Slimebeast said:
So it only gets worse. If games have been utilizing cloud computing since the freaking 90's, but we as gamers evidently don't feel any important results from it, then what else is this Microsoft cloud computing talk than empty marketing words without any tangible effect on the ground? |
I believe people need to think of the cloud as a distributed network that can perform many different functions. The word cloud get used a lot so people get confused in thinking about the different applications that have used the cloud and how they are used. Yes, cloud compute is just another term for client server technology which we have been using for years. The difference is in the application of that technology.
What we see today is MS push to leverage their client server infrastructure for games. I stated earlier that MS cloud is different from a MMO but I will recind that. Instead think of MS cloud as your own local MMO. What I mean by that is that MS Cloud creates a local store of your game state and can also process resources for your game. This resource is saved in the cloud and fetch by the actual physica game running on your console. There are things happening while you play a game that can be done ahead of time depending on where you are at and what you are doing. This stuff can be offloaded to the clould for processing and steamed to the client as they perform actions within a game. It probably will take a lot more planning by a developer when designing a game but the benefit could be that more processing can be leverage for local stuff.
I would not call it a Marketing ploy because MS actually has been investing in this platform for years. Instead, I would say that MS doesn't have enough real world examples to show the benefits. The concepts are old but the application is new. Also having the infrastructure to do it was probably another hurdle which I believe they are at a point to overcome. The last piece would be the software and this is where Orleans come into play.
