Yes very good post indeed.

Sadly, it will not change the fact that wanaba-developpers/internet readers will still come in this thread and call it a PR bullshit or compare it to something like Gaikai :)

The cloud computing is the future and Microsoft has been working for quite a time on this now; they are leader with Azure (alongside with Amazon) in this technology and I'm very glad to start seing some demo and "working" proof of concept like this.

As stated, you can actually google about using Azure to do raytrace work or other graphical intensive work.  I use Pixar as an example of the work that can be done in the cloud for graphics.  Also what you forget is that MS can easily scale the output to the conditions of the work needed.  In other words they can scale the graphics to go untra deep for making a movie like UP or they can scale down the rendering for making scenes for a game which would not need as much graphical grunt.  This is the flexibiliy of MS cloud solution which gives it a huge advantage in doing stuff of this nature.

What you did not understand from what I stated is that MS can do EXACTLY what GaiKai do but it can ALTER the rendering engine of a game to do more intensive graphical features like Raytrace.  The data would be compressed into a video stream and send it to the client machine.  This can be done today and it has been done.

The latency of Cloud is the biggest issue for the games tasks...

What you can do in Cloud for games (some example to understand):

+ AI non-reactive (any AI calc not interfered by real-time actions with immediate response... aka AI not processed between frame sequences... eg. AI in RTS games)
+ Open World climate/environment variations (eg. environmental lighting, rain, wind, etc)

What you can do in Cloud for games (some example to understand):

- Any type of graphic/render task (well every frame a frame processing)
- AI reactive (any type of AI that have reactive changes in milliseconds)
- Gameplay physics (there are little exceptions)

There are lot of more example... in any case little processing can be made on Cloud for games even so you need to have a backup in console in the case of internet issues in the middle of gameplay.

A good example are the MMOs... they are all Cloud based... and every MMO player here knows all the problems that happened with low latency and internet issues.

MS is trying to make all your offline experience like a MMO experience... SinCity was the latest example of a offline game using Cloud processing

PS4 can also use cloud computing though, can't it?

Doubt it could be used in many games, though, as PS4 does not require an internet connection.

There's no point arguing about this anymore. We just got to wait and see. I remember the PS3 being part of curing Cancer yet third party dev couldn't put a decent MULTIPLAT game on it often.

If MS is riding in last place next Gen, the cloud will rain its parade. They need to be first for this to work.

No. MS can't... they have one limitation... Internet... that won't change even if MS put 1 trillion servers to run.

The quality of Gaikai for stream graphcs is way below a console render... you can do that but the result won't have the same graphical level than rendering in real-time in your console.

A constant 5Mbps internet connection can't hold a 720p@30fps streeming game with a hell of compreension * you know video compreension means less quality? *.

Again Internet won't change even MS create a pool of zillions of servers.

They need to showcase whatever they want to achieve in a game. What are they really trying to do ? 100000 enemies so when will the next game have it ?

ethomaz said: The latency of Cloud is the biggest issue for the games tasks... What you can do in Cloud for games (some example to understand): + AI non-reactive (any AI calc not interfered by real-time actions with immediate response... aka AI not processed between frame sequences... eg. AI in RTS games) + Open World climate/environment variations (eg. environmental lighting, rain, wind, etc) What you can do in Cloud for games (some example to understand): - Any type of graphic/render task (well every frame a frame processing) - AI reactive (any type of AI that have reactive changes in milliseconds) - Gameplay physics (there are little exceptions) There are lot of more example... in any case little processing can be made on Cloud for games even so you need to have a backup in console in the case of internet issues in the middle of gameplay. A good example are the MMOs... they are all Cloud based... and every MMO player here knows all the problems that happened with low latency and internet issues. MS is trying to make all your offline experience like a MMO experience... SinCity was the latest example of a offline game using Cloud processing

whats to stop MS from using the cloud as the game processing engine and stream the content as video.  As stated this is what Gaikai does now and the technology can be done using MS Cloud compute as well.  As I stated the difference is that MS solution can alter the output to use more advance graphical techniques which would allow for a much better video presentation.

MS is trying to make all your offline experience like a MMO experience... SinCity was the latest example of a offline game using Cloud processing

Simcity did not use Azure for their cloud services either.  Difference is that MS has a policy for 100% up time for Azure applications.  Maybe next time SimCiy will use Azure to avoid such situations that they experienced.

A good example are the MMOs... they are all Cloud based... and every MMO player here knows all the problems that happened with low latency and internet issues.

MMO, Multiplayer games, social network you name it, they are all effected by internet issues but million of people play those games because of the experience.  The same issues that will effect Sony Gaikai will also be the issue but I am sure millions of people will play it as well if the experience is good.

MS is building a solution for today and the future and its moving to get all that in place now instead of waiting until all the planets are aligned.

What has this to do with the requirement of an internet connection ? Obviously all games that need it on PS4 will have to be played online on PS4. But at this point NOTHING is proven nothing has been done yet. Not even a demo or something. What can be done with it that cant be done aswell on WIi U or PS4 ? Nobody has the slightest clue and MS has not shown anything.

Yes and no.  Sony has servers that could be leverage to use cloud compute.  The no comes into play because Sony does not have the infrastructure to do it to scale.  They don't have the platform to do it like MS Orleans.  They do not have the type of investment 14 billion today by MS on their cloud compute infrastructure.  They do not have the amout of servers, processors and software to manage such a system.

If people are thinking of use Gaikai then just forget it.  Do not forget that Sony bought GaiKai for 500Mil, Think about with that purchase price compared to 15 billion MS spent on their infrastructure alone and you see there is a world of difference between Azure and Gaikai.