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[Durante]

A lot of hindsight bias going on in this thread.

I did not see a single instance of anyone mentioning that this was anything but an Xbox One exclusive feature in threads previously discussing Azure/cloud processing for console gaming.

I mean, it makes a lot of sense in hindsight... but you're been dishonest with yourself if you didn't think about this until now and are concluding that this is obvious.

You should read more carefully.

What was always an "Xbox one exclusive feature" is the marketing idea that game developers will actually widely use cloud computing to offload rendering tasks in a console game. Simply because no one else was in dire straits and needed to make up something which makes no sense on a great many levels. And even then, as we can see some people pointed out the folly of that.

 

[JP]

A lot of hindsight bias going on in this thread.

I did not see a single instance of anyone mentioning that this was anything but an Xbox One exclusive feature in threads previously discussing Azure/cloud processing for console gaming.

I mean, it makes a lot of sense in hindsight... but you're been dishonest with yourself if you didn't think about this until now and are concluding that this is obvious.

You may not have seen them but that doesn't in any way mean that they don't exist. I've read quite a few of them, they'll be easy enough to find if you really want to read them.

To start you off, here's the last time that I mentioned it - (11-09-2015, 08:36 PM)

I also have others on here and they were usually dismissed instantly, often with reasoning that made as little sense then as it does now.

 

[Steel]

I thought this was common knowledge. Azure != Xbox.

The way they advertise it, you'd think that's not how it worked.

 

[Queen of Hunting]

when stupid fanboys realise how close operations work together not just games devs etc the better i think

 

[Kuga]

The way they advertise it, you'd think that's not how it worked.

Outside of gaming communities, Azure is almost always promoted as cloud IaaS / PaaS with SaaS-ish offerings.

 

[SomedayTheFire]

A lot of hindsight bias going on in this thread.

I did not see a single instance of anyone mentioning that this was anything but an Xbox One exclusive feature in threads previously discussing Azure/cloud processing for console gaming.

I mean, it makes a lot of sense in hindsight... but you're been dishonest with yourself if you didn't think about this until now and are concluding that this is obvious.

Lol nah I've been using Azure for personal reasons the last 2 years it stands to reason that it's open. Having even a small inkling into how Microsoft works would tell you it's blindingly obvious that it was never exclusive to Xbox

 

[Zaptruder]

This is not the first time Azure platform non-exclusivity has been discussed as viable. This thread, for example.

What you might be confusing it with is the notion that XB1 exclusives get it for nothing/minimal, whereas other platforms would have to pay for the privelage.

Right? I recall people acting like azure was only available to Xbox so that was a selling point for Xbox 2 years ago. If it was common knowledge there wouldn't have been hundreds of posts regarding this in the past.

You should read more carefully.

What was always an "Xbox one exclusive feature" is the marketing idea that game developers will actually widely use cloud computing to offload rendering tasks in a console game. Simply because no one else was in dire straits and needed to make up something which makes no sense on a great many levels. And even then, as we can see some people pointed out the folly of that.

You may not have seen them but that doesn't in any way mean that they don't exist. I've read quite a few of them, they'll be easy enough to find if you really want to read them.

To start you off, here's the last time that I mentioned it - (11-09-2015, 08:36 PM)

I also have others on here and they were usually dismissed instantly, often with reasoning that made as little sense then as it does now.

Lol nah I've been using Azure for personal reasons the last 2 years it stands to reason that it's open. Having even a small inkling into how Microsoft works would tell you it's blindingly obvious that it was never exclusive to Xbox

Maybe I'm mistaken about it's 'obviousness'.

But I also want to point out that there's a qualifier in my statement - "if you haven't thought about this until now" - by this, I mean the relationship that Azure has with console services...

Which is to say, I'm surprised by the news, given that I haven't thought about the issue up till now.

 

[Guymelef]

Breaking news.
Lumia phones can use Sony camera sensors.

 

[Dramos]

Watch out for incoming cloud jokes...

 

[Neuromancer]

If the cloud made the Xbox One 13 times more powerful, just imagine how powerful the Playstation 4 will be.

 

[InsaneTiger]

Phil doesn't control Azure and I don't see the Azure restricting major companies from wanting to use their servers.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Sony needs to move PSN to Azure

Right after Microsoft does so with Live.

 

[JaggedSac]

I remember hearing back at launch that the XBone just has some library built in to help handle cloud processing easier and maybe more efficiently.

They do have a set of libraries/APIs for using what they call XBox Live Compute:

Xbox Live Compute platform
The Xbox Live Compute platform is a cross-device, Xbox Live-enabled, elastic game hosting service built on Windows Azure to enable games to perform compute workloads. The key components of the platform from a technical perspective include the following:

Game server hosting
Process, tools and infrastructure required for hosting of the game's server code.
Xbox Live Compute fabric
Performs scaling out (for example, applying additional compute resources to support increasing number of sessions) and deployment of game server code based upon usage load requirements.
Xbox Live Compute runtime environment and API
Provide secure runtime access to Xbox Live services through a strongly typed API set as well as through HTTP and JSON utilities.
Xbox Live Compute SDK
Tools and APIs required to develop and test server code that will run in the Xbox Live Compute environment.
Manageability tools and resources
Tools and APIs required to instrument, log, and monitor activities on the game server.
Persistent Storage
Blob storage allocated and managed per title to allow shared storage and retrieval of game state.

They provide functionality for dynamic scaling, possibly reducing costs.

Xbox Live Compute is a cloud-powered game hosting platform built on Windows Azure. Your clients can use the platform to support larger multiplayer scenarios for a variety of games. Clients can also use the platform for automatic allocation of Xbox Live Compute service game hosts to ensure only that only the required number of hosts exist at any given time. See Introduction to the Xbox Live Compute SDK for more about Xbox Live Compute.

Of course, in order to use these XBox Live Compute resources, you do need an agreement with MS.

Windows Azure
The Xbox Live Compute platform is built on top of Windows Azure and server title code is hosted in Azure. Server title code is ingested into Xbox Live and deployed to Azure using the Xbox Live Compute services.

Access to Xbox Live Compute services is enabled by a subscription, which the publisher owns. Access to this feature of the Azure subscription is enabled for partners who have already established agreements with Microsoft for use of this feature. Allocation of compute and storage will be defined in a future policy document.

A publisher may choose to enable their title to communicate with other Azure services and/or storage features. This is an optional account that is owned and managed by the publisher, and it is not part of the Xbox Live Compute service. For details about setting up such an account, contact to your developer account manager.

Restrictions enforced by the Xbox Live Compute SDK
The Xbox cloud platform has a set of restrictions it enforces on top of what a normal Windows Azure account affords a user:

Support of a singular worker role deployment
Platform allocates one worker role instance per session
Platform provides 20 TB of blob storage which is divided between storage of logs and session data
Additional Azure-based technologies are available for use, but not included in the Cloud Compute program

Publisher datacenter
Under defined policy, communication from the client title code, as well as from the server title code, is allowed to publisher datacenter services. Publisher datacenters, which are optional, consist of endpoints that are outside of Xbox Live and Windows Azure.

 

[endlessflood]

Think of it like herpes

 

[Freeman]

Suddenly everyone is liking the idea of cloud compute. Never change GAF..

Jesus...

 

[Johndoey]

Breaking news.
Lumia phones can use Sony camera sensors.

My Lord!

 

[BeforeU]

Right after Microsoft does so with Live.

XBL is on Azure. Isn't it?

 

[CariusD]

Lol nah I've been using Azure for personal reasons the last 2 years it stands to reason that it's open. Having even a small inkling into how Microsoft works would tell you it's blindingly obvious that it was never exclusive to Xbox

Except there is a vast number of people on and off this forum who have a narrative that doesn't match how corporations work. How many times before the Xbox launch did people have to ask if Sony would ever allow Microsoft to use Blu-Ray?

 

[CariusD]

XBL is on Azure. Isn't it?

Yes it is, http://venturebeat.com/2014/11/18/xbox-live-is-down-due-to-microsoft-azure-issues/

 

[Blanquito]

Don't think anyone ever thought otherwise.

I know I'm late to this party, but there were tons of people that believed that Azure itself was exclusive to Xbox. I saw it mostly on the xboxone subreddit. I wonder how they're taking this "news"

 

[SmartWaffles]

Except there is a vast number of people on and off this forum who have a narrative that doesn't match how corporations work. How many times before the Xbox launch did people have to ask if Sony would ever allow Microsoft to use Blu-Ray?

Let alone the fact that Sony doesn't own Blu-ray in the first place.

 

[Kilau]

I guarantee if you asked before he said this motherfuckers would have come back with "yeah right m$ is gonna let sony games use their servers when they're trouncing them in sale lelelelele"

People only know console warfare

Irony

 

[Hyun Sai]

The next step must be crossplay between Xbone and PS4.

 

[FrenchFryFiend]

All I care about is Titanfall 2 being on Azure again. No P2P crap like Black Ops 3. I have been curious for awhile what they were going to do with Titanfall 2 being cross platform.

 

[BibiMaghoo]

Don't think anyone ever thought otherwise.

This. They are in the business of renting them out. Only fanboys think these companies don't want to work with each other to mutual benefit.

 

[RootCause]

Meh, I just hope it isn't a requirement to be connected to the cloud in future generations. That would be a huge turn off.

 

[Smokey]

Sony needs to move PSN to Azure

Real talk lol

 

[UnemployedVillain]

Of course it is. Azure has existed since before the XB1...it's been MS' cloud platform for years. Why would it suddenly be barred from Sony (or Nintendo)?? Now Xbox Live Compute platform, which is built on top of it, is understandably Xbox exclusive, but no one's stopped the others from building an API on top of cloud architecture. Lots of major sites do so

But more importantly, Linux servers > Window servers, and this is coming from someone who pretty much only uses Windows laptops/computers

 

[Rebel Leader]

I'm not surprised

 

[JaggedSac]

Of course it is. Azure has existed since before the XB1...it's been MS' cloud platform for years. Why would it suddenly be barred from Sony (or Nintendo)?? Now Xbox Live Compute platform, which is built on top of it, is understandably Xbox exclusive, but no one's stopped the others from building an API on top of cloud architecture. Lots of major sites do so

But more importantly, Linux servers > Window servers, and this is coming from someone who pretty much only uses Windows laptops/computers

Linux VMs are supported in Azure. They support pretty much everything.

 

[Qassim]

I don't know why anyone would be surprised by this. If Microsoft even dared to try and restrict companies from using Azure for products that compete with Microsoft's, then Azure would crash and burn as a service. It's totally against their interests to deny access, it would be an incredibly dangerous for Microsoft to make.

A lot of hindsight bias going on in this thread.

I did not see a single instance of anyone mentioning that this was anything but an Xbox One exclusive feature in threads previously discussing Azure/cloud processing for console gaming.

I mean, it makes a lot of sense in hindsight... but you're been dishonest with yourself if you didn't think about this until now and are concluding that this is obvious.

Read this thread, many of us did:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1137635

Many of us argued that there would be no reason for Microsoft to deny competitors access to their Azure business, in fact Microsoft would welcome it.

 

[xblarcade]

ITT: people don't seem to grasp the difference between Azure Services and Xbox Live Services

 

[DrkSage]

Well I mean yea, obviously. Azure and all that stuff is owned by Microsoft not by the Xbox division. I doubt the Xbox divison even has a hand in those matters.

Suddenly everyone is liking the idea of cloud compute. Never change GAF.

Hahaha

No.

 

[John Wick]

... that's about storage.

Its not shocking at all but I remember a Titanfall thread a while back where people thought the idea of Azure being used for any console gaming other than Xbox was impossible. Ha.

It's a business and money talks, as they say!

There were peeps who actually thought that Azure and dedicated servers was free for every X1 game. Yeah right.

 

[Ombala]

Sony needs to move PSN to Azure

Because Live never goes down right?

 

[Chris1]

Obvious... I mean there's nothing stopping Sony or anyone buying it off azure.com right now.

The only difference is that the servers are free during development on xbox and they get a supposedly really good discount once it'd released. Ps4 versions would have to pay for server time during development and get no discount

 

[Sulik2]

Azure is a giant cloud computing platform, of course is open to everyone. It has nothing to do with video games specifically its Amazons main competition.

 

[Fisty]

I wonder if Rocket League and FFXIV use Azure, they could be cross-play on all systems. I wouldnt be surprised, just another way for MS to power-play devs and pubs

 

[The Abominable Snowman]

Because Live never goes down right?

I will say that PSN is a lot more fragile than Live is.

 

[m_shortpants]

Obviously. The Xbox division doesn't own Azure. It's a completely separate line of business.

 

[xblarcade]

I wonder if Rocket League and FFXIV use Azure, they could be cross-play on all systems. I wouldnt be surprised, just another way for MS to power-play devs and pubs

Big difference between using azure Services and using Xbox live services. Rocket league does not use live services for the PC or PS4 version (don't know if they use azure but it's irrelevant for cross play). If they did use Xbox live services for the PC version then it could have been crossplay with the Xbox one version

 

[Ushay]

I will say that PSN is a lot more fragile than Live is.

They've both been pretty mediocre this gen, so many outages in my experience.

 

[Beer Monkey]

Spent this year moving a big platform to Azure for my company. It's impressive as fuck, a real beast. This isn't PR, it's business. When I worked for Kroger they had private label factories that made product not only for themselves, but also for competitors like Safeway and Food Lion. Because business is business.

 

[FLAguy954]

yo this either owns or is a desperate attempt for PR

This has always been true though, especially since Azure is something different from the Xbox Division.

What gives you the impression that this is anywhere near a desperate PR attempt?

 

[Purest 78]

I will say that PSN is a lot more fragile than Live is.

If you're talking about This generation Ps4 vs X1 then you're wrong.

 

[serversurfer]

So how exactly is access to Azure (aka "the infinite power of the cloud") a selling point for their Xbox hardware?

Turns out, it wasn't, so there's no reason to refuse Sony's money now. If people actually bought in to The Infinite Power of the Cloud, all gaming access to Azure would be via Live. How else could you even interface with it, right?

 

[serversurfer]

A lot of hindsight bias going on in this thread.

I did not see a single instance of anyone mentioning that this was anything but an Xbox One exclusive feature in threads previously discussing Azure/cloud processing for console gaming.

I mean, it makes a lot of sense in hindsight... but you're been dishonest with yourself if you didn't think about this until now and are concluding that this is obvious.

MS certainly presented Azure as a brand differentiator, at least in the console space. It was certainly implied PlayStation wouldn't benefit, if never stated explicitly.

Personally, I never argued that they'd be happy to allow access from PS, but rather that there was nothing particularly magical about the service itself, and the functionality could easily be duplicated by Amazon and/or Google, in the unlikely event they weren't doing that stuff already.

 

[Bsigg12]

MS certainly presented Azure as a brand differentiator, at least in the console space. It was certainly implied PlayStation wouldn't benefit, if never stated explicitly.

Personally, I never argued that they'd be happy to allow access from PS, but rather that there was nothing particularly magical about the service itself, and the functionality could easily be duplicated by Amazon and/or Google, in the unlikely event they weren't doing that stuff already.

Not Azure, Xbox Compute/Thunderhead which is the service platform they developed to utilize Azure for Xbox Live. They only ever talked about using Azure as the platform for it, something they own, as being something they hold over Sony.

 

[ScatheZombie]

Money >>> console war snubs. Smart choice.

Maybe this will change cross-play features in the future (increase).

This doesn't affect cross-play between different platforms. Azure servers aren't exactly the same as Xbox Live servers - it's an Azure server running XBL protocols. The issue with cross-play is that Microsoft does not allow outside platform connections to XBL. Even if Sony (or Nintendo or Steam for that matter) hosted a product on an Azure server, unless that server is also configured as an XBL server, they still don't allow cross-play.

For multi-platform cross-play, you need to run your own server and matchmaking systems to allow connections from XBL, PSN, Steam, Wii, IOS, etc. Even in this scenario, if you host your own servers, Microsoft requires it still be an XBL server to run on their platform, thus blocking any other connections other than XB and Windows 10.

Until they reverse this policy, it doesn't matter what server banks anyone uses, you still can't cross-play with Microsoft without them making an exception (which they've only made like ... twice in the entire history of Xbox).

 

[serversurfer]

Not Azure, Xbox Compute/Thunderhead which is the service platform they developed to utilize Azure for Xbox Live. They only ever talked about using Azure as the platform for it, something they own, as being something they hold over Sony.

Phil was responding to a tweet asking about Titanfall losing its cloud magic if it goes multi-plat, since that magic comes from Thunderhead.
http://www.theguardian.com/technolo...eo-gamet-respawn-entertainment-sci-fi-shooter

So, Thunderhead was pitching in on the Bone, 360, and PC versions of Titanfall, but six months prior we were being told that Thunderhead was Bone-exclusive, and even 360 and PC couldn't use it.
http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=658417

So, it was Bone-exclusive, and then MS-exclusive (ostensibly), and now Titanfall can still use it freely even if it becomes PlayStation-exclusive. Sorta sounds like a policy shift to me. /shrug