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

So just like some Devs want parity in visuals, wouldn't they also want parity with this?
For some Devs it could be either both get dedicated servers or none do.
 
That's awesome. It really gives them the edge on multiplayer functionality. My spidy senses are tingling at the thought of another XBL Gold price increase to $70 once they have a large enough user base.
 
Team Vernia said:
That 1 million number is all of MS's servers, not just for gaming. For gaming it's 300,000 and I assume Sony will amp up the Rackspace server numbers.
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I know just being snarky

Assuming Sony has not purchased Rackspace outright and decided to triple their infrastructure to dedicate entirely to the PS4 it will still not even be close
 
jem0208 said:
That's pretty damn pessimistic. They've flat out said that devs get everything from the cloud for free.
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I don't know, it just seems kinda off. Having dedicated severs for matchmaking and hosting for all online multiplayer games seems like huge news.

Kinda weird learning about it from a tweet replying to an assumption from some website.
 
2San said:
How about not losing the generation to Sony, which has outclassed them in almost all other fronts?
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But what's losing? PS3 and 360 are basically neck and neck right now. Microsoft has never "won" a generation as you would put it. They want revenue from advertisers, Gold subs, and games/movies/TV shows purchased. That's where they make their money.

They don't need to outsell PS4 to "win". That's a metric we use on forums like this one. They just want to make money.
 
Tripp Daily said:
http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2009/05/14/whos-got-the-most-web-servers/

quick search. hope its relevant. updated as of July 2013

States that Ballmer is quoted as saying that as of July 2013 the Azure network was over 1 million servers.
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Ah ok seems I was mistaken

I had looked at top cloud providers on a couple of sites as I couldn't find mention of the size of their clouds and rackspace came right after amazon

It would seem though that MS has really been pushing their Azure service
 
Can Crusher said:
Way I see it those who believe Live subs will pay for it are way off base, since that would mean MS is ok with much less revenue. So the logical conclusion is that data gathering for advertisers is what's actually going to pay Cloud.
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They definitely make up margins some where. Xbox is already under scrutiny internally at its current state, decreasing profits is the last thing they are going to do.
 
Couldn't Sony theoretically rent Azure servers for the PSN? It would just be funny, Playstation Network, brought to you by Microsoft.
 
BigDug13 said:
But what's losing? PS3 and 360 are basically neck and neck right now. Microsoft has never "won" a generation as you would put it. They want revenue from advertisers, Gold subs, and games/movies/TV shows purchased. That's where they make their money.

They don't need to outsell PS4 to "win". That's a metric we use on forums like this one. They just want to make money.
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They need an install base to make that money. There's no point in exploiting 10 people for high margins. It's about finding the right balance between sales and margins. MS already has the Azure infrastructure, it's not as big as an investment for them.
 
N.Domixis said:
So just like some Devs want parity in visuals, wouldn't they also want parity with this?
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10298307304_34e453dfbc_o.jpg
 
SwiftDeath said:
Ah ok seems I was mistaken

I had looked at top cloud providers on a couple of sites as I couldn't find mention of the size of their clouds and rackspace came right after amazon

It would seem though that MS has really been pushing their Azure service
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Yeah, I want to say that I read somewhere that there were only like 3 companies that truly had global clouds. I know that MS and Google were two of them and I can't think of the third one.
 
Knightmarre said:
I don't know, it just seems kinda off. Having dedicated severs for matchmaking and hosting for all online multiplayer games seems like huge news.

Kinda weird learning about it from a tweet replying to an assumption from some website.
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Albert Penello said:
Also to be clear. One of the benefits of publishing games on Xbox One – ALL game developers get Dedicated Servers, Cloud Processing, and “storage” (for save games) free.

If you want to do dedicated servers on other platforms, you have to prop them yourself. But on Xbox One, while developers can choose to use their own methods, we make it available to everyone.

There should be no confusion on this point. We do not charge developers for Dedicated Servers.
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This is what Albert Penello said in the other thread.
 
Can Crusher said:
Doesn't seem too logical to believe that Sony will make PS+ worse now that it is mandatory for MP (not with F2P I think), while MS improves XBL.



Like Ballmer yelled, advertisers advertisers advertisers advertisers. That's where the gold mine is.
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That's not what I believe, I think they'll both be improving overall. Just was in response to worries that this needs to have some kind of catch to be worth it to MS. They've had a lot of scrutiny over the XBL paywall ever since PS+ has been such a great value, so aggressive moves like this are needed.
 
2San said:
They need an install base to make that money. There's no point in exploiting 10 people for high margins. It's about finding the right balance between sales and margins. MS already has the Azure infrastructure, it's not as big as an investment for them.
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So you're saying this is a temporary policy until it's clear that they're getting the projected install base that they want?
 
Tripp Daily said:
Yeah, I want to say that I read somewhere that there were only like 3 companies that truly had global clouds. I know that MS and Google were two of them and I can't think of the third one.
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I'm sure that's more or less true so we'll see

Amazon is likely the third

gamemadmax said:
wondering if third party game develpers will come out and speak more on this
hopefully it will clear the doubts
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Considering what happened trying to find out ghosts dedi's I seriously doubt we'll get anything concrete

Mugatu said:
Couldn't Sony theoretically rent Azure servers for the PSN? It would just be funny, Playstation Network, brought to you by Microsoft.
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Sony have used Amazon servers in the past for uncharted 3 so anything is possible
 
Mugatu said:
Couldn't Sony theoretically rent Azure servers for the PSN? It would just be funny, Playstation Network, brought to you by Microsoft.
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No, they would partner with other cloud provider. As it was said, they signed something with Rackspace, there were rumors about using Amazon cloud services (this one is very plausable)...
 
TechnicPuppet said:
It really wouldn't.
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The DOJ does not allow for vertically integrated services to interfere with competition in another market.

As far as I know, They would have an anti-trust case in their hands -- but it is a grey area on how the markets are defined.

Apple buys plenty of components from Samsung, for example.
 
BigDug13 said:
So you're saying this is a temporary policy until it's clear that they're getting the projected install base that they want?
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No, they'll stick to it. It's not like they are making a loss. It would be pretty interesting if the strat was to force pubs to work with Azure servers so pubs use them for the PS4 as well.
 
2San said:
How about not losing the generation to Sony, which has outclassed them in almost all other fronts?
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Yup, increased competitive pressure from Sony with PS4 and the good word of mouth about the PS+ service means they have improve what they're offering. Live can't stand still, that's a sure way to lose Gold subscribers and the revenue they've enjoyed this gen. This news will help convince some gamers to stick with Xbox and Gold, it's exactly the kind of thing they need to do and I think they're going to have to make more moves like this as we transition into next gen.
 
satam55 said:
Yes. But could you imagine the headlines??!! So no, Sony wouldn't use Azure.
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Sony is making 2 - 3 dollars per xbox one sold due to the blu-ray drive

http://www.examiner.com/article/pachter-sony-only-earning-two-to-three-dollars-per-xbox-one-sold

I'm sure people will say Pachter but it's true that sony and the other members of the blu ray group would get some kickback from the patents

I'm sure MS would love to sell Sony on its Azure service

These are businesses people
 
Mugatu said:
Couldn't Sony theoretically rent Azure servers for the PSN? It would just be funny, Playstation Network, brought to you by Microsoft.
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Yes. Azure is a separate business unit at MS. Their goal is to make money. If Sony has money to spend, Microsoft will take it. The question is would Sony trust their console multi-player gaming business to the competition?
 
SwiftDeath said:
Sony have used Amazon servers in the past for uncharted 3 so anything is possible
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DrM said:
No, they would partner with other cloud provider. As it was said, they signed something with Rackspace, there were rumors about using Amazon cloud services (this one is very plausable)...
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Sony is completely moving PSN from Amazon Web Services to Rackspace's OpenStack. This article explains why:
Sony division moves some services from AWS to OpenStack
By Brandon Butler, Network World March 09, 2012 05:09 AM ET

The division of Sony that suffered a cyberattack last year, which led to a major PlayStation network outage and sensitive customer data being compromised, has dropped Amazon Web Services for at least a portion of its cloud hosting and computing in favor of an OpenStack platform hosted by Rackspace.

Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA) -- which manages popular games such as "Grand Theft Auto IV" and "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" -- made the move away from AWS after a series of highly publicized performance issues, according to an email from a public relations firm representing Rackspace.

(Sony officials, having declined to comment over the course of a week, confirmed this afternoon after this story published that the company is using an OpenStack platform, but said it would continue to use AWS as well. "Sony Computer Entertainment America utilizes various hosting options, including those from Amazon Web Services and OpenStack, among others, for its game platforms," said Dan Race, director of corporate communications with SCEA. "The reports claiming that SCEA is discontinuing its relationship with Amazon Web Services are inaccurate.")

The cyberattack that caused SCEA to shut down its PlayStation Network and Qriocity services, which allows gamers to play opponents online and purchase games and content, also led to information such as customer names, email addresses, usernames and passwords of 77 million people being compromised. AWS has denied that its services were involved.

Sony, SCEA's parent, said last year there was an "external intrusion" of the network, but the company has since provided few additional details. A report by Bloomberg, however, linked AWS to the outage, citing an anonymous source who claimed that the hackers created a fake AWS account and used AWS computers to launch the attack on Sony.

SCEA's decision to embrace OpenStack, which is an evolving open-source platform to launch cloud environments, is "big news" for the OpenStack community, said Marc Brien, an analyst with Domicity, who tracks the OpenStack movement.

Started last year by Rackspace and NASA, OpenStack has gained momentum in recent months and now includes more than 140 companies. Most of those, Brien said, are service providers that offer cloud products to customers, including Rackspace, Citrix, Dell and recently IBM. For a big-name end user to sign on to the project is a positive sign for OpenStack, he said. SCEA joins Disney and CERN, the European nuclear science group, as users committed to using OpenStack.

"It's a big announcement. It raises the question, is this the water beginning to pour over the dam?" he said. Brien expects that within a few years, or sooner, the OpenStack project will have advanced to a point where it will attract a large number of users, but it's not quite there yet, he said.

SCEA's migration from AWS to Rackspace's OpenStack cloud platform was "relatively quick," said the email from the PR agency, taking approximately six days, and it was done in a way that end users would not notice a difference. It's unclear how much of SCEA's cloud-based services have already migrated away from AWS products. The news was originally going to be announced last week, but representatives from the companies involved said they would wait until next week to speak about the move. Sony officials have not responded to questions related to the topic.

AWS said that Sony continues to be a "strong and growing customer," but a spokeswoman for the company said she could not speak to the status of individual business units of Sony. AWS itself has been the subject of outages, including ones in April and August.

A member of the board of directors for the OpenStack Foundation, which controls the open-source cloud-based project, confirmed that SCEA has been working with Rackspace on an OpenStack cloud platform.

Sony has been publicly discussing a move to OpenStack for months, including at an OpenStack conference in Boston last fall where Troy Klein, a Sony staff hosting engineer, participated in a "user story" discussion about the company's planned migration to the OpenStack platform. But, there have been no reports thus far of the company migrating away from AWS in favor of OpenStack.

SCEA is not the first customer AWS has lost. Last month, Zynga announced it would move most of its hosting from AWS to a private network, which it said allows for greater customization of the company's IT infrastructure.

Other analysts who track the cloud market said they are not surprised by SCEA's move. The company could have a desire to make a highly visible action in response to the hacking incidents, said blogger and industry analyst Krishnan Subramanian.

"(SCEA) is in many ways giving control of their infrastructure to a third party (by using AWS)," he said. After the hacking incidents, the company may want to show it has greater control of its IT infrastructure, he said.

Proponents of OpenStack-based clouds say the open-source platform offers advantages over proprietary cloud offerings, specifically related to customization of the cloud's construction, interoperability with existing and future technologies and the greater control over the system.

Floyd Strimling, an industry analyst and blogger for Zenoss, said from an IT perspective, the move is a "natural progression" for Sony. "Once an enterprise gets big enough, people have to ask themselves a question of at what point of scale is it cheaper to do it on your own?" he said. James Staten, a cloud analyst with Forrester, agrees. He said SCEA dropping AWS is likely more about Sony's comfort level in building its own in-house private cloud than an indictment of AWS.

Sony Corp., SCEA's parent, has been reeling ever since the outage of its PlayStation network and the news got worse this week. Reports indicate that the Sony Music, another division within the company, had its prized possession of unreleased Michael Jackson songs stolen after the attack last year. In 2010, Sony Music purchased the rights to unreleased Jackson music, which included songs with popular musicians including will.i.am and Queen's Freddie Mercury. Reports have linked the theft of those music files and an estimated 50,000 others from Sony Music to the cyberattack in April. Two men in England have since been arrested in relation to the case.


http://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/030912-sony-openstack-257094.html
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SwiftDeath said:
Sony is making 2 - 3 dollars per xbox one sold due to the blu-ray drive

http://www.examiner.com/article/pachter-sony-only-earning-two-to-three-dollars-per-xbox-one-sold

I'm sure people will say Pachter but it's true that sony and the other members of the blu ray group would get some kickback from the patents

I'm sure MS would love to sell Sony on its Azure service

These are businesses people
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Reminds me the battle Sony vs Toshiba, Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD and both together in Cell development.
This is business.
 
EvB said:
In time for launch Sony would never be able to have the size of infrastructure and the tools to manage it in time for launch.

Give it a few years then perhaps they could make a deal with Sony, but Sony aren't going to fund 300k servers (or whatever) just for the sake of a "feature" that 99% of players won't notice or understand.

Microsoft are offering it because they can, it's not the primary use for the servers.

Sony are working on a similar system, but give the history of Xbox and PSN I would perhaps expect that to be a few years off yet.
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Where is CoD: Ghosts getting their servers from, not Sony, There are other options, tons of them, to get servers. Sony doesnt have to be one of them...


UNCMark said:
Surely you're dizzy by now.
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Why dont you actually give proof there are any then...

2San said:
So they force players that don't give fuck about PS+ to pay for it. As I said it's a cash grab.
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But that was okay last gen when you had to pay the same amount of money and got neither free games or dedies...smh

EvB said:
Facepalm.

They have said that they will have dedicated servers in key geographic locations, if a user is outside of this area or if there is no space on a server, then they will be playing P2P.

With the Azure servers, there can never be "no spaces" because they can create as many servers on the fly as demand fluctuates on a minute by minute basis.
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Source, if it exists?
 
baxter2231 said:
Dedicated servers, now they will use the extra money from making it mandatory for online games for the servers since their hand maybe forced.
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Or they could pull a fast one like MS did for years and not do shit. Also, I am sure MS didn't come about this idea last night and assemble everything over the weekend, it will take time and money. I only hope Sony does this.
 
People are doubting that Microsoft can afford this service on the same page that others are suggesting that Sony can afford to rent Azure servers.
Probably the reason Microsoft can afford to do this is that they don't need to make a profit off their usage of Azure, just need to cover cost.
If Microsoft were to rent servers out to Sony, they'd be charging for profit. Who is going to cover that extra cost?
 
PureGone said:
But that was okay last gen when you had to pay the same amount of money and got neither free games or dedies...smh
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It wasn't ok last gen and it's ok now. MS held the MP hostage. If your friends where on the xbox and you wanted to play with them you had no choice. Or if you liked to play their exclusives online(which was very likely).
 
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