We already saw that with the 360/ps3, so yes.
You will absolutely see game servers shut down if they’re not bringing in enough money. That comes with the publisher/developer controlling all the server-side stuff.
jpinard
2729
EA is the world-wide leader of pulling this crap.
Yes, I suppose EA already has a habit of shutting down multiplayer for older games. My concern is that it becomes increasingly more common with “the cloud”, and that it may affect more than just multiplayer servers if developers use it for other features.
stusser
2731
I wouldn’t worry about that. Everything else MS said about their cloud is 100% pure distilled bullshit. Nobody’s going to calculate hundreds of thousands of asteroids in the background, or offload AI, or calculate physics in realtime, etc. “Driveatars” will no doubt exist, but are a silly gimmick. They wouldn’t even do that stuff if it were free, because it’s all either laughably untrue or negligible value, but now that they need to pay to do it, it’s (if possible) even less likely.
Moore
2732
If they provided a tool to run a console server, the same folks would line up to run them without cost to the publisher.
I think it would be possible, if cost is such a huge problem it would be a nice way to offset it, and preserve your game for the future no matter what happens to your company or publisher.
The ‘old game shutdown’ is one big hunk of proof that these companies do not see these are real art or real stories, no matter who they hire to design or write them.
They see them as garbage they can trick people into buying, they have disdain for their own product in a way I dont think exists in other entertainment industries. They actively work to make sure the product will not last or be preserved.
Joe_M
2733
They run a premium service that is chock full of ads. Microsoft is simply true to form here.
That’s a great comment. You should send that to EA in an ivory envelop stamped with a red wax mark - to finely illustrate the irony to them.
No included headset for Xbox One, use your Kinect instead:
lol. Another wonderful reason not to buy the Xbox One. Whenever I run into someone using a Kinect as a headset on Xbox Live for the 360 they get an instant mute from me. No, I don’t want to hear everything going on in your house. I can’t imagine the hell of having that be the in-the-box default.
Wow, that is terrible. Even if you only game with your friends, and the only thing in your living room speaking in front of the Kinect is you, not having a earpiece means that your friends voices will be coming from the TV/sound system. And anyone who has tried that knows that’s just not a good way to hear communication from your friends.
Great, now every kid playing CoD can be “That guy who uses a standalone mic.”
Any degree of experience with voice chat would have shown them this was a bad idea instantly.
Moore
2738
I do not feel like anyone making decisions plays games in any normal context on a 360.
Many probably will. I believe Call of Duty: Ghosts is still using P2P even on next gen. But it is, of course, in Microsoft’s interest to perpetuate the myth that all Xbox One games will have dedicated servers.
What it seems like to me with Microsoft’s Cloud push is that they’re hoping to make game makers as dependent on paying for Azure resources as they’ve made end users dependent on paying for Gold. And they are in essence charging twice for providing the same service. I guess having one firehose of free money wasn’t enough, now they want to double up.
Well, the MS headsets always broke or shorted out within a few weeks anyways. I guess they’re saving us from false-hope they could fix that crappy design.
Aleck
2741
You could also see it as “Microsoft wants developers to have less shitty multiplayer, especially since they’re already charging gamers for the privilege of accessing multiplayer.” Who knows – perhaps they’re cross subsidizing Azure with some of the Gold cash they’re raking in… That might explain why it’s supposedly much cheaper than the alternatives.
Gold fees already rake in more per year than all of their Azure sales. If they wanted to they could use Gold subscriptions to cover Azure use entirely for every single game published and still have lots of money left over. And frankly, we don’t even know that Azure is actually cheaper for everyone, and not just for games that have signed Xbox exclusive deals.
Not to mention even if the cost is lower for developers to run them, that still doesn’t seem like it will change the infamous “oh, game is now 2 months old and sales are slowing, better turn off the multiplayer servers to save a few bucks” crap that seems to be becoming more and more common on consoles.
Gedd
2744
Is this really surprising? As far as I can tell, out of the current generation, only the 360 w/ 250GB drive comes with a headset (360 w/ 4GB and PS3 have no headset bundled). If anything, the more surprising thing is that the PS4 is actually including one, although from the pictures it doesn’t exactly look like the most well-built thing.
Moore
2745
I think the hanging earbud will prove to be more durable than the original 360 mic, if only by virtues of no moving parts and no foam.
I never had any problem with the original 360 headset. My launch set still works great. Same with all 3 of my brothers (who all have kids) and my cousins (same). I think a friend or two had some trouble with the wireless headsets, but as far I know, no one I know had any trouble with the wired sets.
The only trouble I had personally was plugging my headset into a Rock Band guitar. Remember that? You needed to use a little adapter thingie that came with the Rock Band instruments so you could plug your headset into the guitar? That thing was always giving me trouble.
