| Faelco said: And ? Microsoft have a lot of servers, so they don't spend money for the game to run on these servers ? Either the servers were installed for the game, or the servers were installed for something else, like renting. In each case, they spend or lose money. Running servers isn't free. Or all the cloud services would be free too.... Crackdown requires the cloud. The cloud costs money. The customer doesn't pay for the cloud after the purchase of the game. So Microsoft fund the cloud for the game, and spend money on it. If the game didn't cost much to develop, maybe they won't lose money before a long time. Maybe the cost is nothing for Microsoft. But yes, they will lose more and more money on the game the longer the servers stay online.
EDIT : It's like your example, yes. McDonalds does lose money for the soft drinks employees drink while at work. You know, if you usually buy your soft drinks 50 cents and sell it for $1, and your employee drinks it instead of selling it, you lost $1 (your investment + the lost added value)... It's maybe not a lot for McDonalds, but it's still a loss. Like MS. |
The servers were installed for something else. They already exist. Azure it not reaching capacity on servers, like... ever. So the only "cost" of using the servers is the electricity required to run the datacenter and the cost of the employees who work there. And these things would be paid whether Crackdown 3 was using the cloud or not. That's the great thing about the entirety of the infrastructure already being in place. And since it's all virtual, there's virtually no difference for Azure.
Why would cloud services be free just because the owner of the cloud services uses the service? Azure is still a massive business that required a huge investment for Microsoft. There are still many businesses who use it.
Also, MS makes money off of Xbox Live, which is required to use these servers. It's not as if there is no revenue stream for MS once the games have been sold.
Lastly, my example was perfectly fine because no, McD's doesn't lose money on employees drinking soft drinks. The syrup cannisters are already in place, already paid for. An employee pouring a couple medium cups of orange soda doesn't even make a splash in the water. The customers who pay for that syrup have already more than made up for the cost of buying it, by a long shot. Fast food places make tons of money off of soda.
