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Will Titanfall 2 still use Azure?

S

shungokusatsu

Member
With Titanfall 2 confirmed for multiple platforms, it had me thinking - will Azure still a play a part in the next game, at least for Xbox One? Titanfall was my most played game of 2014, and the best shooter I've played since MW/MW2. Part of that was due to the games use of dedicated server, which also gave players around the world the option to choose the data center they connected to.

Respawn and MS touted it as a big advantage, including a nice in-depth article that covers the basics, written by the same dev who introduced "lag compensation" into the CoD. Additionally, the Azure commercials still play on television: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKesDTR6U-s

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Now ever since Call of Duty: Ghosts, a hybrid system of P2P / dedicated servers was introduced into all new CoD games moving forward (Advanced Warfare and now Black Ops III). These are hit or miss and it's entirely luck of the draw whether or not you'll get a dedi or P2P. Even with Blops just released, it's still a coin toss at the moment, albeit that could be from the huge population surge from release.

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This leads to poor online play because there's just too many problems with P2P. Yes, dedicated servers are nothing new to consoles; games like Battlefield have been doing it for all of their console releases.

So back to my questions.

- With Titanfall 2 now on multiple platforms, will the Xbox One version still use Azure?
- Assuming the Xbox One version does use Azure, will the PS4 version use standard dedicated servers with no option to select your data center, while the Xbox One version allows you to?
- Will they scrape Azure entirely and just use standard dedicate servers for all platforms?
- Will they use Azure for ALL platforms?

Not using Azure just seems highly unlikely given all the praise and recognition that went into it. Seems like a slippery slope, so I'm interested in how everyone else thinks this will pan out.
 
R

rje

Member
I'd be surprised if they moved away from Azure -- it's not like there's anything magic there. I'm sure they could move to EC2 or something if they wanted to, but why not stick with a familiar system?
 
P

pastrami

Member
Who knows? I'm sure they will do estimates, and figure out the best option for them. And IIRC, Titanfall was originally going to be multiplatform, but was always going to use Azure.
 
J

jelly

Member
Azure about that ?

I suppose if they still use AI, then probably yes and it doesn't matter what platform it's on. Microsoft will take money from anyone.
 
K

krang

Member
Samurai G0SU said:
^ EA server farm seems like the best bet. No more AI in MP i bet. Actual Single Player campaign will happen.
Click to expand...

This opinion probably rubs against the grain, but I's be disappointed if TF2 didn't have AI. They were a great way for it to be accessible to anybody.
 
N

nubbygamer

Neo Member
I really hope so.

There is definitely a quality to online gaming with MS games. Titanfall, Forza Series, MCC (yea yea before you all freak out, once your in a match its amazing ) , Halo 5, Gears of War all feel top of the line amazing connections.

I wish all devs making online games took up on MS's offer to use their free servers.
 
S

Suzushiiro

Banned
I don't think there's much sense in MS not letting Respawn or any other company use Azure for game hosting just because the game is on a competing platform as well as their own. Hell, they'd probably be cool with Sony using it for a PS4 exclusive game- why turn down the money? The competitive advantage they'd gain from Azure being only used for PC/XBox games wouldn't give them anywhere near the money they'd get from allowing PS4 games to be hosted as well.
 
P

pastrami

Member
nubbygamer said:
I really hope so.

There is definitely a quality to online gaming with MS games. Titanfall, Forza Series, MCC (yea yea before you all freak out, once your in a match its amazing ) , Halo 5, Gears of War all feel top of the line amazing connections.

I wish all devs making online games took up on MS's offer to use their free servers.
Click to expand...

The servers are only free for development. Once your game goes live, you have to pay for them. Azure is much bigger than Xbox, Microsoft isn't going to give Xbox free reign over it.
 
P

PanicFreak

Member
It will probably use Azure or AWS for all platforms. My guess is that it will stick with Azure because they are already using it.
 
A

AP90

Member
If they use azure on the XB1 version and not PS4, then Xbox can potential coin the phrase best place to play....

But seriously,

I do not see why they would not continue using azure for the Xbox 1. Maybe Sony will be able to carve out some server time from there cloud server provider (amazon?)? Or maybe Xbox will allow Respawn/Sony to use azure for exclusive marketing rights for TF2? Which in turn would allow for cross system play?

Dedicated servers do make a hell of a difference IMO.
 
T

Theorry

Member
I doubt it. EA wants to keep more control over it i think and wants it on their own servers.
With Titanfall Azure came with it because they came in late as a publisher. It sucks tho. I love every multiplatform game to use it. Because its solid but i think we only gonna see it with first party games.
 
C

Chris1

Member
Suzushiiro said:
I don't think there's much sense in MS not letting Respawn or any other company use Azure for game hosting just because the game is on a competing platform as well as their own. Hell, they'd probably be cool with Sony using it for a PS4 exclusive game- why turn down the money? The competitive advantage they'd gain from Azure being only used for PC/XBox games wouldn't give them anywhere near the money they'd get from allowing PS4 games to be hosted as well.
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Thing is MS gives a discount for xbox platforms to use azure and is free for development, why would EA pay to use Azure during development and full price on PS4 when they have their own servers?

I hope they use azure still too, going from azure to ea servers will be terrible.
 
P

ps3ud0

Member
Whatever is cheapest/allows more control to EA tbh. Id be surprised if they dont use their own dedicated server solution.

ps3ud0 8)
 
G

gamechanger87

Member
AP90 said:
If they use azure on the XB1 version and not PS4, then Xbox can potential coin the phrase best place to play....

But seriously,

I do not see why they would not continue using azure for the Xbox 1. Maybe Sony will be able to carve out some server time from there cloud server provider (amazon?)? Or maybe Xbox will allow Respawn/Sony to use azure for exclusive marketing rights for TF2? Which in turn would allow for cross system play?

Dedicated servers do make a hell of a difference IMO.
Click to expand...

I don't see why they wouldn't continue to use Azure. Azure is a separate business and MS would love for Sony to use it, but they prefer to use other providers. Titanfall will likely use Azure and the PS4 version will likely also use it.

MS does not care if Sony uses Azure, they already built the infrastructure and they want people to use it. Its all about the top line for the business as a whole. The console warrior stuff about MS not wanting Sony to use it isn't a position a business would take.

Also, why do people think this would use EA's servers? Respawn isn't owned by EA.
 
G

gamechanger87

Member
KurtSloane said:
It's not going to use azure, EA in house.
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Why? EA doesn't own Respawn. I don't see why Respawn would all of the sudden decide they won't use it anymore, nor do I understand how EA can force them to use it.

Azure isn't an XBO only platform. It can be used for any system and its up to the developer to decide which to use.
 
K

Kill3r7

Member
Samurai G0SU said:
^ EA server farm seems like the best bet. No more AI in MP i bet. Actual Single Player campaign will happen.
Click to expand...

Agreed on EA server farm. I wouldn't count on a SP campaign. EA has a terrible history designing compelling SP experiences. They opted not to have one for Battlefront. BF, outside of Bad Company series, has had some god awful SP offerings. Maybe they can pull it off but it is not a must for Titanfall 2 to be an excellent game.
 
G

gamechanger87

Member
ps3ud0 said:
But TF2 is published by them and they would foot the infrastructure bill

ps3ud0 8)
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TF was also published by them, but under the EA Partners program. If they can offload having to support the infrastructure on Azure, they I don't see why they would want to force the developer to switch to their own dedicated servers.
 
Q

Qassim

Member
Megatron said:
I'm sure they will miss the nine days the pc community stuck around for last time.
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Uh, why wouldn't they miss the community they lost so quickly? It's not the communities fault that they didn't feel the game was good enough to stick around to continue playing, that's on the developers/publishers for not building a compelling enough game to keep that community engaged.

I assure you, Respawn & EA would have been very disappointed that they failed to hold on to any sort of community on the PC.
 
K

KurtSloane

Banned
gamechanger87 said:
Why? EA doesn't own Respawn. I don't see why Respawn would all of the sudden decide they won't use it anymore, nor do I understand how EA can force them to use it.

Azure isn't an XBO only platform. It can be used for any system and its up to the developer to decide which to use.
Click to expand...

MS will not allow a game on PS4 on azure servers, no matter what they say.

Also EA is the publisher and has server facilities.


It's not going to be on azure, that's an MS/X1 selling point.
 
H

hawk2025

Member
Yeah, I'll be interested to see what their approach will be.

I have to say, my experience with 10 hours of Black Ops 3 so far has been nothing short of amazing. I don't think I've seen a single case of rubberbanding yet, and trading kills has been an exceedingly rare occurrence. Maybe I've just been lucky.
 
K

KurtSloane

Banned
Kill3r7 said:
Agreed on EA server farm. I wouldn't count on a SP campaign. EA has a terrible history designing compelling SP experiences. They opted not to have one for Battlefront. BF, outside of Bad Company series, has had some god awful SP offerings. Maybe they can pull it off but it is not a must for Titanfall 2 to be an excellent game.
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EA aren't designing anything, respawn are.
 
G

gamechanger87

Member
KurtSloane said:
MS will not allow a game on PS4 on azure servers, no matter what they say.

Also EA is the publisher and has server facilities.

It's not going to be on azure, that's an MS/X1 selling point.
Click to expand...

I think you are putting a console warrior's hat on and not a business hat on. MS already spent billions on Azure. The money they make there will swamp anything out of Xbox. Once you have built the infrastructure, you need to utilize it to spread out your cost base. MS doesn't give a shit who uses it as long as they pay for it. Azure is a completely separate business. MS built the XO to take advantage of the system, but that is all.

I really think some people get to caught up in the console war stuff and don't realize that all of these companies exist to make money. MS would love to have PSN hosted on Azure, but Sony prefers its patched together AWS setup.
 
N

Nephtes

Member
I hope it continues to use Azure...
Titanfall has to have been one of the smoothest FPS PVP experiences I've had on a console. Between that or Halo 5.

I hope it's not EA's sever farm... Battlefield 4 was endless rubberbanding and unearned deaths for me...
 
T

Trup1aya

Member
Chris1 said:
Thing is MS gives a discount for xbox platforms to use azure and is free for development, why would EA pay to use Azure during development and full price on PS4 when they have their own servers?

I hope they use azure still too, going from azure to ea servers will be terrible.
Click to expand...

It could still figure to be cheaper to use Azure because costs are only associated with demand...

It takes all the guess work out if building the right amount of infrastructure to serve your customers, which could prove extremely efficient.

KurtSloane said:
MS will not allow a game on PS4 on azure servers, no matter what they say.

Also EA is the publisher and has server facilities.


It's not going to be on azure, that's an MS/X1 selling point.
Click to expand...

Why the hell wouldn't they? The more people playing the game on their servers, the more money they make... Azure as a service is platform agnostic.

ps3ud0 said:
As I said previously it would be cheaper to utilise their own servers than to farm that out to Azure. No doubt TF had concessions regards server costs, especially as MS had tied up exclusivity for it and at the time was heavily pushing Azure.

ps3ud0 8)
Click to expand...

Developers from many different fields have already stated that using Azures on demand service can prove cheaper than maintaining your own and having to deal with demand spikes.
 
P

ps3ud0

Member
gamechanger87 said:
TF was also published by them, but under the EA Partners program. If they can offload having to support the infrastructure on Azure, they I don't see why they would want to force the developer to switch to their own dedicated servers.
Click to expand...
As I said previously it would be cheaper to utilise their own servers than to farm that out to Azure. No doubt TF had concessions regards server costs, especially as MS had tied up exclusivity for it and at the time was heavily pushing Azure.

ps3ud0 8)
 
E

exmachina64

Banned
gamechanger87 said:
I think you are putting a console warrior's hat on and not a business hat on. MS already spent billions on Azure. The money they make there will swamp anything out of Xbox. Once you have built the infrastructure, you need to utilize it to spread out your cost base. MS doesn't give a shit who uses it as long as they pay for it. Azure is a completely separate business. MS built the XO to take advantage of the system, but that is all.

I really think some people get to caught up in the console war stuff and don't realize that all of these companies exist to make money. MS would love to have PSN hosted on Azure, but Sony prefers its patched together AWS setup.
Click to expand...

There's nothing special about the Xbox One that takes advantage of Azure platform, that's just marketing. Any cloud service platform (Google, AWS, Azure, IBM) could be used for a console or PC game.
 
J

jackissocool

Member
gamechanger87 said:
I think you are putting a console warrior's hat on and not a business hat on. MS already spent billions on Azure. The money they make there will swamp anything out of Xbox. Once you have built the infrastructure, you need to utilize it to spread out your cost base. MS doesn't give a shit who uses it as long as they pay for it. Azure is a completely separate business. MS built the XO to take advantage of the system, but that is all.

I really think some people get to caught up in the console war stuff and don't realize that all of these companies exist to make money. MS would love to have PSN hosted on Azure, but Sony prefers its patched together AWS setup.
Click to expand...
No way MS will allow Mac to use Office.
 
K

KurtSloane

Banned
Trup1aya said:
It could still figure to be cheaper to use Azure because costs are only associated with demand...

It takes all the guess work out if building the right amount of infrastructure to serve your customers, which could prove extremely efficient.



Why the hell wouldn't they? The more people playing the game on their servers, the more money they make... Azure as a service is platform agnostic.
Click to expand...

So they say but yet they sell it as an aspect that gives the X1 cloud computing power (crackdown), I guarantee you its not platform agnostic when it comes to consoles and MS.

I will glad place a wager this game does not use azure, especially not for PS4.
 
B

Bsigg12

Member
Jon Shiring did a talk a Rackspace I believe the other week talking about the use of the cloud for Titanfall. I would imagine they're exploring all options since it's going multiplatform.

Microsoft did cut them a huge deal for Azure usage though so who knows.
 
K

KurtSloane

Banned
gamechanger87 said:
I think you are putting a console warrior's hat on and not a business hat on. MS already spent billions on Azure. The money they make there will swamp anything out of Xbox. Once you have built the infrastructure, you need to utilize it to spread out your cost base. MS doesn't give a shit who uses it as long as they pay for it. Azure is a completely separate business. MS built the XO to take advantage of the system, but that is all.

I really think some people get to caught up in the console war stuff and don't realize that all of these companies exist to make money. MS would love to have PSN hosted on Azure, but Sony prefers its patched together AWS setup.
Click to expand...

Lol, MS would like to power their competitor platforms network? I think you are being very naive.
 
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