What? Do you know what you're talking about? There is no need for much server power in most online games, it is about data-transfer between all parties. Not much data is transferred for all of these games. A racer only needs all the info on current position and momentum of cars transferred, a shooter again current position, weaponry and shoots fired, a fighter needs again position and moves executed. That is all not much of data. Everything else is rendered on the client from these data. The server doesn't prerender something or so. More importantly though, for all three genres you need quick reactions, so latency is very important. That doesn't change, despite how much data is transferred. This is key to smooth gameplay. Latency is impacted mainly through the following: network latency (how long takes the data from player A to player B) and netcode latency (how fast can the game decode the data). That seems to be well enough for Smash, if people experience smooth gameplay. I can't judge, Smash isn't out here yet in europe.

Well... I am not trying to say that it is a technical feat but rather this is how games should launch. Smash Bros online isn't like the zomfg innovative online that every game should follow but out of the Big IPs that did get released this year out of the Big 3, Nintendo games seems to be the only ones that work properly both online and offline for all their games. And it isn't just Smash, when MK8 launched and it sold 1 million + in first week, the online had no issues either apart from some people having really bad internet connections which is of course, an issue with Peer-to-Peer.

And at the end of the day, Yes, FH2 and SO does have solid online features and so do some Sony games, but you are also paying yearly for those features so you expect that kind of service from Microsoft and Sony for every game, specially if its first/second party, yet for MCC and DC, that has been not the case which is ashame.

Once MS and Sony get their things together, MCC and DC will probably provide a much better online experience than SSB or MK8 will but the issue is that in terms of game launches, Nintendo still managed to have all their games work perfectly when it comes to online and they did it for free which is the key thing imo. People shouldnt have to wait 2-4 weeks to be able to experience the full game (specially if you are paying for the online service) and for Nintendo games, they didn't have to!

Urm yes I know all this. The difference being that Smash is a 4 player multiplayer game, Driveclub and MCC have more players in a match not to mention i'm sure they store all sorts of statistics for every player on the server. Driveclub presumably has a ton of social features.

(Incase you haven't noticed I haven't played any of these three games)

But you're also not entirely correct and are simplifying it a bit far. For example a shooter doesn't just need the position, weapon and where they shoot. It also needs to know what character model/cosmetics they are using. There models animation is synchronized and ofcourse there's killcams aswell so it sends data for where your opponent was looking etc.

Netcode is a lot more complicated then you've posted there.

I see your point, but thats the fault of some game develeopers not Sony or Microsoft. It also doesnt reflect the whole environment. because far more online games work just fine PSN or Live.