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Microsoft: “the Equivalent of Three Xbox Ones” in the Cloud

Floating on a cloud...an invisible cloud, okay?!
Floating on a cloud…an invisible cloud, okay?!

Jeff Henshaw, Group Program Manager of Xbox Incubation & Prototyping, has enlightened the gaming community, via an OXM interview, on the potential of using cloud computing with the Xbox One to create massively enhanced game experiences and prolong the console’s life-cycle;

We’re provisioning for developers for every physical Xbox One we build, we’re provisioning the CPU and storage equivalent of three Xbox Ones on the cloud. We’re doing that flat out so that any game developer can assume that there’s roughly three times the resources immediately available to their game, so they can build bigger, persistent levels that are more inclusive for players. They can do that out of the gate.

Integrating the cloud in the operation of many facets of the system (identification, game saves, etc.) was a heavy focus for Microsoft in developing the next-gen console. It’s also the reason why we reportedly will need to connect to the internet – at least once every 24 hrs – to use the console. Looking forward into the future, if games were to rely on the cloud to run important features, it would seem that we’d need a constant internet connection to play them; one of many concerns levied by gamers around the world, who may not have such reliable internet connections.

Only time will tell how this all works out…this sort of thing has never been done before, most certainly not at this level.

Zac Elawar
Zac Elawar
I am a graduate of the Bachelor of Interactive Entertainment (w/ major in Games Design) course at Qantm College, Sydney.