Microsoft to invest $700 million in new data centre to support cloud service & Xbox Live

[Scoobes]

Darth Tigris said:

Scoobes said:

This data centre is almost certainly going to be used for a lot more than gaming though. This is a big part of Microsoft's business and gaming is only one aspect of it.

If Sony wanted to they could setup their own dedicated gaming servers (which they are probably doing for Gaikai) or simply use existing infrastructure from other companies (e.g. Amazon, Google, or possibly even Microsoft themselves... which would be ironic for Sony fans) for cloud services. Microsoft may have the infrastructure in place but it wouldn't be difficult for Sony or specific publishers to implement these services themselves. The result on the end-user wouldn't be significantly different.

But it would take a significant financial investment, and there is nothing 'simple' about that for any company.  And you're right, this is likely for Azure as a whole, but it shows what type of investment that MS is making in it's OWN cloud business and that is something Sony is just not doing right now.  Considering their financial situation as well, it's unlikely they would be able to do it.

Though many are trying to minimize it, the cloud is not some make believe thing that will bring no advantage.  And it is not something that Sony can match 'simply'.

It may take significant financial investment but if it's worth it, companies will invest. The technology has already been around for a while and there's nothing particularly new about that aspect. Publishers have already setup similar technology for MMOs, as well as games like Diablo 3 and Sim City. The benefit will be primarily for publishers in that they can utilise MS' existing infrastructure. End users will only see minor benefits and if a game would benefit from online processing, companies will invest for rival platforms (PS4 and PC).

Sony have already shown they're willing to invest in dedicated servers for first-party multiplayer games on PS3. They're already investing in server farms for Gaikai services which have to be powerful enough to run entire games. It's not that big of a stretch to see them investing futher in this area.

Where Microsoft have an advantage is that they:

1. Have a fully developed and mature infrastructure in place already

2. Their studios are actively pushing this to see what they can do. Even though the tech has existed and is usable on PC, not many devs have had bright ideas about how to use their servers for anything more than hosting and MMO related stuff. Forza looks especially intriguing with the AI thing.