Microsoft Are Happy For Sony To Use It’s Cloud Tech

Tuffcub 20 Comments

Remember the Cloud? It was a huge thing at the launch of Xbox One, everyone kept on going on about how awesome the cloud is, and the things you could do with it. No one explained exactly what it was, but it was most definitely a thing, and big clever thing that Xbox One had and PlayStation did not.

Until now, because Microsoft’s Phil Spencer, a.k.a. head honcho of Xbox, has said Microsoft are more than happy for Sony to use it’s cloud servers.

Now paint me purple and call me Doris, but does this not rob Xbox One of one it’s unique selling points? They were all about the cloud being the saviour of Xbox One which is already slightly underpowered compared to the PlayStation, and now Sony can have the same tech. Obviously Sony will have to pay to use the service, but it still seems to be a very odd move.

Source: Twitter

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20 Comments

  1. But without the lower cost, dev tools, and a dedicated section of the network (Thunderhead). Anybody can buy computing space on Azure, so this is not something new.

    Sony would be better off cutting a deal with a big player like Amazon Web Services or Google, etc… But there’s nothing prohibiting a developer/publisher, e.g. EA using Azure for Titanfall 2 on PS4, in fact in this case it would make sense as the game is already set up to run with that.

  2. Honestly does it matter? Cloud computing could’ve made the Xbox One as with it they could’ve made up for the performance deficit and surpassed the capabilities of an essentially hardware limited PS4. But MS aren’t using the cloud power that much, because everyone’s miffed about games requiring online connectivity. Hence Sony, Nintendo and whatever other companies are out there simply won’t use cloud power because people aren’t ready for that internet-required factor, which self-evidently is about more than just DRM.

    The closest we’ve got so far is games like Crackdown 3 which uses a fair method of using the console hardware for the single player, and then using the cloud power on multiplayer to give it a boost and enable things like mass destructible chaos across the city.

    • If you understood how complex cloud computing is and its limitations, you would understand why nobody uses it to any degree. It’s why we all laughed when Microsoft spouted their power of the cloud nonsense, and how we laughed at anyone that believed it. They were the same people fooled into believing that a directx driver update would also close the massive performance deficit..

      People that are desperate to believe are easilly fooled.

      • If it makes you feel better.

      • Cloud computing isn’t really all that complex at all. You want an EC2 server? 5 minutes and your done. Same for Google or Rackspace (I haven’t tried Azure, but I assume it’s the same). Right your code on it as you would for any other server and you’re done.

        Integrating what they wanted to use it for is more complex certainly, but distributed computing projects have no real problem sharing work loads or scheduling on remote systems (not as in it’s not difficult to do it the first time, but now we have the algorithms and libraries to support it, so it’s way less complex). It made perfect sense for some of the stuff they wanted to use it for, even in a real time context.

        It’s just that developers don’t want to really use it, because of, I assume, the issues of connection stability and the lack of cross platform applications for multi-platform games. Crossing the latter of those issues off with the statement from Spencer is smart.

  3. When you say “everyone kept on going on about how awesome the cloud is”, what you really mean is “MS kept on going on about how awesome the cloud is while everyone else declared shenanigans”, yes?

    We’ll just put it on the special list of “things that are vital and exclusive to the XBone” shall we? Along with Kinect? And 900p? ;)

    • Assassins Creed Unity (1600x900p on both)
      Assassins Creed Syndicate (1600x900p on both)
      Battlefield 4 (1600x900p on PS4, 1280x720p on XBO)
      Star Wars Battlefront (1600x900p on PS4, 1280x720p on XBO)

      So 900p needs to be crossed off that list.

      • And the absolutely vital Kinect is now no longer quite so necessary, so cross that off too. And apparently the magical power of clouds as well.

        Although wasn’t AC Unity only 900p on both platforms because they wanted to “avoid all the arguments”. Which was either a load of Ubisoft bollocks, or the MS money hat.

  4. Wasn’t Titanfall the saviour of the XB1?

  5. Sort of like how Microsoft have like 60 or so apps for Android, they have pretty much given up on windows phone. This is a signal that Microsoft arent seeing much future for Xbox one either, and they need PlayStation more than Sony needs snything Microsoft has to offer

    • Branching out to other platforms is a sound business-strategy that builds and maintain an active userbase. People own various devices and Microsoft acknowledge this.

      • Or use ridiculous patents to make sure you get a big chunk of money from your competitors in exchange for doing bugger all. As MS are rumoured to do with Android (it’s somewhere between a few quid per phone up to “they make more money from Android than Windows phones”)

      • Not anymore, android patents have all expired or been voided. Microsoft were hiding over 2bn of Xbox losses every year behind them last gen.

        http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-earns-2-billion-per-year-from-android-patent-royalties-2013-11?IR=T

        “Sherlund says that if you back out the Android profits, Microsoft is probably losing $2.5 billion on Skype, Xbox, and Windows Phone. Of that, $2 billion in losses are attributable to the Xbox platform.

        Sherlund believes Microsoft needs to spin out Xbox. He sees it as an orphan group at Microsoft that doesn’t really fit with anything it’s doing.

        Investors are blind to Xbox’s struggles, says Sherlund, because they are “concealed by the hugely profitable Android royalties.”

        Again, reason why Microsoft may be forced to refocus on core products, not folies like game consoles.

  6. Microsoft: “We don’t mind making money on customers.”

  7. What TC is missing is does the PS4 have the ability to offload some computing to the cloud? I’ve never heard of it being able to so I think he’s got a little ahead of himself, and the technology.

    To be honest cloud computing isn’t that hard to understand and I’d question the credentials of a “journalist” who doesn’t.

    • Pretty much any computer with an internet connection can. It’s much more of a software determined issue.

    • It has an Ethernet port and Sony write the OS.

      Those are the only technical requirements. The fact you even asked this is a little desperate.

    • Of course it has, and yes I know what it is. Microsoft never explained what it was though :)

      • They did explain it! It was supposed to be the best thing ever and make up for less powerful hardware and save kittens from trees and fart rainbows and lightly caress your undercarriage while you were playing games.

        Or something like that. I think they might have just said it was wonderful and expected everyone to believe them and think it was magic.

      • I don’t think they expected people to believe them, just to be intelligent and work out the advantages for themselves. That’s excluding the people who can’t be bothered to learn about something and would instead engage in idle and biased speculation. At least the people who aren’t interested keep their beaks out of the matter.

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