state-of-service
Latest
Halo: The Master Chief Collection running into matchmaking problems
Dealing with the Covenant isn't the only problem players are facing in Halo: The Master Chief Collection today. The huge collection of Halo goodness launched today, and some serious multiplayer matchmaking issues launched right along with it. As we noted in our review, matchmaking can take up to several minutes and it may not be full. That's assuming a match is found at all. We've also encountered infinite loading screens following a match, requiring a reboot of the game. Furthermore, we were unable even to arrange a custom game outside of matchmaking between two Joystiq editors. When and if a match is found, performance seems to be stable, at least. Developer 343 Industries is aware of the problems, and notes that it is working "around the clock" to resolve them. A server side update has been issued, which 343 says has shown "some improvement," though we haven't noticed any significant changes. Updates on the current status of matchmaking will be made here, on the Halo Waypoint forums.
Destiny State of Service: Week 4
This is State of Service, an ongoing review of the online service of a recently launched game. You can read our scored review of Destiny here. Tuesday, October 7 | T-minus 2 days until final verdict Current State of Service: Moderate Summary: Destiny servers remain stable, though some users continue to encounter network errors. Bungie issues update to help isolate these errors. Destiny has made it through its fourth week without too many problems. PlayStation platforms briefly encountered some sign in troubles on October 2, and servers went down earlier today for scheduled maintenance, but performance has otherwise been solid. Today's patch was designed to help Bungie diagnose networking problems that some players are running into. This includes a new error code "Zebra," which Bungie says signifies that "you are hitting an issue that we deem extremely important, high-priority issue," and it is being actively investigated. Several other network error codes – "Centipede," etc. – have also received updates, which you can read about here. At least some users are claiming that the most recent update resolved their issues, though the Bungie forums are still seeing a fair share of complaints. For our part, the Joystiq staff still has yet to run into any serious problems. If you encounter any connection problems while playing Destiny, let us know in the comments, or on the Joystiq Twitter or Facebook accounts. Use the hashtag "#sos" and specify your platform, please.
Destiny State of Service: Week Three
This is State of Service, an ongoing review of the online service of a recently launched game. You can read our scored review of Destiny here. Tuesday, September 30 | T-minus 9 days until final verdict Current State of Service: Good Summary: Destiny servers have been largely stable, with a couple of hiccups. Bungie closed the "Loot Cave" exploit, though players have already flocked to a new one. An upcoming patch aims to improve the loot system. Destiny's third week was mostly a smooth one, with only a few isolated server problems. Bungie noted sign-in issues across all platforms on Thursday, September 25, which were resolved quickly. Xbox 360 players ran into similar trouble on Monday, September 29, but these too were quickly rectified. The Joystiq staff encountered no outstanding complications at all last week. Meanwhile, Bungie states that it is still addressing outlying networking issues, reporting that "Bee," "Lion," or "Fly" error codes have been reduced by 50 percent over the last week. Elsewhere in the galaxy, Bungie put an end to Destiny's infamous "Loot Cave." Undaunted, players immediately latched onto a different Loot Cave. Perhaps in response to the design problems that the Loot Cave represents, Bungie announced that patch 1.0.2 will significantly change the loot system. Namely, Purple Engrams will guarantee Legendary quality items, while Blue Engrams will guarantee Rare or better quality items. If you encounter any connection problems while playing Destiny, let us know in the comments, or on the Joystiq Twitter or Facebook accounts. Use the hashtag "#sos" and specify your platform, please.
Destiny State of Service: Week Two
This is State of Service, an ongoing review of the online service of a recently launched game. You can read our scored review of Destiny here. Tuesday, September 23 | T-minus 16 days until final verdict Current State of Service: Moderate Summary: Destiny servers experienced brief downtime over the weekend, but have otherwise been stable. A new in-game event has been added and high-level players are taking advantage of a loot exploit. Bungie has issued a patch to solve a problem with the Vault of Glass raid mission.
Destiny State of Service: Week One
This is State of Service, an ongoing review of the online service of a recently launched game. You can read our scored review of Destiny here. Tuesday, September 16 | T-minus 23 days until final verdict Current State of Service: Good Summary: Destiny's launch week has been generally smooth, with a few outlying issues. The game has been updated and new content added. Launch week has come and gone, and Destiny's servers seem to be handling things well. Bungie has issued an update to the game and added the first "Raid" mission, the Vault of Glass, which is intended for (very) high level players. Over the weekend, players could also jump into a special, limited-time Crucible mode called Salvage. Bungie has announced several other events that will take place over the next few months. The Joystiq staff hasn't encountered any persistent connection issues thus far. Reviews Content Director Richard Mitchell did lose connection during a Strike mission, though his equipment and experience progression were not lost. He also notes that the update immediately booted him to the title screen – his ship had been in orbit at the time – and prompted him to install the file. Other players have made similar reports, saying that the update notice even kicked them out of missions in progress. Finally, Joystiq's review of Destiny is now live. You can read it right here. If you encounter any connection problems while playing Destiny, let us know in the comments, or on the Joystiq Twitter or Facebook accounts. Use the hashtag "#sos" and specify your platform, please.
Destiny State of Service: Day Three
This is State of Service, an ongoing review of the online service of a recently launched game. Friday, September 12 | T-minus 27 days until final verdict Current State of Service: Good Summary: Destiny continues to enjoy a clean launch, with glitches hitting a small number of players. Destiny is holding up well across PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One in its first week online, with the most prominent server issue being the Boar error on PS3. Bungie offers a workaround for the bug: Install Destiny, create a new PSN account designating the same region as the game, and then launch it and sign into your original PSN account. If that doesn't work, try deleting and reinstalling Destiny. Inelegant, but effective, apparently. The Joystiq staff hasn't encountered any connection issues since launch, though Feature Content Director Xav de Matos has received a PS4 UI error noting he's lost connection to the server. Oddly, he hasn't dropped connection to the game itself, even when the notification appears in the middle of matches. Destiny's first weekend events kick off today, and Bungie promises that public events will appear more frequently in the game "very soon." If you encounter any connection problems while playing Destiny, let us know in the comments, or on the Joystiq Twitter or Facebook accounts. Use the hashtag "#sos" and specify your platform, please.
Destiny State of Service: Launch Day
This is State of Service, an ongoing review of the online service of a recently launched game. Thursday, September 11 | T-minus 28 days until final verdict Current State of Service: Good Summary: After some connection issues at launch, Destiny's online performance has been smooth. A limited number of Destiny players who jumped into the game on launch day ran into problems, losing connection to the game's servers or stalling out on loading screens. These issues were resolved and the servers appear to be functioning just fine now. Members of the Joystiq staff have reported a clean bill of health for the servers we're playing on, across PS3, PS4 and Xbox One. On launch day, editor Danny Cowan was booted out of a mission because of a connection error, but he's not run into additional problems since then. Otherwise, we've noticed that our game worlds appear to be underpopulated and every now and then we'll see excessive load times. We haven't encountered many public events in Destiny, with most of the staff reporting seeing just one during individual playtime. While worth noting, these aren't game-breaking issues. This is the "Launch Day" installment of State of Service, while our Day Three report is due to hit tomorrow. Joystiq Reviews Content Director Richard Mitchell is working on our Destiny review and it will go live as soon as possible. If you encounter any connection problems while playing Destiny, let us know in the comments, or on the Joystiq Twitter or Facebook accounts. Use the hashtag "#sos" and specify your platform, please.
Titanfall State of Service: Final Verdict
This is State of Service, an ongoing review of the online service of a recently launched game. See our scored review of Titanfall here. Friday, April 11 | Final Verdict Overall State of Service: Good Summary: Stable server performance. Isolated issues on PC. In its first month of availability, neither the Xbox One or PC versions of Titanfall have run into debilitating or pervasive problems. Apart from a few brief outages, Titanfall's performance has been stable, with developer Respawn deploying a handful of updates, including a special matchmaking pool for cheaters and improved matchmaking in general. Yesterday, Respawn also added the ability to play private matches and issued a number of balance tweaks and bug fixes. Joystiq staffers have encountered no serious problems with either the PC or Xbox One versions during Titanfall's launch month. Some users have reported technical problems on PC, though these seem to be isolated and most have workaround solutions. We've spent some time with the Xbox 360 version since its launch on Tuesday and, while it's visually less impressive and its frame rate isn't as solid, online play appears on par with what we've experienced on PC and Xbox One. In short, the online-only warfare of Titanfall seems to be running as intended, and we're comfortable declaring that its overall State of Service is Good. The quality of online play has been consistent, and Respawn seems committed to delivering updates and listening to its community.
Titanfall State of Service: Week Four
This is State of Service, an ongoing review of the online service of a recently launched game. See our scored review of Titanfall here. Tuesday, April 8 | T-minus 2 days until final verdict Current State of Service: Moderate Summary: Matchmaking update deployed. Some users experiencing longer than usual matchmaking times and connection issues. On the whole, Titanfall's online service appears to be running just fine after four weeks on PC and Xbox One, though some Titanfall players have been running into problems. Since the recent matchmaking update to Hardpoint and Attrition modes, some users have reported very long matchmaking times – anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes – or connection issues. Respawn itself has noted that matchmaking will take longer as a result of the more selective system, but enough users have encountered issues that the developer has lessened the effectiveness of the update in order to speed up matchmaking while it irons out the kinks. Respawn is also taking feedback on the matchmaking update in the Titanfall forums. For its part, Joystiq staff members haven't encountered any noteworthy issues since the matchmaking update was released. We'll be monitoring matchmaking performance over the next two days. Finally, after a recent delay, the Xbox 360 version of Titanfall has arrived as well. We'll be spending some time with it this week, and will incorporate some impressions into Titanfall's final State of Service update this Thursday. If you encounter any problems with Titanfall, let us know in the comments or on Joystiq's Twitter or Facebook accounts (use the hashtag #sos and don't forget to specify your platform!).
Titanfall State of Service: Week Three
This is State of Service, an ongoing review of the online service of a recently launched game. See our scored review of Titanfall here. Tuesday, April 1 | T-minus 9 days until final verdict Current State of Service: Good Summary: PC version experiencing limited issues. Matchmaking update in the works. Anti-cheating system enabled on PC. Apart from a brief server outage last Tuesday, and an issue with Australian servers in particular, Titanfall appears to be humming along on both PC and Xbox One. Servers for both versions went down during the afternoon on March 25, apparently as the result of broader problems with Xbox Live. Servers were back online that evening. Meanwhile, Australian players encountered an issue in which servers would return a ping of -1, making them unusable. The problem was "sporadic," and it was corrected as of March 31, according to official Titanfall Twitter account. Joystiq staff members have been playing both versions with no significant problems to report. In other service news, Respawn is working on an update to Titanfall's matchmaking to keep weaker teams from being consistently dominated by stronger teams. Furthermore, the PC version has been updated to combat cheating. Cheaters detected by the game are subsequently only allowed to play with other cheaters, where they will enjoy what Respawn calls "the Wimbledon of aimbot contests." If you encounter any problems with Titanfall, let us know in the comments or on Joystiq's Twitter or Facebook accounts (use the hashtag #sos and don't forget to specify your platform!).
Titanfall State of Service: Week Two
This is State of Service, an ongoing review of the online service of a recently launched game. See our scored review of Titanfall here. Tuesday, March 25 | T-minus 16 days until final verdict Current State of Service: Good Summary: PC version experiencing limited issues. Balance patch deployed. Xbox 360 version delayed. After two weeks on PC and Xbox One, Titanfall's service performance remains mostly solid. The PC version is still experiencing isolated issues, notably infinite loading screens when trying to connect to a game. It seems most players on both versions, however, have had a smooth experience. For its part, the Joystiq staff has encountered no significant issues on Xbox One or PC (though matchmaking still has a confusing habit of pairing low-level players with high-level players). Servers briefly went offline around 10pm Eastern on Thursday, March 20, and began to come back online within an hour. Titanfall has also received its first balance-tweaking and bug-squishing patch, and you can find the patch notes right here. Finally, neither Joystiq or players at large will be able to test the service of the Xbox 360 version this week, as it was delayed to April 8 in North America and April 11 in Europe. If you encounter any problems with Titanfall, let us know in the comments or on Joystiq's Twitter or Facebook accounts (use the hashtag #sos and don't forget to specify your platform!).
Titanfall State of Service: Week One
This is State of Service, an ongoing review of the online service of a recently launched game. See our scored review of Titanfall here. Tuesday, March 18 | T-minus 23 days until final verdict Current State of Service: Good Summary: Launch day problems resolved. PC experiencing limited issues. Australia receives dedicated servers. One week out, Titanfall seems to be running strong. Isolated reports of lag and hanging matchmaking screens are reaching us, but the Joystiq staff is reporting no significant issues on either PC or Xbox One. The biggest complaint so far seems to be uneven matchmaking, with low-level players regularly being matched with high-level and even Prestige level players. Some PC users with Belkin routers are still having trouble connecting, but Belkin offered a workaround that's less expensive than "buy a new router." If you encounter any problems with Titanfall, let us know in the comments or on Joystiq's Twitter or Facebook accounts (use the hashtag #sos and don't forget to specify your platform!).
Titanfall State of Service: Day Three
This is State of Service, an ongoing review of the online service of a recently launched game. See our scored review of Titanfall here. Friday, March 14 | T-minus 27 days until final verdict Current State of Service: Good Summary: Launch day problems resolved. PC experiencing limited issues. Australia receives dedicated servers. It appears that Titanfall's launch day kinks have mostly been ironed out. The Xbox One and PC versions seem to be running as intended, with Joystiq staff reporting no significant problems on either platform since launch day. Some PC players are reporting an error that produces an infinitely looping loading screen. The Respawn Twitter account advises players encountering this problem to lower their in-game texture settings. Some PC users with Belkin routers are also having trouble connecting. Respawn has stated this problem will have to be addressed by Belkin. Also of note, Australia now has access to dedicated servers for Titanfall. The servers were quickly inundated with players. As of earlier today, more servers are being put online. If you encounter any problems with Titanfall, let us know in the comments or on Joystiq's Twitter or Facebook accounts (use the hashtag #sos and don't forget to specify your platform!).
Titanfall State of Service: Launch Day
This is State of Service, an ongoing review of the online service of a recently launched game. See our scored review of Titanfall here. Wednesday, March 12 | T-minus 29 days until final verdict Current State of Service: Moderate Summary: Xbox One and PC versions experienced matchmaking issues. Problems seem to have been resolved. PC version experiencing crash bug. Some players experienced problems with matchmaking during Titanfall's launch yesterday. Later in the afternoon, Xbox Live itself began to malfunction, with many users unable to login to Microsoft's online service at all. Joystiq ran into these problems firsthand during a live stream of Titanfall, during which we had trouble matchmaking and even connecting to in-game parties. At one point, our own Susan Arendt left the game, rebooted her Xbox One and was unable to sign into Xbox Live. For its part, Microsoft has stated that Xbox Live issues were unrelated to the launch of Titanfall. Late last night, Xbox Support announced that overarching Xbox Live issues had been resolved, and advised users to power cycle their Xbox One consoles. Joystiq staff then played several hours of Titanfall without further problems. The PC version of Titanfall has encountered matchmaking issues of its own, a problem that was solved this morning, according to the Titanfall Twitter account. Furthermore, the EA Help site notes that the PC version may crash when attempting to join a friend's match while currently playing a different match. EA Help recommends exiting to the lobby before issuing or accepting invitations. If you encounter any problems with Titanfall, let us know in the comments or on Joystiq's Twitter or Facebook accounts (use the hashtag #sos and don't forget to specify your platform!).
Respawn: Titanfall's server stability is in Microsoft's azure hands
Titanfall will be propped up by dedicated servers. As much was made known last June, but what may not be so clear to players is that post-launch hiccups are primarily Microsoft's responsibility. Respawn engineer Jon Shiring recently explained to Engadget how Respawn used Microsoft's "Azure" cloud computing technology to handle elements of Titanfall like AI hosting and physics calculations. "One of the really nice things about it is that it isn't my problem, right?" Shiring said of potential server issues at the game's launch. "We just say [to Microsoft], here are our estimates, aim for more than that, plan for problems and make sure there are more than enough servers available -- they'll know the whole time that they need to bring more servers online." Shiring said that during the game's lengthy beta program, the game's European servers filled up, and players were quietly transitioned to East Coast US data centers, indicating the developer's contingency plans in the event its launch is wildly popular tomorrow. Titanfall, a multiplayer-only game, is so reliant on the Azure servers that Respawn opted to not launch the game in some regions, such as South Africa. Shiring also noted in late January that server-side updates for the game won't cause downtime for players. Our review of Titanfall will be supplemented with our first of many State of Service reviews, so expect to hear more about how the game's online play holds up after it launches. [Image: Electronic Arts]
Introducing State of Service reviews on Joystiq
Online experiences are one of the most rewarding and entertaining aspects of video games. Who doesn't love teaming up with friends to blast the opposition? What's more thrilling than proving your skill against another human being, or joining them on a meaningful journey? Online play is a joy uniquely tied to video games, and in the age of always-on, persistent experiences, it's becoming more crucial each year. The growing proliferation and complexity of online components, however, has given rise to a similarly unique frustration. When these connected components fail, you're left with a tantalizing but only semi-functional heap of code. You know there's a good game in there, it's just buried under the debris of unchecked latency, overloaded servers and random disconnects. Call it the Battlefield 4 effect, if you want. As we've learned over the last year, quality service is now just as important as quality gameplay. To that end, we've created State of Service, a new supplement to Joystiq's review process. Moving forward, for many games that rely heavily on online components, Joystiq will post regular updates on the quality of the online experience. These updates will be provided over a period of 30 days after a game's launch. After those 30 days are up, we'll post a final verdict. Of course, it's possible that a game's service will improve after 30 days – again, see Battlefield 4 – but we feel that a month is a reasonable amount of time for us to evaluate the service and for developers and publishers to correct any outstanding problems. In fact, given that players are paying for a potentially broken product, it's more than reasonable. Titanfall will be the first game to get the State of Service treatment (hence the image). Read on to see exactly how it's going to work.
