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GTA 4/Xbox Live prepare for a spike bigger than Halo 3/COD4
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Mon Apr 28, 2008 2:19 pm Reply and quote this post
If Microsoft has one thing going for them that no fanboy rant canquestion, it's Xbox LIVE. As long as Nintendo has friend codes and Sonyhas, uhhh, we'll get back to that, Microsoft stands tall on theiruntarnished 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 bigthat—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 whatwe 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 weare going the extra mile with Grand Theft Auto IV..." Yeah, that wastotal 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 usthrough email. (PR had explained earlier that he was "obviously verybusy" this week.) "We have actually doubled our capacity for concurrentusers over the last 2 months."
The backbone of Xbox LIVE is an interesting point in itself. It'snot one big pile of computers, but two big piles of computers. TheLIVE-exclusive servers are in Seattle, while LIVE piggybacks off otherMicrosoft servers in Quincy, Washington. Ingalls jokes that securityincludes "tubes you must step into with bio-metric devices such thatyou must lay your hand on a reader for fingerprint identificationbefore it will allow you out of the ejection tube."
And, of course, no shorts are allowed. (We're guessing it's thecopious amounts of programmer leg hair, but consider that pointunconfirmed.)
However, the server upgrades at Microsoft's datacenters are justpart of their preparation. They have extra staff working longer hoursthis 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 acomprehensive plan we are executing upon throughout the year to preventany recurrence of issues like we experienced. That said, we would beremiss to not expect and respect that the "Grand Theft Auto IV" releaseis anticipated to impact usage in a positive way."
Yeah, those updates are totally about Grand Theft Auto IV—this weekat least. Because a free copy of Undertow won't quell a few millionteenagers looking to break some faces, steal some shit and drive aroundwith their music really, really loud.
As for what Sony is doing to prepare—their fate lies in the hands ofRockstar (who rumor has it is actually using Gamespy's servers).Because they don't offer a backend to host games like Xbox LIVE, theyavoid the headache for a trade-off of a little risk, and almost no sayin 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 forRockstar, for LIVE, and for our customers... and hopefully, justanother day for operations."

Contributed by Editorial Team, Executive Management Team
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