ELI5: Why the absolute hell did SE not use Azure or AWS as a temporary solution?

[lisaa]

You just can't move a game server from dedicated hardware onto AWS

Think about when you play the game, every single action you and every other player and every monster needs to be calculated and the result sent back within 20 ms, 24/7, without even a single delay. Unlike Google or Amazon which can occassionally take a second or two longer to load a page and no one will notice, in a game if you lag even a little bit and even if its only once in an entire fight, it's really obvious. Even livestream sites like twitch don't need this kind of performance, because their video is buffered, it knows what to send seconds before it needs to. FFXIV needs to react to your actions almost instantly, even though the calculations are simple, the consistent responsiveness makes it pretty specialized.

And services like AWS and Azure just aren't designed for it because online games are smaller than the thousands of small and large tech companies that do use AWS, companies who care more about ease of development and scalability rather than microsecond performance. And AWS gets designed for those companies instead.

[VisperCon]

You just can't move a game server from dedicated hardware onto AWS

Think about when you play the game, every single action you and every other player and every monster needs to be calculated and the result sent back within 20 ms, 24/7, without even a single delay. Unlike Google or Amazon which can occassionally take a second or two longer to load a page and no one will notice, in a game if you lag even a little bit and even if its only once in an entire fight, it's really obvious. Even livestream sites like twitch don't need this kind of performance, because their video is buffered, it knows what to send seconds before it needs to. FFXIV needs to react to your actions almost instantly, even though the calculations are simple, the consistent responsiveness makes it pretty specialized.

And services like AWS and Azure just aren't designed for it because online games are smaller than the thousands of small and large tech companies that do use AWS, companies who care more about ease of development and scalability rather than microsecond performance. And AWS gets designed for those companies instead.

What? Xbox Live runs on Azure....

In a statement attributed to Azure Chief Technology Officer Mark Russinovich, Microsoft says:

"Most of Microsoft 365 services, including Teams, SharePoint Online and Office online, as well as Xbox Live services run primarily on Azure infrastructure today. Mailbox storage for Exchange Online and Outlook.com is also in the process of moving to standard Azure infrastructure."

Destiny 2 uses AWS
WoW friggin used AWS.

So much BS in your post.

[Phaty]

Destiny 2 uses AWS
WoW friggin used AWS.

So much BS in your post.

Well that explains the terrible lag spikes in both those games

[EverQuest]

Well you can GW2 basically did just that.

The thing is sqaure wants server control. I'm sure they looked into a aws solution, and said no. Is it I theory possible sure, but they said no so that's pretty much end discussion.

The big issue isn't the queue it's the source code causing various errors. Waiting in line was to be expected aws or not. Even if they could snap magical aws fingers you'd still be likely in a sizeable queue.

[Merkhen]

Well you can GW2 basically did just that.

The thing is sqaure wants server control. I'm sure they looked into a aws solution, and said no. Is it I theory possible sure, but they said no so that's pretty much end discussion.

The big issue isn't the queue it's the source code causing various errors. Waiting in line was to be expected aws or not. Even if they could snap magical aws fingers you'd still be likely in a sizeable queue.

that's what they have been saying for the past few months, and what Yoshida addressed today, they are solving all the errors(explained what's happening and what they doing about each one)but queues won't be gone for months.

everyone knows we going to have tons of players, they projected twice the population from ShB launch (and even with that they knew there was going to be massive queues), but it TRIPLED.

[lulunami]

Basically they wanted to save money. Bandwidth costs on the major cloud providers (especially AWS) can be very expensive.

[PewPewPewPewPew]

I'm just mentally frazzled after over 7 hours of trying to login now and I can't for the life of me understand why they would turn down and/or not use AWS or Azure as a temporary solution.

Is it pride? Is it not a possibility?

I just see a scenario where a company wouldn't use all available resources to assist their customers and maintain the positive image their brand and game had going into EW's launch.

Your sub is 15 dollars a month because of that.
But if you and every other customer are okay with paying 50 dollars a month instead then I'm sure they can look into it.

[VisperCon]

Your sub is 15 dollars a month because of that.
But if you and every other customer are okay with paying 50 dollars a month instead then I'm sure they can look into it.

Destiny 2 runs on AWS and costs $0/mo.
For Honor runs on AWS and costs $0/mo.
The Division 2 runs on AWS and costs $0/mo.

WoW used AWS to relieve player congestion.... Did you do any research before posting this?

[Tanis_Ebonhart]

They tried using AWS. It didn't work and they literally explained why.

If anyone thought of it then I assure you that they have already tried it.

Please at least Google search this before asking.

Isn't failing to do anything for the last nine months to improve servers to prepare for this launch when they have the data to show their MoM growth and historical data to show the increase in returning players for an expansion even worse? It's not like the idea is "do it in 2 days" but they had MONTHS to prepare for this launch and have utterly failed in that regard.

You work for them? Is that how you got that they aren't doing anything? Please.

[VisperCon]

They tried using AWS. It didn't work and they literally explained why.

If anyone thought of it then I assure you that they have already tried it.

Please at least Google search this before asking.

Source...that isn't from over 5 years ago? (Because obviously technology doesn't change in five years...) They use AWS for Dragon Quest X by the way so this isn't some new concept to SE.