Console Wars Thread! PS4 vs. Xbox One vs. Wii U Fight!

*Sigh*

From the article:
"Titanfall uses the Xbox Live Cloud to run dedicated servers for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox 360."

And there's the rub. Yes, "power of the cloud" exists, the point is it's not a differentiating factor. It is not unique to the Xbox One. It can exist on any platform that needs it. Heck, Path of Exile, which I've been playing a ton lately, keeps its enemy AI server-side as well. Which, not-so-incidentally, can result in horrid de-synch on occasion.

It is not a new thing. It is not a cure to cancer. It is not unique to the XBO.

 

Huh? I don't understand this logic. People said, "how are they using cloud computing?" because Microsoft has used that as a reason for charging a premium. Hosting multiplayer games and persistent worlds on dedicated servers has been the go-to configuration for the best performance since the dawn of PC gaming. This is no different.

If you think your internet connection, hosting 11+ other players on your console is better than a persistent cloud-based server with the fastest and most robust bandwidth money can buy... I'm afraid convincing you will be impossible, so I won't even try.

 

Show me a game that runs better on the XB1 than the PS4 because of "the power of the cloud." Then we'll talk. Until then it's all just marketing-speak.

 

The difference is Xbox One's cloud-based offering for Xbox Live are superior to PS4's, that's the comparison. Of course there are dedicated servers on PC games, that isn't even relevant in a console based discussion.

 

Cross-platform games are terrible indicators of performance, and your other comment here show me you have no concept of network/host performance versus graphical and computing performance.

 

Cross-platform games are the only way to do a direct comparison.

All I'm saying is that XB1 apologists have talked about the cloud like it's some kind of magic cure-all that will make it clearly superior to the PS4, even graphically (somehow ). But when you talk about games that appear on both systems, not seeing the cloud helping. It's all still just talk. And if the cloud isn't going to give a better overall experience than you can get on PS4, then why do I care? At that point there's no reason to talk about "the cloud," just exclusive games.

 

Very well. I don't see any reports of multiplayer network performance nor visuals in Battlefield 4 on PS4 being worse because Xbox One has this supposed advantage. That's the issue. Where's the real-world difference?

 

Battlefield 4 on Xbox One didn't choose to utilize it. Most cross-platforms games probably won't, unless Microsoft pushes the issue. Cross platform games usually share code, and each platform is released by separate teams. EA is notorious for cutting corners on cross-platform, and BF4 is no different.

Not true (see my reason above), the better indicator has been and always will be A-list exclusives... because the platform owner and devs make sure that it shows off the absolute best the platform has to offer. The devs to please their exclusive partner who paid them boatloads, and the platform owner, to show off their platform and woo customers and devs.

Hell, Titanfall for the Xbox 360 is being written by a team other than Respawn, so even comparing the same title in the same ecosystem doesn't make sense.

With that said...

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What I am saying here is FACT, and from my everyday work I know it to be so. Take it however you want to, but I don't blow smoke in regards to technological limitations.

Xbox Live's cloud is powered by Windows Azure. Windows Azure is now and will always be superior to any cloud-based offering Sony could ever muster... that is an absolute fact. The exception being if Sony built their Playstation Network on Azure itself, or possibly Amazon AWS. The problem with AWS, is that while it is redundant the end user and development features are greatly reduced in comparison to Azure. Either way, they wouldn't go with AWS or Azure due to security concerns that they had to deal with when the Playstation Network was hacked.

Windows Azure powers the entirety of Xbox Live. It powers Office 365, and hundreds of millions of enterprise, large, medium, small and individual owner-operated business servers all across the world.

As a Platforms PFE I evangelize, train and implement Windows Azure hosted solutions every single day. This includes Office 365, Azure-based Active Directory, hosted Exchange, hosted databases, websites and SQL, mobile services, analytics, backup services and Disaster Recovery planning and solutions. I'm the "Jack of all trades" in the Microsoft world, I touch and work with nearly everything.

Windows Azure which is currently powered by Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V (two other technologies I'm an SME in [subject matter expert]) have no equal in the world. Period, end of story. Hyper-V does have some competition from Vmware in virtualization, but with the release of Server 2012 R2 and it's clustering improvements - there is no comparison anymore. Hyper-V has caught up and surpassed VMware in many ways. I used to be an Vmware admin in the largest VM environment in the world (outside of Microsoft and Amazon), so I feel I know better than most.

The beauty of Azure isn't just it's scalability and robustness, it is it's cross-platform support and SDK and APIs. I have no doubt again, that when it comes down to game developers utilizing Xbox Live's cloud computing and persistent worlds, Sony stands zero chance going toe to toe.

Since it's inception, Xbox Live has been superior to Playstation Network, and that won't change. Sony has offset these technological advantages by making it more consumer friendly with cost savings and freebies. Microsoft focuses on raw power, robustness and toolsets. That won't change, because that is the same stance they take in the enterprise every day (their bread and butter).

I'm done talking about the cloud, because frankly most of you have no clue what you are talking about.

TL;DR - If you think Sony can beat Microsoft in the cloud game, you have a lot to learn.

Microsoft's new CEO was chosen because he is the king of the cloud, who spearheaded the Azure efforts. That should tell you everything you need to know.

EDIT - If you truly want to know and understand the power by Azure, check out this free training course on Microsoft Virtual Academy. http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy....zure-for-it-pros-jump-start#?fbid=O9RAT-YhMTG

 

Oh, you again. Hey, I've got a question for you: when were you planning on admitting you falsified those PS4 failure rate numbers?

 

Blah blah blah. And when did I say this last?

The point is that all the tech talk is meaningless when discussing exclusives because the games themselves matter the most. So, if you want Titanfall, you should buy an XB1. If you want Killzone, you should get a PS4. End of story. That's why comparing specs on exclusives is bunk: if it's exclusive, it's the game overall that matters, not its tech specs. Talking about the specs is just blathering on to no purpose when all you have to do is convince me the game is fun. It couldn't possibly matter whether Titanfall performs better than X and Y other game on PS4... because it's a different game! It's apples and oranges!

Again, until XB1 utilizes "the power of the cloud" to outperform the PS4 in a multiplatform game, it just doesn't matter for purposes of comparison. For exclusives only the games themselves matter.

EDIT: corrected typo: "PS3" where I should have said "PS4"

 

Except that your sources don't say what you claim they say. You claimed the rate of problems was more than 1%, then pointed to a bunch of sources that don't say that. I also can make up things and then provide links that don't back me up.

 

You can easily tell who "hates" microsoft here, because they go out of their way to talk out of their asses about a product they don't even know. I don't talk about or bash the PS4, because frankly I don't own one and don't care.

I know from fifteen years in the Microsoft ecosystem (I based my career and life off of it) that Sony will never beat Microsoft in the following:

1. Development tools and support
2. Cloud based computing

I know that for fact, because they no one else not named Amazon stands a chance otherwise either... and in that regard they only stand a chance in cloud, not development tools and support.

 

You and others are the ones that ignorantly brought up Xbox One cloud computing. It is brilliant, and developers across the world want to do it. It is up to those funding development to make the effort to do so.

The more successful games who utilize it are, the more it will be used. In 2-3 years, it will be the norm... the overwhelming success of games like Titanfall assure that.

 

And again, the reason this was originally brought up: because it's all still just "potential" and "in the future." Apparently we're not allowed to talk about that. It's not in the privacy agreement.

 

Ah. Now I think I understand why we're talking past each other.

You're saying that for exclusives, Microsoft's cloud offering will do more for its performance. On a PS4 exclusive, PS4's cloud might not be quite as robust.

This I can agree with.

What I don't agree with is that we're going to see this be a differentiating factor.

Sony might've talked all day about how their PS3 had this neat processor that made it more powerful overall than the 360... but 360 fans were very quick to point out that a lot of multi-plats looked better on the 360 anyway (moreso early on, but I think you know where I'm going with this).

Yes, if every single developer took the time to maximize the power of the PS3, *maybe* more games would've looked the same or better. Just like *maybe* if every single developer made heavy use of this feature, it would narrow the performance gap.

But I don't think quantity of exclusives is likely to increase. Rather, I think it will decrease. And I don't think a lot of developers of multi-plats (which again, I think will be most games), are going to completely stop "cutting corners," as you say.

I am not talking about the technical possibilities here. I'm talking about real-world application. With PS4 having the larger number of users, I don't see developers making a lot of allowances for doing things "Xbox One's way." I see them lowering the resolution and shoving it out the door.

 

The only "bashing" I've done of the XB1 is to say I find the camera creepy because of the ad targeting potential. Not sure how this qualifies. As for Cloud computing, I never "bashed" it, I said that it has yet to make a multiplatform title a better experience on XB1 than PS4. If you think that this is "bashing," you're being pretty sensitive.