Kotaku
If Microsoft has one thing going for them that no fanboy rant can question, it's Xbox LIVE. As long as Nintendo has friend codes and Sony has, uhhh, we'll get back to that, Microsoft stands tall on their untarnished pedestal. Well...untarnished if you ignore the month+ of outages around Christmas 2007. The fact of the matter is, Xbox LIVE has failed the consumer public before. And it could fail us again.
Jump ahead to next week, we have GTA IV—a game that's so big that—we'll let Microsoft's General Manager of LIVE Services Operations, Derek Ingalls explain that metric:
"...we are preparing for a spike that could be much larger than what we saw with the launches of Halo 3 and Activision's "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare."
So how is Microsoft prepping Xbox LIVE for the not so metaphorical mass rioting that is GTA IV multiplayer?
"Last holiday we weren't properly prepared," Ingalls admits. "So we are going the extra mile with Grand Theft Auto IV..." Yeah, that was total marketing speak. But it got your ears perked, didn't it?
"The biggest step we've taken is to add in more server hardware, which will expand the service's capacity," Ingalls explains to us through email. (PR had explained earlier that he was "obviously very busy" this week.) "We have actually doubled our capacity for concurrent users over the last 2 months."
The backbone of Xbox LIVE is an interesting point in itself. It's not one big pile of computers, but two big piles of computers. The LIVE-exclusive servers are in Seattle, while LIVE piggybacks off other Microsoft servers in Quincy, Washington. Ingalls jokes that security includes "tubes you must step into with bio-metric devices such that you must lay your hand on a reader for fingerprint identification before it will allow you out of the ejection tube."
And, of course, no shorts are allowed. (We're guessing it's the copious amounts of programmer leg hair, but consider that point unconfirmed.)
However, the server upgrades at Microsoft's datacenters are just part of their preparation. They have extra staff working longer hours this week. And those updates you've been receiving on LIVE?
"... are part of an ongoing effort to get ahead on capacity issues," Ingalls explained. "We learned a lot from last holiday and have a comprehensive plan we are executing upon throughout the year to prevent any recurrence of issues like we experienced. That said, we would be remiss to not expect and respect that the "Grand Theft Auto IV" release is anticipated to impact usage in a positive way."
Yeah, those updates are totally about Grand Theft Auto IV—this week at least. Because a free copy of Undertow won't quell a few million teenagers looking to break some faces, steal some shit and drive around with their music really, really loud.
As for what Sony is doing to prepare—their fate lies in the hands of Rockstar (who rumor has it is actually using Gamespy's servers). Because they don't offer a backend to host games like Xbox LIVE, they avoid the headache for a trade-off of a little risk, and almost no say in fixing potential problems that may arise.
Even Ingalls, knowing everything they've done to prepare, is a bit nervous.
"We know the launch of GTA IV will be a wildly successful day for Rockstar, for LIVE, and for our customers... and hopefully, just another day for operations."
Comments
Sounds good to me. I won't even be touching MP until I've played copious amounts of the main game anyway. By then the servers should be fine one way or the other.
its post! lets hope for a good free xbox live game when this kills xbox live!
At least I don't have to pay for my blind faith. Can't wait.
Some how, some way, I need to come up with 60 dollars by next week.........
Christ, not having a job is lame......
Well that's good that they're preparing for it now. Crazy how the second set of servers is in Quincy, WA. That's a little hole in the wall town.
@ShaggE: Pretty much the same for me. I plan on doing about 2 days straight of single player then once I wake up from that black out I might touch MP.
Not sure why you cast doubt on the PSN; if history is anything to go by then this game will run flawless without hiccups.
Sure, there may not be in-game XMB yet, but it's not even necessary when you know all your friends will only be playing this one game.
I'm with @ShaggE:
I'll be absorbed in the single player for quite a while before I try out the online side.
I think it's all talk; my guess is Microsoft leaves live alone, and after awhile traffic goes down as people either download what they want or give up.
Pretty funny how xbox live goes down for one month and they wont be able to live it down. Im just glad that they are learning from their mistake, but I dont think there will be as many people who were on halo 3 and COD4 when the game hits right away. Most will play single player first then slowly creep online within the coming weeks.
Damn you tax refund!! Arrive so I can buy this game!! I demand it!
I'm still surprised people were without XBL for a whole month after Christmas. I only recall not being able to play for about 12 days or so, maybe less.
i was watchin sumone play it yesterday on justin tv, and it had over 8,000 viewers in the one channel! the whole site had only 16,000.
after an hour, the whole site crashed!!!
i just hope this doesnt happen when i play next week!
i was curious about that update to live i got yesterday. somewhat explains it now.
i hope they don't go down again. i got tired of the constant "blah signed on/blah sighed off" messages last time.
I think im going to sell some text books so i can buy GTA 4 at launch..
Dedication my friends
As long as Live is up to track my achievement points, I remain blissfully unconcerned.
@Dauragon C. Mikado: Well, I don't know what the going rate for a kidney is, but I would expect it to be at least enough to get GTA IV. Perhaps even the collector edition.
Wilson, are you retarded? Uhh, we'll get back to that? PSN has NEVER had a service outage in all the time I've been using it. All I know is that I've had just as much fun on PSN as I've ever had on live and I haven't had to pay for a dime.
I love my 360 and Live, but I have no doubt that Live will go crazy with crashes, lag and disconnects when GTA launches.
I will be shocked if otherwise.
I think the console hardware failures will be an even bigger issue with this title. I can't count how many times people have said they're going PS3 for less noisy and more reliable hardware for this title. Who wants RRoD when you're in the middle of your 'murder simulator'? ;)
@keyrat: Not casting doubt, just saying they won't talk about it.
Hey, at least this means we'll get another free fair-to-middling Live Arcade download!
...huzzah.
Has the PSN had a real challenge to their system yet ala a Halo 3? Will this be the first one?
Comparing XBL and PSN at this point is apples and oranges. I've played a few PS3 games online (MLB 08 being the last one) and while the service didn't go down, the end result wasn't exactly playble first day
It was down for a month? I had a couple days worth of problems.
I'll be rocking the single-player while trying to finish my homework for the semester. After next week, there are only a few exams, and then I'm graduated. I'll forever to mess around in Liberty City, although I'm more hesitant about this purchase than any recent one. I was never a fan of the past GTA games. I'm just hoping all my grievances have been fixed.
Wait, did that article just say rumored use of GameSpy servers?
*shudder*
That's not funny, Mark, not even as a joke. :(
And Sony has... a reliable no-hassle service?
Cheap digs at something that isn't broken is, well, unimpressive.
@Gagamus: Please watch out on insulting the editors, comrade. You may get yourself a nomination for the banhammer. This is just a warning.
@Gagamus: Well then I feel bad for you, because you aren't using Live to its full potential. Every time I am online on the PS3 I feel neutered.
Hey I got mail! Oh crap. I have to quit my game to see what it is.
Hey! While I'm playing this, let me pause briefly and see what everyone else is playing, have a chat with a friend who's playing a totally different game, background download some trailers and send a couple text messages.
Guess which one is which. Yes. Playing games when I am a party of one on PSN is fine. Managing a network of friends and having large-scale gamenights that AREN'T all in one game all night, etc. is just a pain in the butt or impossible.
So for certain users, PSN is fine, but for the people that really USE Xbox Live, it's so far superior and worth every dime. An XMB will help greatly, but PSN still has a long way to go to catch up to what Live had at the 360's launch.
My game is shipping from Amazon and arriving two days after launch, so I'm not worried at all.
WOw your an idiot PSN doesnt host games, PSN is your contact list and downloads thats IT!
Each game is hosted by the developers so each studio will have different luck and is on their own... PSN is not a centralized network where everyone is together on PSN... no ... GTA will be on GTA servers hosed by rockstar... or as they mentioned above probably gamespy...
and gamespy most definitly isnt bulletproof either... ill stick with XBL and my 3 expansion backs for GTA... and playing with my friends on XBL end of story....
And before you call me a fanboy... i have a PS3, with resistence and motorstorm... and... thats it for now, ill wait for mgs
Just about 3 days now. This weekend is horrible for many reasons. Atleast there's NHL on to dull the pain.
There hasn't really been a game of this caliber to test the PSN network (or whatever servers Rockstar is going to use for the ps3 version) so it will be interesting to see what happens.
I'm gonna have to say, Microsoft isn't kidding, I got to play lag-free match of Call of Duty 4 last night for like the first time in well over a month.
@Jazhuis:
Some of the games on PS3 are using gamespy servers.I was playing one last night and I went."damn" when I saw it.lol
@karasu is my homeboy: William, logins maybe but lag is from the players as the actual gameplay is peer2peer only matchmaking is done by XBL... the actual playing is peer2peer.
@Gagamus:
The first time I tired to get on PSN it was out for a day. And not for some maintenance. The psn has been out for a year, live has been around for over 5. If after 5 years, the PSN has had only one glitch, thwn you can talk.
Well actually, once PSN becomes a service rivaling live, and then goes 5 years without outage, then you can talk.
@lionkitten:
True,but everything changes in time.Live is a very good service,so I don't believe it impossible to see PSN getting there.
@Brian Crecente: Point taken. Honestly, I don't even know why I feel the need to defend it.
@phantam: you're the one who's not informed. PSN, as well as Xbox Live, uses a mix of P2P and dedicated hosting, depending on the game.
I'm going to spend the day laughing if they have problems on the scale or similar to the outages of December/January.
@Gagamus:
Oh wow, you can almost hear the banhammer dropping. Just because you might not be having problems doesn't mean others are not. A lot of people make the mistake of assuming everyone's experience is identical to theirs.
@Gagamus: "...and I haven't had to pay for a dime."
How much would you pay for a dime? I mean, if you had too?
;)
@Marasai: I wouldn't have a problem with Live having a glitch now and again if it were free, and this is where your argument is flawed. When Live is free we can compare it to the PSN.
Until then arguing over which is better is pointless.
well, it's good to know the effort is there, even though my live connections have been spotty all of this week...
i hope that was maintenance and not something i should get used to.
anybody else not able to stream video this week? keep getting disconnected?
@fatheadwilson: I remeber the last time i payed for a dime, it was only a nickle, talk about a steal hahahaha
@Gagamus: Did you finish the article? I actually get back to it.
I'm ready, willing and able to accept "Lost Cities" as my free XBL compensation for XBL time lost due to the GTA4 release.
I didn't even think about what would happen to XBL when GTA came out, and now Kotaku has officially scared the hell out of me. Since I don't understand anywhere near what I'd like to about networking, I'm kinda assuming that GTA could take out every online game on XBL. It's nice to hear about them anticipating it, but this is going to be the XBL equivalent of Black Friday, and even though most people will care most about the single player, I assume a ton will at least want to see the MP. And I just don't have any faith when it comes to 360 reliability.
@Gagamus: Hey smarty pants. Maybe thats because Sony doesn't have a connected service like Live. Alot of games on the PSN use their own servers as opposed to unified servers like Live. It may be free but for just 4 dollars a month it sure does beat the socks of the PSN.
@keyrat:
Correct.I was gonna type it all out,but you beat me..so yeah.Demonware server farms for Sony,but this is probably Rockstar using Gamespy.
"The biggest step we've taken is to add in more server hardware, which will expand the service's capacity,"
I find that funny.
If you listened to Major Nelson's podcast or paid any attention to XBL news during those Christmas 2007 outages, they kept saying "We can't just add new hardware or buy more servers. It's more complicated than that."
@lionkitten: Yup, if you are gamer with lots of gaming friends the Xbox 360 is the best choice to play online with. I am actually spoiled by XBL now, when I game on the Wii I get a real feeling of being lonely, none of my gaming friends know i'm killing zombies in RE4. I sit there imaging how many invites to games i'm actually missing.
lol, that is why I have my laptop logged into Xbox.com to see what my friends are doing while gaming on the Wii.
Does the PS3 have a website that logs into the PSN to see what friends are up to and send messages???