they were doing. Not even in the way the surfaces deteriorated. It absolutely looks like they were trying to figure out how it was done and achieved a cheap knockoff.

I swear I read something about the right to the tech R&D still belonged to the original dev.

The demo they showed was years before and was really just a tech demo I don't think it was ever really a game at that point and I don't believe they would have ever gotten that to work outside of the controlled environment.

I doubt a company like MS would have signed a deal with an outside developer to have that kind of tech worked on without there being an agreement that they would own the rights to how it was done in their game, it would be an amateurish move to build an entire game around technology that can be taken away from you that way, it would mean millions of dollars were basically wasted.