Gamesindustry: Xbox Live Compute (Cloud Servers) offered free to devs

Microsoft never said free dedicated servers for multiplayer gaming that was the interpretation by the author of the article. Microsoft is talking about we compute resources available to large and small companies to encourage the use of the Azure platform. The article even states that Activision and EA will probably not use it which we know is untrue for Call of Duty dedis. The author just got confused about the terms.

Anyway to the good points this sounds like a positive especially for smaller companies and indies. It will allow for some really cool stuff I think.



That was the author of the article not microsoft notice the lack of quotes.

This one is from the Microsoft employee being interviewed and reiterates what was said before. Please read the whole article.

"We are giving this resource away to them for free, so there is a huge incentive to utilise it on Xbox One as much as possible."
 
Good news for PS4 as well? If Xbone is offering free dedicated servers, and devs program to use dedicated servers on the Xbone, wouldn't the easiest thing for PS4 development be to program for dedicated servers, versus reprogramming for peer-to-peer?

I'm not a developer or have any idea of the costs involved, obviously.

The problem is finding those dedicated servers. I can't see MS allowing their servers to be used with PS4 games.
 
Microsoft never said free dedicated servers for multiplayer gaming that was the interpretation by the author of the article. Microsoft is talking about we compute resources available to large and small companies to encourage the use of the Azure platform. The article even states that Activision and EA will probably not use it which we know is untrue for Call of Duty dedis. The author just got confused about the terms.

Anyway to the good points this sounds like a positive especially for smaller companies and indies. It will allow for some really cool stuff I think.



That was the author of the article not microsoft notice the lack of quotes.

Phil Spencer tweeted the article though: https://twitter.com/XboxP3
 
The problem is finding those dedicated servers. I can't see MS allowing their servers to be used with PS4 games.

Cloud hosting is extremely cheap these days, no multi-platform developer will opt for dedicated servers on one platform vs. p2p on the other. This article also isn't clear on whether cloud hosting is free or not: It could be interpreted as MS only offering the tools for free.
 
I don't buy it and would bet a significant amount of money that it's complete bullshit. Absolutes max anyone could seriously hope for is that this offer is for something like the first year.
 
This one is from the Microsoft employee being interviewed and reiterates what was said before. Please read the whole article.

Again, I did read the whole article. The MS representative Never uses the words dedicated servers. Only in the one paragraph where the article writer explains what the MS person really means which seems fishy to me.

Sorry, but I don't trust MS on this after their constant PR double-speak. They themselves have not said dedicated servers for everyone, only this author.

Live Compute and other things are offered within the cloud, but dedicated servers for multiplayer matches takes quite a bit more server resources to dedicate, especially for free.
 
It is a very huge deal. I've seen a lot of comments to the contrary here on GAF though, that devs are forced to pay a fee to MS for the servers.

Because the Titanfall devs said they were paying for it. It is a smaller fee but still a fee. This is not about free dedicated servers for multiplayer this is for expanding the use of online compute services. World persistence, stat tracking, ai distribution. People are inflating this to mean more.
 
The problem is finding those dedicated servers. I can't see MS allowing their servers to be used with PS4 games.

Well, if they get paid for it, they may. After all it's an important part of their business, one they want to develop, and probably the main reason they're pushing "the cloud" so much.
 
If true, this would be yet another Microsoft policy reversal. Previously these servers had a charge associated with them. It would be wise to wait for further confirmation of such a sizable reversal.

If this is true, it is great news. If I'm paying $60 a year to play MP on your console, then you should be providing dedicated servers for every game. Hopefully this would get Sony to match on PSN.

As for the other benefits of "cloud computing," I'll believe them when I see them. That stuff has been so overhyped that it's meaningless to me until we see some results.
 
The quote from the article was.

That's from the write of the article not Microsoft.

The Microsoft quote is:

"We are giving this resource away to them for free" when speaking about "compute"

As in they are giving away free compute.

There is no mention on giving away unlimited compute or just a small amount, no mention of how many VM's, no mention of which VM's.

Don't get me wrong this is good, but don't get too carried away, wait for confirmation.
 
I see free dedicated servers mentioned in the one paragraph without quotes from an actual MS person. So was that just exposition on possibilities by the article writer?

Right and where does Microsoft say they are offering dedicated servers for free?

Author says that, not MS guy

Until we receive further clarification, that's precisely what this is

You guys are acting like you've read the article when you clearly haven't. That's pretty fucked up :)

"So really what the service is intended to do is to provide more of the infrastructure type services and deliver the on-demand compute features to developers so that they can build that into their games from the outset. What we've seen, from a feature function benefit perspective, at least in v1.0, is that dedicated server multiplayer is a lot easier to build on Xbox One than it has been in previous years. So that was an obvious key benefit and there are a lot of key benefits to multiplayer gaming from that. We've also seen things like Forza, where they've done a lot with Drivatar and a lot of AI computations in the cloud. The cloud can just get smarter about the player and the game."
 
"That was one of the big intents, to take this barrier to entry of server development away and let these developers really explore what they could do with the cloud without having to worry about allocating financial resources or server developers to the problem".

Another indicator pointing towards free servers.

That quote is from the MS employee in the article.
 
From the same article.

I believe he's talking about the Xbox Live Compute portion though. Nothing about dedicated servers. I do believe MSFT will have a lot of this stuff in order but it's best not to read too much into it. All we can do is take it at face value but we are left asking questions since it's not exactly clear seeing how the discussion is going.
 
The Wired article way back when confirmed free as well, including dedicated servers. GAF refused to believe it then and probably will now too, but there's never been any indication otherwise (that I know of).

Great news if true, but it'll be interesting to see how it plays out. Is COD different on the XB1 and PS4? Does the XB1 version lose out because the developers don't want to create and maintain separate net code?
 
LoL

Great news! This is actually a good reason to buy an XBOne.

Uh why? Sorry but I don't really understand your logic. Because this does not mean that the PS4 versions of those games won't offer dedicated servers. Sure it is nice for devs to have free access to this, but it doesn't tell us anything about how they will choose to use it and about other platforms.
 
They don't mention dedicated servers being free anywhere, they are just talking about "easier to build". The tools could be free, but not the hosting itself.

They say it right there. The resource is free.

Stop trying to make it into a negative when one doesn't exist.

http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/15/h...m-will-extend-the-life-of-xbox-one-interview/

Says free there too.

Cloud compute = dedicated servers.


I believe he's talking about the Xbox Live Compute portion though. Nothing about dedicated servers. I do believe MSFT will have a lot of this stuff in order but it's best not to read too much into it. All we can do is take it at face value but we are left asking questions since it's not exactly clear seeing how the discussion is going.

Cloud compute IS the dedicated servers
 
lol. Okay dude.

I want to believe it and applaud the addition but it's never clarified beyond the MSFT rep saying XBL Compute will be offered such as the thread title states.

They say it right there. The resource is free.

Stop trying to make it into a negative when one doesn't exist.

http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/15/h...m-will-extend-the-life-of-xbox-one-interview/

Says free there too.

Cloud compute = dedicated servers.

I wouldn't assume that unless they say so. That's a good piece too.
 
I'm sure there's a limitation somewhere, even if only in the lifespan of the product's servers. If not, this would be wonderful - one of the worst things is having a game's master server shut down and broken forever.
 
I believe he's talking about the Xbox Live Compute portion though. Nothing about dedicated servers. I do believe MSFT will have a lot of this stuff in order but it's best not to read too much into it. All we can do is take it at face value but we are left asking questions since it's not exactly clear seeing how the discussion is going.

http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/15/h...m-will-extend-the-life-of-xbox-one-interview/

Oh, and one other small thing: Xbox Live Compute is free.

“What we found is that developers were very interested in doing more on server,” said Bruno. “Particularly in the area of things like dedicated-server multiplayer and even pushing the boundaries of what is done from a peer-computing standpoint, but a lot of them didn’t have the resources or didn’t necessarily want to make the risky investment
 
Great news for fans of fps games in particular, meanwhile Sony or Gorilla won't even pony up for anything other than some proxy servers :/ Really hope they fix this now we'll be paying to play on PSN.
 
You guys are acting like you've read the article when you clearly haven't. That's pretty fucked up :)

Ok but even what you quoted just says how it's EASIER to create dedicated servers on their cloud. But they still haven't come out to say dedicated servers for every game. Nothing from a Microsoft representative's mouth that specifically says dedicated servers for every game.

Seriously, if it is true, why won't they say so?
 
Ok but even what you quoted just says how it's EASIER to create dedicated servers on their cloud. But they still haven't come out to say dedicated servers for every game. Nothing from a Microsoft representative's mouth that specifically says dedicated servers for every game.

Seriously, if it is true, why won't they say so?

I want to believe it and applaud the addition but it's never clarified beyond the MSFT rep saying XBL Compute will be offered such as the thread title states.

That entire comment was compute related. I believe the compute functions will be free. I'm talking about the multiplayer server issue. That needs clarification

Again, you clearly haven't read the article. The MS rep refers to dedicated servers as a service available through Live Compute. He also says that Live Compute is free.
 
A good move for Microsoft to entice developers at a time when developing costs are expected to grow even more, but people expecting "better rendering" are in for a disappointment. I'll believe it when I see it...

I'll take slightly worse graphics over gimped multiplayer any time.

Plus, multiplayer games are definitely going to be better looking due to dedicated servers.
 
Free dedicated servers for all multiplayer games is a huge deal. I hope Sony announces something similar, for the betterment of all gamer-kind.
Well that's not true. Not all games are using the Xbox Cloud so...there has to be done kind of catch.
 
Seems odd something like this was not FREE to begin with with them boasting how the cloud makes up for the lack of upfront power.
 
I'm sure there's a limitation somewhere, even if only in the lifespan of the product's servers. If not, this would be wonderful - one of the worst things is having a game's master server shut down and broken forever.

If they're using Azure, then it's just a configuration and they can spin up a virtual server specifically for that game/application on demand.

At least that's the impression I got from the Titanfall devs when they were talking with Giant Bomb during E3.
 
Again, you clearly haven't read the article. The MS rep refers to dedicated servers as a service available through Live Compute. He also says that Live Compute is free.

Right, Netflix is a service available through Live Gold. But having Live Gold doesn't automatically give me Netflix.

"Service available through..." is still just cryptic enough to get people excited without really telling us what we want to hear.
 
You guys are acting like you've read the article when you clearly haven't. That's pretty fucked up :)

Dude it says it is easier to build dedicated server support it really does not have the microsoft rep saying free dedicated servers. Please find that in his quotes for me.
 
Seems odd something like this was not FREE to begin with.
It costs money to run these servers. However we are paying for xbox live and that money should indeed go to servers. Honestly PS+ looks like a joke now, if this is confirmed.
 
When you're talking about cloud servers, compute = processing resources which, as has been pointed out, is what "dedicated server" functionality would come from. This is opposed to cloud storage which I would imagine stuff like Forza's drivatar would use.
 
Right, Netflix is a service available through Live Gold. But having Live Gold doesn't automatically give me Netflix.

"Service available through..." is still just cryptic enough to get people excited without really telling us what we want to hear.

If you took a second to stop spinning and actually read what's written, you'll see he's right.
 
Again, you clearly haven't read the article. The MS rep refers to dedicated servers as a service available through Live Compute. He also says that Live Compute is free.

No, I read it. It's still not clear so just as much as some of us want some clarity, I would expect the other side of the fence to be as vigilant. Nothing wrong with wanting a direct answer.
 
Right, Netflix is a service available through Live Gold. But having Live Gold doesn't automatically give me Netflix.

"Service available through..." is still just cryptic enough to get people excited without really telling us what we want to hear.

Dude, if you have trust issues, that's fine. But could you please stop spreading FUD in every single X1 thread? It's kind of tiresome. They've made it pretty clear what they mean in the article.
 
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