Today Microsoft revealed ID@Azure, a self-service program that hopes to make the company’s Azure cloud services more accessible to indie game developers. The program harkens back to Microsoft’s work on ID@Xbox, which made self-publishing possible on Xbox consoles.

ID@Azure launches this summer and will offer members free access to game development tools, Azure credits that will allow them to try out the program’s services, and best practices implemented by studios under the Xbox Game Studios banner and cloud engineers at Microsoft.

Microsoft claims Azure will work with games built for any platform and on any engine, and should be beneficial to studios with and without experience working with cloud tools.

“With Azure cloud, game creators can build, scale, and operate their game on the global, secure, and reliable Azure cloud,” the company said. “Developers can quickly scale up and down when their needs change, only pay for the resources they use, and let Microsoft manage infrastructure.”

ID@Xbox has been widely praised by developers and was instrumental in getting more indie developers publishing on consoles, so if Microsoft can recreate that with ID@Azure, the program should be very helpful, especially given the importance of cloud gaming in recent years. We’ll likely learn more about ID@Azure closer to the program’s launch this summer.

Microsoft and Sony announced last week that both companies would be collaborating together for cloud-based gaming. The collaboration would see Sony using Microsoft Azure for its streaming services, which also extends to Azure AI. Despite how strong of an impact this has on gaming, however, the deal took the PlayStation team by surprise.

Bloomberg spoke to sources who stated that the collaboration happened “largely without the involvement” of Sony’s PlayStation team. Negotiations began last year and senior management in Tokyo has handled everything till now. The surprise was such that, “Managers had to calm workers and assure them that plans for the company’s next-generation console weren’t affected.” Sony has yet to confirm that its PlayStation team wasn’t in the loop.

Microsoft wasn’t the only company Sony was talking to. Last year, it sought a collaboration on cloud gaming with Amazon. Both sides couldn’t come to an agreement though. The reason for Sony seeking a partnership in the first place is because, as per Bloomberg, the company realized that its own infrastructure wasn’t enough, especially if cloud gaming started to make strides.

Asymmetric Advisors strategist Amir Anvarzadeh stated, “Sony feels threatened by this trend and the mighty Google, and has decided to leave its network infrastructure build-up to Microsoft. Why would they sleep with the enemy unless they feel threatened?”

The results of this collaboration are likely a ways off. Google Stadia is launching this year in territories like North America, Europe, and Canada, but its impact on gaming becoming entirely cloud-based still remains to be seen. Stay tuned for more information, especially with E3 2019 around the corner.

These kinds of collaborations are not unprecedented—in the smartphone industry, Apple buys its screens from Samsung, the company that is its primary rival. In the PC industry, Microsoft famously invested into Apple in the late 1990s when the latter company was having financial problems.

Even in the gaming industry, we see these kinds of collaborations all the time—most recently, we have seen Microsoft and Nintendo collaborating more closely than ever before. Microsoft and Sony buddying up after seeing Microsoft and Nintendo do so doesn’t really feel out of character. And, again, it works to both companies’ benefit—Microsoft, a services provider at its core, benefits from Sony being a customer for Azure and its AI tech; Sony, a company with a historic weakness in online infrastructure, now has one of the market leaders reinforcing its network capabilities. Win-win all around, right?

But this partnership between the two companies is also interesting because of other implications. No, there will not be a PlayStation-Xbox console, and that’s not what I am driving towards. But the fact that Sony is explicitly looking to leverage Microsoft’s expertise for cloud gaming demonstrates a lot of things—not least that Sony recognizes its own infrastructure is inadequate to go toe-to-toe with a company like Google, who are entering the gaming sphere with the cloud gaming platform, Stadia.

But the most important thing here is that Sony is taking cloud gaming that seriously to begin with. Of course, Sony has been a player in the cloud streaming market since before the cloud streaming market started to gain momentum, with PS Now being a streaming service that has existed for the better part of five years, and Sony’s potential trump card in the upcoming streaming wars. But the service is fundamentally inferior to Google’s Stadia (based on the beta tests for Project Stream) or Microsoft’s xCloud (presumably), because Sony lacks the worldwide internet infrastructure and data centres that Microsoft and Google have.

That said, Sony, who have a new console coming up soon, have not necessarily demonstrated an interest in cloud gaming beyond having their toes dipped into the pool, even as that slice of the market has grown more and more contested—until now. Now, it seems, Sony recognizes the urgency of doing well in this area of the market—in fact, it seems that Sony recognizes the urgency so well that it will partner with its direct rival Microsoft to boost its own product offering.

This, of course, lends further credence to the idea that the next stage of gaming platform wars will be fought over the cloud. It’s an idea we already have had reason to accept as credible—Microsoft, Amazon, Google, EA, Square Enix, Ubisoft, Nvidia, and many more companies, have all openly discussed the future of gaming in terms of the cloud. And as much skepticism as there is around this fantasy ever actually manifesting as reality—due to the fundamental constraints placed on cloud gaming—for now, it seems that this is a major point of investment for many big players.

And now, we have no less than the current leader in the console market, and a company that already has a cloud offering, albeit one that they haven’t shown much interest in, basically announcing a collaboration with their competitor to dive headfirst into the cloud gaming pool. Sony, it seems, wants to be prepared for an eventuality where consoles are rendered obsolete by cloud gaming sooner rather than later.

And what of Microsoft, then? Microsoft does feel that the future of gaming is play anywhere, buoyed by its cloud gaming and services led efforts. What does that company stand to gain by giving away their big advantage in what they feel to be the ultimate end point of the gaming industry? Why would Microsoft willingly aid in the development of a competitor’s product, when they could stand to have an advantage and dominate the future?

This, of course, comes back to the same argument that I made when Microsoft’s collaborations with Nintendo were being discussed—Microsoft is primarily not a gaming company, Microsoft is a services company. I mean this in a good way—for Microsoft, the most desirable end goal is as many companies and products being powered by Microsoft services as possible. Whether this means that their own products are enabling this, or that the products being sold belong to other companies, but are powered by Microsoft’s services, that enable this, is irrelevant to Microsoft. The more people that are consuming a product that is powered by Microsoft in part or in whole, the better.

So, in a hypothetical future where cloud gaming dominates the gaming landscape, and Sony, powered by Microsoft’s Azure tech, is the market leader? Microsoft is still the winner, even if xCloud is playing second fiddle to Sony, because effectively, Sony’s cloud offering is just Microsoft’s, but with a Sony badge, and Microsoft is still getting paid for it.

Finally, an unintended consequence of this partnership is that Sony is now, as well as Microsoft, capable of fending off  Google. Where earlier Sony’s capability of surviving in a cloud gaming landscape was in question—Google and Microsoft are trillion dollar companies with years and billions invested in infrastructure around the world, the kind of cachet Sony could never even hope to overcome—now, thanks to Sony essentially using Microsoft tech, they stand a better chance of facing against Google.

And all that took was for PlayStation and Xbox to work together.

The biggest game of the year is PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, the multiplayer battle royale sensation on PC that has broken every record in the book. Microsoft has managed to secure timed exclusivity for the console version of the game so far- but it looks like they are doing everything they can to extend that exclusivity as much as they can.

We already know the game uses Rare’s proprietary water technology; now, it turns out, it will also be using Microsoft’s Azure cloud services. This was something Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, confirmed during the company’s most recent financial earning call.

“Gaming pushes the boundaries of hardware and software innovation, with some of the most CPU and GPU-intensive applications and content, giving us a huge opportunity in the cloud”, Microsoft’s CEO told investors. “As one example, PUBG Corp., with the hit game PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS, is not only partnering to make Xbox the exclusive console at launch but is also running on Azure.”

Presumably they think the game will help move the Xbox One, and they want to try and incentivize keeping it exclusive to the system as much as possible, and for as long as possible. It will be interesting to see if, presuming PUBG makes the jump to PS4 in the future some time, it will still be using Azure- Titanfall 2 and Hitman both did, even for the PS4 versions, so there is precedence.

PUBG is available on PC now in Early Access, and an Xbox One version is due before the end of the year.

GamingBolt had a chance to speak to Cloudgine on several different aspects including the work done on Crackdown 3, earlier prototypes that emerged featuring the company’s work and how it’s properly preparing the open world title to leverage the power of the cloud for unparalleled destruction.

"The Crackdown 3 demo was an important step in terms of changing public perception about cloud computing and games.  However, we are fully aware that players will only be completely convinced once we successfully release the game."

Let us get the big question out of the way. How closely is Cloudgine associated with Microsoft? I know that you are using Azure for cloud based processing but is the core technology i.e. cloud based processing algorithm a sole property of Cloudgine?

Cloudgine is an independent company. We are currently working with Microsoft on the development of Crackdown 3.

There was a lot of speculation regarding cloud based processing. A lot of people were not sure whether Xbox One can be made more powerful using the cloud. How does it feel to prove all of them wrong?

It feels good. The Crackdown 3 demo was an important step in terms of changing public perception about cloud computing and games.  However, we are fully aware that players will only be completely convinced once we successfully release the game.

Can you tell us about Cloudgine and the work you’ve been involved with since the beginning?

Cloudgine began as a project we started in early 2013.  After a long research phase on the state-of-the-art in distributed computing, we set an ambitious goal: create a development platform, based on grid computing paradigms, capable of delivering a virtually unlimited amount of compute power to craft game experiences never seen before.  From the initial reaction to the Crackdown 3 demo at Gamescom, I’d say we may be on the right track.

Crackdown 3 was announced first at E3 2014 but demos of the cloud-based destruction it could deliver were circulating before that. When did Cloudgine first take on the project?

I believe you are referring to a demo that was shown a few months earlier at Microsoft BUILD 2014. That was an initial prototype that we developed to prove the model. A lot of work went into creating it, and it’s paved the way for what we’re doing in the game.

"Our platform, however, effectively removes this limitation and seamlessly provides additional compute power as needed, by tapping the resources from a cloud computing infrastructure such as Microsoft Cloud."

Can you break down exactly Crackdown 3 relies on Azure and cloud computing for its open world destruction and how Cloudgine is helping to make this a reality?

Traditionally, games are held back by the amount of compute power available on the host device. This means that important and computationally-intensive components — such as physics, animation, AI or even graphics — are constrained to fit within a limited resource budget. Our platform, however, effectively removes this limitation and seamlessly provides additional compute power as needed, by tapping the resources from a cloud computing infrastructure such as Microsoft Cloud. Crackdown 3’s Gamescom demo shows this model applied to physics in action.  Or perhaps I should say, “in destruction.”

Much has been made about the power of Microsoft’s Azure servers but we’ve only seen small benefits from the same (as seen in Forza 5’s Drivatar AI and Titanfall’s reliance on Azure). Crackdown 3 takes things to a completely different level though in terms of compute scale. How challenging was it to deliver on the demands of Crackdown 3?

With Crackdown 3, we focused on the hardest problem first: the distribution of a very complex physics simulation. Physics distribution comes with a long list of challenges: How to split the cost of a single physics simulation across multiple servers? How to minimize the inevitable latency introduced by the distribution? How to scale the system to use compute power on demand? And more importantly — once we solved the problem of simulating a huge number of physical objects in our cloud platform, how to send their state to an Xbox One through a reasonably low bandwidth (2Mbps – 4Mbps) internet connection?

In short: extremely challenging!

Cloud computing still seems a way off from allowing consoles to fully leverage additional computational power. It’s still mostly used for game streaming. When do you believe we’ll start to see this paradigm shift in cloud computing use?

We believe, in the not-too-distant future, the core games that aren’t cloud-assisted will be in the minority. It’s true that developing with distributed computing paradigms is complex and requires skills not commonly found within the games industry — but we started Cloudgine with the specific goal of making the transition as smooth as possible. We are achieving this by cloud-enabling well-known and understood game engines and middleware solutions such as Unreal Engine 4, Havok Physics and Nvidia PhysX to work in a distributed environment with no additional effort for the developers. They can keep using the development environment they are already familiar with, and our cloud platform transparently takes care of all the intricacies of distributed programming.

"Cloudgine’s model for compute power on demand can certainly be applied to a wide range of problems. Pretty much every computationally-intensive game task can and will benefit from our model."

Cloudgine can make the Xbox One 13 times more powerful (and in another report, 20 times). So what exactly is becoming powerful? Are you guys increasing the amount of memory or GPU compute units or the number of GPU ROPs? Is there anything you are doing on the Xbox One CPU?

We are not increasing the power of any specific Xbox One subsystem. We are enhancing the gaming experience by using compute power and memory that is available server-side. We offload the expensive computations to Microsoft Cloud through our platform and send the results back to the Xbox One for rendering.

Cloudgine is working on the core engine for Crackdown 3 while Reagent is focusing on gameplay and art assets. The work you’re doing clearly extends beyond just cloud computing on Crackdown 3 – could you tell us a bit more about it?

Reagent Games and Sumo Digital are the primary game developers and Crackdown 3 will be the first game to showcase Cloudgine. Our ultimate plan is to release the platform to other game developers of any size and budget. We’ll share more details on this plan over the coming months.

 Will Cloudgine be leveraging Azure to expand or aid video games in other ways (for example, ironing out any bugs that may arise in the game on a quicker basis, improving resolution and frame rate of games etc)?

Cloudgine’s model for compute power on demand can certainly be applied to a wide range of problems. Pretty much every computationally-intensive game task can and will benefit from our model. Just imagine what game developers could do with virtually unlimited resources dedicated to complex A.I. logic, physics simulation or global illumination algorithms. Crackdown 3 is a great example of how our technology can be used to enhance the player experience, and we can’t wait to see what other developers do with it too.

Cloudgine is allowing you to do some wonderful things on Xbox One which cannot be achieved by a high end PC. So that begs the question, what kind of possibilities do you think Cloudgine will provide when used with a high end PC?

Cloudgine as a platform is able to deliver as much compute power as a game requires, and obviously different games will tap into that well of resources in different ways.  I expect some developers out there will leverage the additional capabilities of high-end PCs to push Cloudgine even further.

"At Cloudgine we believe the real added value of a cloud-assisted model comes from the truly new and ground breaking experiences that additional compute power enables."

I read in one of the Gamescom articles that the Crackdown 3 demo was running on 14 servers. Technically speaking, is it possible to make the Xbox One even more powerful, say 50 times by ramping up the amount of servers or is there a limit to this technology?

Small clarification first – the Gamescom demo wasn’t running on 14 servers, it was using the compute power that approximately 14 Xbox One consoles would be able to generate in total.

The platform itself doesn’t impose any hard limit on the number of servers. This number is determined by game design and cost considerations. Different games will strike a different balance between costs and compute resources, depending on their requirements and business models.

What are your thoughts on Sony’s approach to cloud computing with PlayStation Now?

At Cloudgine we believe the real added value of a cloud-assisted model comes from the truly new and ground breaking experiences that additional compute power enables. Experiences, as demonstrated in games like Crackdown 3, otherwise impossible to achieve in a game that was not designed specifically to take advantage of this new paradigm.

What other projects is Cloudgine currently involved with? Could we see the company’s prowess on other platforms sometime in the future?

At the moment we are focused on developing our cloud platform for first use in Crackdown 3. But we will certainly have more to announce at a later date.

The Xbox One has a high bandwidth memory in eSRAM. It’s a tad difficult to deal with it but with tiled texture streaming middleware tools like Granite and now the Cloudgine, is Microsoft’s design choice of going with embedded eSRAM for the Xbox One beginning to make a lot more sense?

I think this is more a question for game teams. Cloudgine runs almost entirely in the cloud so we haven’t been dealing with specific Xbox One features such as the eSRAM.

Do you think Cloudgine will make it other platforms? For example the PS4 or PC?

Crackdown 3 is our first priority now, and we want to ensure that the experience on Xbox One is the best it can be. However, like I said, Cloudgine is a server-side technology so there is no restriction on clients connecting to our platform.

For gamers who’ve invested their time and money into Microsoft’s Xbox One, it is starting to pay off. And for those who are still on the fence about snagging themselves a next generation console, Microsoft have left little to no doubt in gamers’ minds after the mind blowing E3 and Gamescom’s explosion of games.

One of the biggest proving grounds Microsoft had yet to trek with their audience was the power of their cloud service. A service that has been promised to make Xbox One the most powerful console ever created. The fruits of that labor had begun to show when that power was proven during the Crackdown 3 demo. This game goes back to its roots of a “super cop” with high jumping abilities, fighting crime lords, saving victims, and collecting orbs. But a lot more fun than Crackdown 2.

What could possibly be a game changer for the trailing Xbox One console, here are 15 astonishing facts we discovered about Crackdown 3 during Gamescom.

Open, Open World

Crackdown 3 debuted with a vision of the massively open world in which it takes place. This game is the definition of “sandbox.” With hundreds of buildings and tons of land to hunt down the criminals of this game, reaching the horizon of the map is going to take some work.

Crackdown 3 really was one of the most pleasant surprises to have come out of Microsoft’s E3 press conference on Monday. The game is a sequel to the open world cult hits on the Xbox 360, and the trailer that debuted at E3 looked mighty impressive, featuring the trademark super powers in addition to some incredible looking destructible environments.

Those destructible environments were, according to Microsoft’s Phil Spencer, based on the destructible environments tech demo of Microsoft’s Azure Cloud technology from their BUILD conference a few months ago; as such, they were very obviously ‘powered by the cloud.’ As a matter of fact, the tech demo for Azure was itself just very early work for Crackdown.

Microsoft seems to be lavishing a lot of time, budget, and attention to the franchise; who knows, if they play their cards right, maybe they will be able to make Crackdown a mainstream hit, just as Sony was able to make one of their former B-series, inFamous, mainstream.

[Twitter]

While Managing Director of Equity Research at Wedbush Securities Michael Pachter is known for his numerous views, one of his more well known gripes in the best few months has been with PlayStation Now. Then again, remember the so-called “power of the Cloud” that Microsoft touted with the Xbox One?

Following his criticisms of PlayStation Now, which is Cloud based, what are Pachter’s thoughts on the Xbox One’s Azure servers which were touted as being able to enhance the console’s games? Will the Xbox One’s Cloud help the system stand on even footing with the PS4 in terms of power and visuals?

Pachter stated that, “I don’t know. I think it’s funny, I think the distinction between these two consoles in terms of power is really a headline than it is a practical matter. It’s not like anybody says ‘oh, I can play the game side by side, and the PS4 game plays better.’

“I mean, maybe it looks better, or that’s what some people say, but they generally run at the same speed, so I don’t really understand how people say one looks better than the other, I don’t believe them, and I know everybody loves to say that they can tell, but I am sure that the average customer can’t. So I don’t think it will make any difference at all, and I don’t think Microsoft is going to try to bring in the ‘power of the cloud’ to make up for anything.

“It’s an interesting issue, really, once you move to the cloud, and it’s going to be one with PS Now as well. Once you move to the cloud, all that you need is a file, a client, in your disc drive or resident on your console…but you don’t need the console at all. So, why can’t you just put the client on your FireTV from Amazon, and just play the games there?

“So, I think the console manufacturers are going to have to tread very carefully with cloud computing, because it kind of makes their machines obsolete. I mean, if we’re just working in the cloud and streaming a file, we don’t care what box it’s on, it’s just a file that’s operating on a server somewhere.

“So as you go in that direction, can’t you see Activision getting all excited, you know saying, let’s just get rid of consoles and quit paying margin to Microsoft or Sony or Gamestop, and have you play Call of Duty in the cloud? So I think that’s one of the risks with this overarching strategy of cloud gaming, it’s an issue with Microsoft’s emphasis on the cloud, and with Sony’s PS Now. They run the risk of making their consoles obsolete.”

But this seems to be direction that most consoles are going, what with talk about the last generation of consoles and what not. Wouldn’t it make sense to achieve this with Cloud gaming?

Pachter replied, “But why would you need Microsoft for that? Why would you need Sony? Maybe you need Google, or Yahoo, or Amazon. I mean, I think that part of the thought process behind FireTV and potentially an Amazon smartphone, is that Amazon has invested tens of billions in Amazon Web Services, and they would love to be the cloud solution for everyone for everything, and then Microsoft loses. And Microsoft won’t like that. So, I think it’s in Microsoft and Sony’s best interest to try to keep consoles alive.”

Do you agree with Pachter’s views? Let us know in the comments below.

This is just a snippet of our interview with Michael Pachter and we will have more soon.

After revealing that Halo 5 on the Xbox One could connect with Microsoft’s Azure Cloud service, the company has once again mentioned the same in a recent job listing for a Software Development Engineer. This is different from another listing that appeared days ago since it’s focused more on “building the next generation of backend services to power the Halo Universe” rather than creating companion pieces to the main game.

“We are looking for a driven Software Development Engineer in Test with a strong background in testing services. If you are passionate about the technical challenges of testing large scale, real-time services, and you’re looking to join a group of engineers who are pushing the envelope to reinvent the future of entertainment powered by cloud services, then this might be the job for you.

“As part of this position, you will own the planning, implementation, and execution of feature areas while collaborating with developer, PM, and producer counterparts across multiple teams within 343 Industries. Your background should include experience testing multiplayer matchmaking, server based applications, cloud services, and consumer experiences. Our team is focused on continuous improvement and fast iteration cycles. The ability to work in a quickly changing environment will be a key to success.”

Familiarity Xbox and Xbox Live along with experience with Azure or similar Cloud services was also listed. What could it mean? Time will tell when E3 rolls around but suffice to say that 343 Industries is busy with the franchise.

A recent Software Development Engineer for test listing for Microsoft has emerged, and indicates that the company will be creating companion pieces for the Halo universe alongside 343 Industries.

The listing states that, “We are creating a best in class experience for fans to dive deeper into the Halo games, story, products, and community across the web, Xbox One, and mobile platforms. We are seeking a self-motivated SDET with significant experience in web technologies and services. If you are excited about creating smart automated testing solutions and working on an entertainment product that has a large, rabid fan base, then this may be the role for you.”

It explicitly talks about creating the next generation of Halo along with requiring experience with “Azure or similar Cloud Services”, the former being Microsoft’s own cloud computing technology. No other platform except the Xbox One has been mentioned so there are several possibilities.

343 Industries and Microsoft are most likely looking to create several different products to link to the next generation Halo games via Azure. How will this shape Halo 5? Stay tuned for more information.