• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Why are good online services so hard to implement?

Allandor

Member
It is 2021 a year where many things on PCs are automated.
You wrote a document? It is automatically saved to the cloud (e.g. in Windows via onedrive integration). You reinstall Windows and Documents, Savegames, Contacts, .... is synced with the cloud and the person infront of the screen is missing almost nothing. He has just to reinstall stuff, but his states remain.
Even Android smartphones (as different as they are) do save most stuff into the cloud. If you get a new smartphone just sync it and most stuff is directly available.


MS has followed the same path since xbox one and continued this with the xbox Series consoles and their xbox cloud. Totally online focused. If the console goes offline ... well it got better but has still some flaws. But you can always login on another console and your savegames are loaded from the cloud. Having multiple consoles, even without a subscription is not a problem (e.g. xb1 & xb s/x).
With the xbox 360 you had to "manually" sync the saves with the cloud once, but than you can use it all the time. Problem is, the xb360 cloud sync is behind the xbox live gold paywall. So without a gold subscription, you can't get your savegames from the xb360 over to the xb1/xb s/x eco system. But your saves are at least synced without a subscription on the newer consoles.

Nintendo and Sony are still living in the past in that regard.

Both do not sync savegames automatically and both have this service only behind a paywall (in case of PS+, even the save-storage is limited, I'm not sure if Nintendo has such a limitation). Having multiple consoles is a nightmare on Nintendos side. E.g. my kids have both a Switch and it is really painful if I "switch" the system. And some games do not even allow synching the save state with the cloud (e.g. the pokemon games).
Same for the PS4. You have the choice of paying for PS+ to sync your saves or you can use a USB stick to transfer them manually. That is really frustrating with multiple persons in the house playing on the different consoles (yes I know, first world problems).

And not even the subscriptions from Nintendo or Sony lead to a automatic savegame transfer.

But why is it so hard for Nintendo or Sony to deliver a working, automatic syncing service for savesgames?
Services and cloud storage costs went down significantly since the PS360 era and it is not like savegames are that big that the size would be relevant somehow (expect for Sims 4 savegames... they are somehow really, really big). So what is holding them back to still not offer such QoL improvements.

Yes, I know, I'm an extreme example. But consoles should make gaming as easy as possible and automatic backup of save states in the time where consoles tend to break quite often something like this should be essential.
 
Last edited:

Allandor

Member
Too much work for little money.
Actually, data-syncing in a closed eco-system (such as consoles) is quite easy. And as stated, such a service does really not cost that much. This is more or less just "cold" storage with not much fluctuation. This is really cheap, even on azure ;) (even cheaper on AWS).
 

Allandor

Member
Top Bottom