Man yells about cloud
Microsoft has been pushing the “infinite power of the cloud” hard with its Xbox One, perhaps partially to make up for the technological advantage held by Sony’s PS4 specs, or maybe just for the sake of buzzwords. If they repeat the “infinite power of the cloud” enough times, maybe it will stick. Still, talking about the practicality and actuality of the Xbox Live Cloud is Jon Shiring of Respawn, the team behind Titanfall (Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC).
Shiring first gives a nice, layman-friendly explanation of the benefits of having dedicated servers — in short, a less frustrating and less inconsistent multiplayer experience — and then explains the “Xbox Live Cloud” as “a system for running dedicated servers.” One thing to note is that Titanfall on PC and Xbox 360 will use these dedicated servers, so an Xbox One is not a requirement. Shiring noted that “Microsoft priced it so that it’s far more affordable than other hosting options,” which hopefully means more games will be able to take advantage of the dedicated servers.
There’s been blow back against Microsoft touting its cloud; developer Jonathan Blow (Braid, The Witness) went so far as to call the company’s claims outright lies. Meanwhile, Eurogamer has an extensive, informed evaluation of Microsoft’s cloud that likens most of the company’s claims to PR and marketing hand waving. The use of dedicated servers facilitated by the cloud does seem like one of the first concrete, legitimate uses of the service. Plus, it’s nice to know Titanfall will still reap its benefits on PC, right? Or has the DRM reversal encouraged any of you to early adopt the Xbox One?
