No dedicated servers for titanfall in Australia

They completely changed the original list of countries that would be officially supported on Xbox LIVE on the Xbox ONE. This is the new list.

www.xbox.com/.../countries

Notice the little asterisk next to some of the countries which means (* Xbox Live available on Xbox One in these countries).

 

This was the list they original marketed before the Xbox ONE came out:

Here's the official list of the Xbox One's supported countries for Xbox Live that Microsoft has released:

• Australia

• Austria

• Belgium

• Brazil

• Canada

• Denmark

• Finland

• France

• Germany

• Ireland

• Italy

• Mexico

• Netherlands

• New Zealand

• Norway

• Russia

• Spain

• Sweden

• Switzerland

• United Kingdom

• United States

Have to read the small print these days guys.

 

But what's the difference between 'supported' and 'local Azure server network' support?

'Supported' is a very generic term really and can apply to almost anything.

Microsoft has been planning on having locally based data centre servers down under a while now (announced a year ago officially) and I know they'll have one in Sydney (North Ryde I believe) and Melbourne.

Word is that the one in Sydney has been in place since November last year and is undergoing config and testing (yet to be confirmed)

It would be nice to have at least that one up before Titanfall goes live here (fingers crossed) although I'm doubtful that will be the case.

Fact is, they're very tight lipped on the go live date for these servers and although there's a lot of angst felt with the local playerbase, absolutely no one is coming forward in any official capacity with any announcement or clarification.

It's just plain bad PR to do that. I think even without Aussie servers at launch we can deal with that as long as we have a definitely timeline and go live date made public.

I don't think just doing it behind the scenes and announcing on release day 'ta da, it's here!' will satisfy anyone who's sweating on this going live.

I've raised this on the Respawn beta feedback forums as well and have so far been completely ignored.

I have to say the PR process for this matter has been handled appallingly by both Respawn and Microsoft ...

 

I'll let you make up your mind what 'supported' means.

 

I know what 'supported' means.

You can 'connect' to 'a server' = working fine.

We're not talking about a turn based strategy game here with response time doesn't matter. Every millisecond counts (not that I need to tell any of you that) and MS are clearly taking the see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil approach to this matter politely
ignoring our complaints about the matter.

Either they don't give a damn or (more likely) they have no resolution in place to offer.

I'm most disappointed with the fact that no matter how often we publically raise this issue we're being either fobbed off or ignored via official channels.

It's like no one wants to take responsibility for addressing this concern and when you corner anyone, they send you to someone else to complain at.

It's crap.

The game itself is amazing, I have no qualms about it at all. But the Xbox one is at it's core bound to the Microsoft Azure data network. They boasted long and loud about 300,000 servers world wide for use in gaming which is fantastic.

They just didn't tell those outside the US they'd be getting a very sub par service, often at a much higher price.

We're paying a premium for this from Australia and we don't even have a single local data centre in place for our use.

It's just complete crap really and needs to be fixed, sooner rather than later.

 

For those wondering about us being 'fobbed off' on the server question...

James246 ‏@246James 3h

@VinceZampella @Respawn @SSClan How long until the Australian servers are online?

Vince Zampella ‏@VinceZampella 3h

@246James @Respawn @SSClan MS question, I don't know. They know it is important.

‏@ Feb 5

@XboxSupport That doesn't inspire a lot of confidence for the Australian player base awaiting TITANFALL in a few weeks from now... :/

Xbox Support (1-5) ‏@XboxSupport Feb 5

@ Sorry for the frustration. You can also check
http://majornelson.com for more info about Titanfall before its release. ^SB

‏@ Feb 5

@XboxSupport I did. I tweeted him twice. Never got any reply. Aussies don't matter it seems... :/

Xbox Support (1-5) ‏@XboxSupport Feb 5

@ We definitely value all Xbox customers. Stay tuned for more info as we get closer to a release date. ^SB

‏@ Jan 30

@abbieheppe Abbie Australian players are VERY concerned about server support at launch. We DONT want 200+ ping servers from OS! Any news?

abbie heppe ‏@abbieheppe Jan 30

@ we've tested it to make sure you won't be at a ping that high and MS is working on data centers there as far as I know

You get the idea....

 

Australians seem to have chosen the PS4 over the Xbox ONE as well. Which could explain why Microsoft are reluctant to put servers here.

au.playstation.com/.../Australias-love-affair-with-PlayStation-revealed

 

Not as easy as that mate. The game has been developed for the Azure server tech, it's online only and uses only the Microsoft server farm.

As such, this is as much a showcase for the Microsoft Azure network as it is a killer IP for the console.

Yet, the beta showed that only three continents even have active Data Centres for Titanfall players to connect to.

"we have adjusted the number of markets that will receive Xbox One in November to 13 markets, including Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Spain, United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand, in November.

We remain committed to launching Xbox One in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, as soon as possible in 2014."

That's according to Microsoft themselves.

And yet, the beta for Titanfall was limited to just :

West US, North Central US, South Central US, East US

East Asia, Southeast Asia

West Europe, North Europe.

That's cutting out a huge portion of the global playerbase who are all forced to play on internationally located servers.

It was a very bad PR move on Microsoft's behalf to not only cut out a massive portion of the Xbox one playerbase with this strategy, but even worse when they are on record for completely ignoring public complaints about this situation.

All we get told officially is to watch the www.xbox.com website for updates.

That's just not acceptable.

Microsoft are very clearly under estimating the impact this is going to have on players not based in those data centre locations. We've complained long and loud on the EA feedback forums, the Respawn Forums and here on the Xbox forums.

Only Respawn have had anything worthy to say at all and it's all been 'talk to microsoft' at the end of the day because it's THEIR server farm.

So what are Australians facing then for Titanfall at launch

Connections like this :

Austacker on Twitter

THIS is just not acceptable, period. But because Aussies are being ignored and MS are not getting servers out there in time for launch, this is what we're stuck with.

 

Well I commend you for your efforts to get servers up and running here in Australia before launch. Good luck. Personally I am overlooking it a bit at the moment purely because I am getting the game for free as part of the console bundle. If I had to pay
top price I wouldn't even play the game on the ONE. I'm just hoping they get their servers in Sydney sorted before Halo 5 comes out tbh as it is the only shooter I really take somewhat seriously.

 

Check Jaxendales (Titanfall Legends) YT channel. He has a great vid with Respawn employees livestreaming and answering questions from gamers. They (Respawn) stated that Austrailia is definately getting dedis and M$ or whomever is currently working on it.
Its the Respawn "livestreaming" vid.

 

Nice. Respawn are on record saying AU/NZ will have dedicated servers then. Microsoft are working on it.

[View:]

 

^^Is that the livestream vid? Hope it helped.

 

Yes it is. They basically said we are supposed to have dedicated servers and they are pressuring Microsoft to get them up and running. They even got a couple of Australian Respawn employees to sing our national anthem haha. One guy commented that we will
have to get the Koreans in here now but Australia already has a lot of Asia living here. New Zealand will actually be able to play the game now.

 

Well as you may know Vince himself tweeted this:

Vince Zampella on Twitter

Now how soon is soon is the big question, but if he can come through then for me that is of system selling significance.

 

I'm picking up my Titanfall Xbox One bundle late Wednesday night here in Australia so if Microsoft hasn't said anything by then I will let you know if I can connect to an AU server or not.