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[Garrett 2U]

This is definitely a huge advantage for Xbox One and it's nice to finally see that Microsoft is actually providing servers for developers.

Did no one read the tweet Wario64 posted??

Almost pretty much confirms there will be dedicated servers on PS4 for COD.

Microsoft is providing the dedicated servers through their cloud platform.
So far, Sony has not confirmed that they are supporting servers for third party developers.

 

[Ocelott]

I play third party shooters, and on consoles. If Sony doesn't match MS on this 100%, it's a big deal to me. It means I have no choice but buy the One. Every third party shooter that doesn't have parity in this respect will automatically have a superior version, and it will be the one with dedicated servers.

I don't give a flying fuck about Gakai. I'd rather see the money spent in this area.

But I do...I believe Sony will have DED Servers when it comes down to it

 

[Zatoichi's Cane]

I'm still catching up on Gamescom news; has Sony gone into any details about how their cloud system works, beyond today's PS+ info?

What a prick, you'd think he'd know given how he works for activision. Why put this tweet out there in the first place if not to advertise for Microsoft? You have a question wether Sony will have dedicated server? ASK THEM, mr Activision Community Manager.

EDIT: meant to copy the picture instead of quoting Garrett.

 

[Enordash]

The amount that people can't answer a hypothetical question on here is staggering. If the X1 has dedicated servers and the PS4 does not and the difference feels as insane as say BLOPS vs BLOPS2 between the two in terms of online experience, I'll go with the dedicated servers. If they both have dedicated servers and are supposed to feel the same, then I'll go with whatever my group of friends decide to go with.

 

[Omega]

Majority of COD players didn't care about it when the PC had dedicated servers and they still bought far more copies of the "inferior" console versions.

this

People acting like dedi's matter. Console gamers haven't given a shit about them for nearly 10 years, why pretend to care now?

 

[Sobriquet]

this

People acting like dedi's matter. Console gamers haven't given a shit about them for nearly 10 years, why pretend to care now?

Some people just prefer to play on consoles.

I don't think there's ever been an example of a game released on PS3 and 360 in which only one of them has dedicated servers.

 

[NullPointer]

So still no word on PS4 dedi support for COD?

Strange.

And to answer OPs question, if Xbone provides dedis where PS4 doesn't that would be pretty huge. Gamechanger for almost everybody on my friends list easy.

I still don't believe it though, and Sony has provided more dedis for current gen games.

 

[PuppetMaster]

This is a total game changer for me.

After years and years of terrible, laggy ass P2P netcode (especially with Black Ops 2), I'm really anxoius to see how Ghosts performs on these dedicated servers. I'm not sure if PS4 is going to allow dedicated servers or not, but as it currently stands the Xbox One is gauranteed to have them. I can't wait to finally have a smoother, less-laggy Call of Duty experience.

People who think dedicated automatically means not laggy have their heads in the clouds and are setting themselves up for major disappointment

 

[Xamdou]

People who think dedicated automatically means not laggy have their heads in the clouds and are setting themselves up for major disappointment

Is this a serious claim? If your going to ask any console gamer whether they would go with dedicated servers or P2P for their FPS MP games, 100% will say fuck yes to dedicated servers. COD: Ghost on Xbox one has dedicated servers, gaffers here trying to downplay this is full of shiet.

 

[ToyBroker]

It cannot be understated that MS actually has been preparing for this awhile now with Azure - they announced their dedicated server plans for devs and listed quite a few games taking advantage of them: Forza 5, Halo 5, Titanfall, COD. It comes off as a concerted effort on MS's part to push for servers in the new gen - in my eyes as an online gamer, its a big selling point.

On the flip-side, Sony has said almost nothing about the issue - there doesn't seem to be a grand server scheme for Sony ATM. Can Sony just flip a switch and make it happen as a lot of people are suggesting here? Remains to be seen. I tend to lean with concrete plans.

Considering Sony had more games with dedicated servers last gen I think they will be fine.

 

[celestial body]

The biggest whine I hear on COD from friends and other players is about insane lag/lag comp, even when they get legitimately outgunned. If one console had dedicated servers for this game and the other didn't that would be a game changer for a lot of people.

 

[Xamdou]

The biggest whine I hear on COD from friends and other players is about insane lag/lag comp, even when they get legitimately outgunned. If one console had dedicated servers for this game and the other didn't that would be a game changer for a lot of people.

Exactly, dedicated servers are legit. COD: Ghost on Xbox one has dedicated servers and early DLC release making it the definitive console version of the game.

 

[LAMBO]

I want user run dedicated servers, not these company run ones that will be turned off at some point and then poof your game is useless. Let people buy a console and use it as a server, let people run a server on their pc. Let people make all kind of fun server rules. Let people perm ban nuisance players from their server. It'll save the companies money, give users what they want, but then the companies will have less of a stranglehold on your online gaming so this will never happen.

 

[Garrett 2U]

Majority of COD players didn't care about it when the PC had dedicated servers and they still bought far more copies of the "inferior" console versions.

That is like saying people don't care about better hardware because more people bought Battlefield 3 on consoles than PC.
Dedicated servers are a big deal for the tens of millions of players who play the competitive shooters.

 

[RedRooster]

How are those servers administered in game? Like if someone needs to be kicked? Would there be a voting system or something for banning and map rotation and stuff?
I played PC online a decade ago and vaguely remember how it worked, but the convenience of jumping on and offline for a quick game with a console regardless if you ended up being the host seems in theory at least to be a lot more flexible.

 

[Garrett 2U]

How are those servers administered in game? Like if someone needs to be kicked? Would there be a voting system or something for banning and map rotation and stuff?
I played PC online a decade ago and vaguely remember how it worked, but the convenience of jumping on and offline for a quick game with a console regardless if you ended up being the host seems in theory at least to be a lot more flexible.

It will be the same experience, just instead of one of the consoles hosting the game, one of the cloud virtual servers will host it.
The big differences with dedicated servers will be a better and more reliable connection to the host and no game disconnects/host transfers.

 

[Latvian Hitman]

A lot of assuming going on in here:

- Ghosts will run on dedis on XB1 but will be P2P on PS4
- After 7 years of trashy netcode, IW will magically do a great job this time
- MS is providing Azure access to a 3rd party dev for free, out of the kindness of their hearts
- Sony is somehow behind the curve when it comes to dedis

C'mon, people.

 

[satam55]

this

People acting like dedi's matter. Console gamers haven't given a shit about them for nearly 10 years, why pretend to care now?

Is it not obvious? Console Wars.

 

[DigitalDevilSummoner]

Probably stupid question but do Dota 2 & LoL run on dedi servers or p2p ?

 

[artist]

I like how every little point is now being touted as "massive" here.

"Graphics dont matter, dedicated servers do."

 

[Garrett 2U]

A lot of assuming going on in here:

- Ghosts will run on dedis on XB1 but will be P2P on PS4
- After 7 years of trashy netcode, IW will magically do a great job this time
- MS is providing Azure access to a 3rd party dev for free, out of the kindness of their hearts
- Sony is somehow behind the curve when it comes to dedis

C'mon, people.

I keep seeing this. It isn't out of the kindness of their hearts, it was a calculated business decision made years ago when they started expanding their server farms for Xbox Live.
They've been talking about their cloud support for games since the Xbox One reveal.
Now we see a payoff of their cloud infrastructure, better multiplayer experiences on Xbox Live.

If Sony can match that then it would be great for the industry, better multiplayer experiences for everyone.

Probably stupid question but do Dota 2 & LoL run on dedi servers or p2p ?

dedis

 

[N.Domixis]

I like how every little point is now being touted as "massive" here.

"Graphics dont matter, dedicated servers do."

This, my friends couldn't care less about dedicated servers. They know Ps4 is more powerful and that is what they are going with. Some people want better graphics.

 

[Latvian Hitman]

I keep seeing this. It isn't out of the kindness of their hearts, it was a calculated business decision made years ago when they started expanding their server farms for Xbox Live.
They've been talking about their cloud support for games since the Xbox One reveal.
Now we see the payoff of their cloud infrastructure, better multiplayer experiences on Xbox Live.

So, just to make sure I've got this straight: you think MS is granting Azure access on the scale that will be required for a mainline COD release and Activision isn't paying a dime for it?

Am I right? That's your f*cking story?

 

[Sweep14]

Sony will set dedicated servers for big online games like KZSF, COD... etc... They had probably more games using dedi servers on PS3 than MS Games had with 360.
IMHO You shouldn't worry about COD on PS4. It will get MP servers

 

[artist]

I remember seeing in the KZ:SF video that there will be Sony Official Warzones and custom warzones created by gamers. Are the Sony official warzones going to be on dedicated servers?

Also since I dont game much on consoles (PC primary gamer), what are the console games that has the best and worst netcode?

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

So, just to make sure I've got this straight: you think MS is granting Azure access on the scale that will be required for a mainline COD release and Activision isn't paying a dime for it?

Eh, MS probably is giving them dedicated server space for free, they're willing to moneyhat the shit out of continued exclusive 1-month timed DLC, so doesn't seem like much a stretch tbh.

Sony has their Rackspace deal, I'm going to say that's where's you'll see Ghosts PS4 dedicated servers, if anywhere.

Otherwise, we know BF4 will have dedicated servers on all 5 systems this fall, and DICE actually knows how to write netcode, so no big loss either way with Ghost IMO.

Sony will set dedicated servers for big online games like KZSF, COD... etc... They had probably more games using dedi servers on PS3 than MS Games had with 360.
IMHO You shouldn't worry about COD on PS4. It will get MP servers

.

 

[satam55]

A lot of assuming going on in here:

- Ghosts will run on dedis on XB1 but will be P2P on PS4
- After 7 years of trashy netcode, IW will magically do a great job this time
- MS is providing Azure access to a 3rd party dev for free, out of the kindness of their hearts
- Sony is somehow behind the curve when it comes to dedis

C'mon, people.

This!!! Whether a game has dedicated or P2P servers is up to the devloper/publisher. So instead of folks questioning Sony if the PS4 version of "CoD: Ghosts" will have dedicated servers, they should be asking this question to Infinity Ward/Activision.

 

[Garrett 2U]

So, just to make sure I've got this straight: you think MS is granting Azure access on the scale that will be required for a mainline COD release and Activision isn't paying a dime for it?

Am I right? That's your f*cking story?

Correct. That is what Microsoft, Activision, and the press have been saying.

This!!! Whether a game has dedicated or P2P servers is up to the devloper/publisher. So instead of folks questioning Sony if the PS4 version of "CoD: Ghosts" will have dedicated servers, they should be asking this question to Infinity Ward/Activision.

Looks like Playstation fans need to petition Sony for server support.

 

[Latvian Hitman]

Eh, MS probably is giving them dedicated server space for free, they're willing to moneyhat the shit out of continued exclusive 1-month timed DLC, so doesn't seem like much a stretch tbh.

I'd have to think that the amount of servers and maintenance required for a title with an audience the size of COD would be magnitudes more expensive over the next several years than the timed DLC deal. I find it hard to believe that the idea of opening Azure up to the Xbox division was meant for bleeding revenue rather than generating it.

If I were a major MS shareholder and thought this was the case, I'd be on the phone right now demanding heads on spikes.

 

[Latvian Hitman]

Correct. That is what Microsoft, Activision, and the press have been saying.

Show me where MS, Activision or the press is saying that Activision is getting Azure access free of charge and I'll eat my hat.

 

[slicedmass]

Show me where MS, Activision or the press is saying that Activision is getting Azure access free of charge and I'll eat my hat.

Microsoft have a lot to gain from providing the servers. More sales of COD Ghosts directly means more sales of Xbox One (can't have the game without the console). It also means more gold subscriptions. At the end of the day it's all relative to how many people purchase the game and the more people to buy the game directly makes microsoft more money which can be used to provide servers which will be dead a year later when 90% move on to the next iteration of COD. I dunno if I believe their free but I wouldn't be surprised.

 

[Rebel Leader]

I doubt they are free people, if anythings MS is giving out a discount (IIRC was confirmed)
EDIT: close enough

Respawn Entertainment: Let’s talk about the Xbox Live Cloud

This is something I have worked on for years now, since coming to Respawn. A developer like Respawn doesn’t have the kind of weight to get a huge price cut from places like Amazon or Rackspace. And we don’t have the manpower to manage literally hundreds-of-thousands of servers ourselves. We want to focus on making awesome games, not on becoming giant worldwide server hosting providers. The more time I can spend on making our actual game better, the more our players benefit.

I personally talked to both Microsoft and Sony and explained that we need to find a way to have potentially hundreds-of-thousands of dedicated servers at a price point that you can’t get right now. Microsoft realized that player-hosted servers are actually holding back online gaming and that this is something that they could help solve, and ran full-speed with this idea.

The Xbox group came back to us with a way for us to run all of these Titanfall dedicated servers and that lets us push games with more server CPU and higher bandwidth, which lets us have a bigger world, more physics, lots of AI, and potentially a lot more than that!

 

[Latvian Hitman]

Microsoft have a lot to gain from providing the servers. More sales of COD Ghosts directly means more sales of Xbox One (can't have the game without the console). It also means more gold subscriptions. At the end of the day it's all relative to how many people purchase the game and the more people to buy the game directly makes microsoft more money which can be used to provide servers which will be dead a year later when 90% move on to the next iteration of COD. I dunno if I believe their free but I wouldn't be surprised.

Remind me to never let you manage a business for me.

 

[StoopKid]

Most casual gamers probably don't even know or care about dedicated servers.

 

[Estocolmo]

Having dedicated servers, is it always a guarantee to be better for online lag than not having dedicated servers? Is it always preferable?

 

[NullPointer]

Most casual gamers probably don't even know or care about dedicated servers.

They should care if their bullets hit their target in COD as opposed to watching themselves standing there doing nothing in the kill-cam.

Its the main reason I stopped playing those games. Its too connection based.

 

[Latvian Hitman]

I doubt they are free people, if anythings MS is giving out a discount (IIRC was confirmed)
EDIT: close enough

Absolutely, they're getting a discount. This is an asset that MS has in their hip pocket, and they're very smart to leverage it. What would not be smart, however, would be giving it away.

 

[slicedmass]

Remind me to never let you manage a business for me.

well like I said, we don't really know either way and Microsoft is shitting their pants as far as their pre-order numbers vs ps4's. With COD selling about 11 million on 360 and 9 million of ps3, it would be huge for them to sway as many of those people from the ps4 to the xbox one. If they were able to provide them free then activision would have no reason to deny them.

 

[dragonelite]

So, just to make sure I've got this straight: you think MS is granting Azure access on the scale that will be required for a mainline COD release and Activision isn't paying a dime for it?

Am I right? That's your f*cking story?

Timed dlc?

 

[Rebel Leader]

well like I said, we don't really know either way and Microsoft is shitting their pants as far as their pre-order numbers vs ps4's. With COD selling about 11 million on 360 and 9 million of ps3, it would be huge for them to sway as many of those people from the ps4 to the xbox one. If they were able to provide them free then activision would have no reason to deny them.

If there is no such thing as a free lunch then.....

 

[Latvian Hitman]

Having dedicated servers, is it always a guarantee to be better for online lag than not having dedicated servers? Is it always preferable?

No. Lag is dependent upon your ping time to the host in the case of P2P, or to the server in the case of dedis. Dedis do make it easier to account for different pings and make the overall experience better, but it's still up to the dev to write solid netcode in order to achieve this.

In the case of the COD franchise, when they've had dedis in the past on the PC platform- performance was, let's say...not so good.

 

[Evolution_1ne]

They don't need to know the details but They will be week aware of the gameplay smoothness and consistency.

Asking causal friends why they liked CoD over BF series on the consoles, their uniform answers were around the feeling smoother and faster. They didn't know it's the 30fps vs 60 but they sure knew how to explain it.

Dedicated servers will be the same way.

Is that what the fuck you guys tell yourselves

 

[artist]

Most casual gamers probably don't even know or care about dedicated servers.

dedis, a new cool buzzword to educate the casual gamers.

 

[MrDaravon]

Console CoD is most of what my group of friends play. In a launch year where not everyone is probably getting it day 1 anyway and there is a $100 gap between the two systems it's probably not going to be a dealbreaker for folks. But if come NEXT fall and there are dedicated servers on X1 and not on PS4, we would probably shift for that reason alone.

That IS making the assumption this turns out to be the case, but the fact that we still haven't heard anything from IW or Sony regarding dedicated servers on PS4 for CoD makes me a bit nervous. I can't imagine Sony would willingly let that advantage go to MS, but it's got to be a significantly larger monetary investment for Sony than MS since MS has this stuff all in-house essentially.

Also as Latvian has pointed out, this is all also assuming that they write netcode that actually takes advantage of dedicated servers, and CoD hasn't exactly ever had great netcode...

 

[destrudo]

Most casual gamers probably don't even know or care about dedicated servers.

They will when they start getting accustomed to using dedicated servers. I'm mainly a PC gamer and I found it hard to adjust to matchmaking on consoles.

- there's noticeably more lag
- waiting in lobbies
- dropped games
- many games won't let you search by region so you end up with a bunch of people speaking Spanish
- and personally I find playing on dedicated servers creates a better sense of community, that is, if you play on the same server on a regular basis

I mean, why would Microsoft be spending so much money on dedicated servers if they weren't important? If no one is going to notice the difference they might as well just keep using P2P.

 

[Garrett 2U]

Show me where MS, Activision or the press is saying that Activision is getting Azure access free of charge and I'll eat my hat.

I don't care if you eat your hat. Sorry, I don't know if it is free or not.
But I don't see any reason Activision would use dedicated servers over peer to peer if they weren't free.

I do know that Microsoft/Activision/press have been saying that Microsoft is providing the servers for COD Ghosts.

Who knows if there was a fee, obviously it was small enough to warrant dedicated servers on the platform and not on others.
Maybe it was part of the DLC exclusivity agreement or the bundle package, we'll never know.

 

[Latvian Hitman]

That IS making the assumption this turns out to be the case, but the fact that we still haven't heard anything from IW or Sony regarding dedicated servers on PS4 for CoD makes me a bit nervous. I can't imagine Sony would willingly let that advantage go to MS, but it's got to be a significantly larger monetary investment for Sony than MS since MS has this stuff all in-house essentially.

What do you mean, "still"? This was announced like 48 hours ago. IW has been dodging questions about dedicated servers for weeks in order to keep their partnership with MS on this secret until Gamescom- probably due to a contractual obligation.

One thing to keep in mind about this industry when it comes to devs, pubs and platform holders: never assume that silence = the absence of an answer's existence.

 

[shungokusatsu]

Here's a good article detailing dedicated servers vs p2p. The author is the developer who introduced lag compensation into the CoD series.

What do you mean, "still"? This was announced like 48 hours ago. IW has been dodging questions about dedicated servers for weeks in order to keep their partnership with MS on this secret until Gamescom- probably due to a contractual obligation.

One thing to keep in mind about this industry when it comes to devs, pubs and platform holders: never assume that silence = the absence of an answer's existence.

The media asked IW about dedicated servers on PS4 three times today and they said they can't comment at this time - link.

 

[ToyBroker]

I don't care if you eat your hat. Sorry, I don't know if it is free or not.
But I don't see any reason Activision would use dedicated servers over peer to peer if they weren't free.

I do know that Microsoft/Activision/press have been saying that Microsoft is providing the servers for COD Ghosts.

Who knows if there was a fee, obviously it was small enough to warrant dedicated servers on the platform and not on others.
Maybe it was part of the DLC exclusivity agreement or the bundle package, we'll never know.

So in other words, you have no idea.

Gj.

 

[Rebel Leader]

Here's a good article detailing dedicated servers vs p2p. The author is the developer who introduced lag compensation into the CoD series.
.

I posted the same link but for a different reason =D