The Next Gen Console Poll

[Mister Jack]

[Mal]

Careful now... I enjoy this but Hodor may be The One Who Was Promised so be careful.

[Mister Jack]

I would have picked Joffrey myself.

[Waldorf and Statler]

Yeah Joffrey. Hodor is well loved.

[Mister Jack]

[Mister Jack]

An in-depth comparison of the specs in layman's terms.

[Thursday Next]

None of this factors in the INFINITE POWER OF THE CLOUD™. Which will of course make up for all the shortfalls because... reasons.

[Waldorf and Statler]

The amount of people in Kotaku who resort to "you fucking idiot you just don't comprehend what the cloud can do like computing for the AI and shit, don't talk what you don't know" is astounding.

[TheMightyEthan]

Here's the thing though:  if the console no longer requires a connection then developers cannot develop based on the capabilities of the cloud, because they can't assume that the console will be connected to the cloud.  Even if the cloud were this magical land that computes everything amazingly with no latency, they can't assume people have access to it.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Here's the thing though:  if the console no longer requires a connection then developers cannot develop based on the capabilities of the cloud, because they can't assume that the console will be connected to the cloud.  Even if the cloud were this magical land that computes everything amazingly with no latency, they can't assume people have access to it.

 

This is wrong. The game itself can require a connection just like it can require x hard drive space or any number of things.

[TheMightyEthan]

I didn't mean "it is literally impossible to require that for the game," I mean they won't do it.    Most games developed for consoles only use the base equipment that everyone has.  I would expect The Cloud ™ to be used on the Xbone similarly to how Kinect was used on the 360:  most games that use it at all will just have small little additions that aren't required for the game to function.  This is especially true because multiplats won't be able to use the features on the PS4.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

The only real example I can remember is the drivatar, which is basically a fancy version of a ghost race and doesn't use the cloud while you yourself are playing. Did anyone give any specific examples from actual games (rather than just ideas) of anything that improves a game while you are playing it that could only be accomplished with he help of The Cloud?

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

The only real example I can remember is the drivatar, which is basically a fancy version of a ghost race and doesn't use the cloud while you yourself are playing. Did anyone give any specific examples from actual games (rather than just ideas) of anything that improves a game while you are playing it that could only be accomplished with he help of The Cloud?

 

As far as I know there hasn't been anything. Maybe at Gamescom someone else will have something to show?

[deanb]

I'm gonna go with no because it would be nigh impossible to do so unless the whole game was rendered in the cloud like OnLive/Gaikai-style cloud gaming. 

 

The Cloud^TM will only be as useful inline with the Drivatar stuff, or things like rendering of procedural levels (like Minecraft). It's just simply not fast enough to have you shoot a rocket at something, and the signal to go to MS mothership, and process the explosion and where all the bits of building collapse to, and then firing that back at your console before the rocket hits. No idea what the hell they're trying to pull with the whole "power of 10 xboxes in the cloud" thing.

[Thursday Next]

The biggest benefit (imho) is that all multiplayer games on Xbox One will have dedicated servers by default. This benefits players as there is no more Peer-to-Peer, so no host migration due to rage quitting etc. This also benefits devs as it won't cost them as much as Azure will ramp the number of virtual servers up and down on the fly based on the number of users. This means devs get charged for the number of people playing their game on the server at a given time, rather than paying for enough servers to accommodate your PSU, it also means that if a game goes from fairly popular to hugely popular overnight, they don't have to scramble to get more hardware in place for the new users.

 

Actually running the client from the cloud though... Not sure on that. Caching, procedurally generating worlds, stuff like that. Fine. But handling all the client side stuff in a multiplayer game... I doubt it.

[Mister Jack]

 

Why must the xbox still use that giant brick?  Whyyyyyyy?

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

The console would be even bigger if they didn't.

[Mister Jack]

And now they've revealed that the recording features are only for gold members.  The PS4's recording features, however, can be used by everyone.

[deanb]

Which has been noted is pretty fucking stupid because those features are built directly into the console you've just splashed $500 on.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Which has been noted is pretty fucking stupid because those features are built directly into the console you've just splashed $500 on.

Yeah but sharing features would likely tie into the XBL service.

[Waldorf and Statler]

At this point why anybody is surprised Microsoft puts features behind a paywall that other devices offer for free is beyond me. You should have learned with Netflix costing you a gold account that Microsoft is trying to entice you into thinking Gold is a good deal by making absolutely EVERYTHING Gold exclusive. It's a cheap tactic.

 

By announcing that playing online will now cost money Sony lowered its standing with me but everybody tells me that getting the PS without PS+ was doing it wrong anyways. Plus as far as I know Netflix, and now streaming/sharing, isn't pay walled.

[deanb]

Well yeah it's no surprise they put online features behind a paywall at this point even if it's not their feature, their subscription, or it's their feature and free on other devices. But this is built into the hardware, it's literally something the console already does out of the box,m they've just put a little software switch on it that says "has the person paid up?". It's not even something like Blu-Ray player that they could argue is licensing costs (sorta, cos even on PS3 it's "free" to get WMA support).

 

@FDS: Then charge for access to Twitch, but the functionality to record footage is nothing to do with Twitch, that's the uploading. The recording is built into the console.

[Mr. GOH!]

Ridiculous. Netflix is free on every other goddamn device I own, so why would I pay extra to watch it via the Xbone? I mean, people have goddamn BLUR AY PLAYERS that stream Netflix and such. Just have to switch the input and bypass the fucking Xbone.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Well yeah it's no surprise they put online features behind a paywall at this point even if it's not their feature, their subscription, or it's their feature and free on other devices. But this is built into the hardware, it's literally something the console already does out of the box,m they've just put a little software switch on it that says "has the person paid up?". It's not even something like Blu-Ray player that they could argue is licensing costs (sorta, cos even on PS3 it's "free" to get WMA support).

 

@FDS: Then charge for access to Twitch, but the functionality to record footage is nothing to do with Twitch, that's the uploading. The recording is built into the console.

 

Not much of a point of recording it without sharing it. Plus perhaps there is some cloud computing shit going on with it such as always uploading what you're doing.

[deanb]

Twitch isn't only method of sharing it, and I highly doubt they're doing cloud computing stuff to record the visual output.