Microsoft came out beating the drum for cloud services and restrictive online requirements when it announced the Xbox One at the end of May. Since then, Redmond has completely flip-flopped on its online requirements and used game restrictions, but the Xbox Live Cloud service hasn?t been harmed in the process. Even though the Xbox One won?t require you to connect to the internet, individual games on the platform most certainly will.
With the launch of the Xbox One, Microsoft will be making Xbox Live Cloud services available to game developers. ?Cloud? is obviously a very nebulous term used in marketing speak, but it has real benefits to both developers and gamers alike. Over 300,000 servers worldwide can be allocated dynamically in service of both multiplayer and single-player games. Sure, the Xbox Live Cloud can work as online storage for game assets, but it?s much more than that. By offering server-side computation as well, Microsoft?s ubiquitous cloud offering gives developers affordable tools that they just didn?t have in previous generations.
Jon Shiring, an engineer at Respawn Entertainment, took to his company?s blog to speak about the benefits of the Xbox Live Cloud. In detail, Shiring explains the problems that go along with having player-hosted game servers, and why having affordable dynamically scaling dedicated servers is a huge benefit for multiplayer games. Microsoft?s Azure-based Xbox Live Cloud allows developers like Respawn to improve AI, remove unfair player advantages, speed up matchmaking, and dedicate all resources on the local machine to improve the visuals and frame rate.
Since Respawn?s game Titanfall is effectively multiplayer-only, it requires an always-on internet connection. Despite the fact that Microsoft is publicly slinking away from internet requirements, some games on the Xbox One will still demand an internet connection to function at all. Obviously, the benefits Microsoft originally laid out for its Xbox Live Cloud service can and will thrive in this ecosystem.
Single-player games will definitely benefit as well. Computation-intensive sections of a game, like large dynamic backgrounds, can be handled in the cloud while latency-sensitive portions like aiming and damage calculations can happen in real-time on the console itself. For example, a developer could use the cloud to render an accurate depiction of what the night sky looks like where you live while the console itself has more resources freed up to improve moment-to-moment gameplay.
Fundamentally, the fact that Microsoft is offering cheap access to cloud storage and computing for all participating developers is a win for everyone. This initiative lets developers expand game worlds, takes a substantial load off of the Xbox One?s CPU and GPU, and has the added benefit (for Microsoft) of keeping most people connected to the internet for all of these features. The Xbox One will need an internet connection for a nontrivial amount of games, and that?s okay. Provided the gaming industry learned its lesson about failing gracefully from the SimCity debacle, the Xbox One could have a significant edge over PS4 if the Xbox Live Cloud delivers on its promises.
Now read: Microsoft reverses Xbox One always-on policies, but removes positive features in process
[Image credit: Microsoft & Respawn]
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