Titanfall is more than just a potential sales boost for the Xbox One, it’s also the first real test of the digital infrastructure that runs Microsoft’s new console. If everything goes accordingly, Titanfall will be available for digital download on Xbox Live tonight at midnight in the United States alongside launch events for physical retail copies at participating stores.
As Forbes contributor Paul Tassi notes, this is the first major game release since the console’s launch, so Xbox One owners are anxiously awaiting the moment the download goes live to see if Microsoft is prepared for the massive influx of downloads.
Even if the Xbox One can make it through tonight unscathed, there’s the matter of Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform holding up, which will be hosting the servers for Titanfall. After the extravagant failure that was the Battlefield 4 launch, gamers are understandably less than optimistic that the online-only Titanfall will be running smoothly once everyone begins jumping into matches. Here’s hoping EA, Respawn and Microsoft can prove us wrong.
And just to wash away any beliefs you might have that Titanfall isn’t going to be the event of the week, here’s a look at Microsoft’s online data centers before and after the game launched in Asia from Respawn’s Jon Shiring:
Titanfall is now officially launched – first location: Asia (Korea, HK, TW, etc.). Here’s what I’m looking at. pic.twitter.com/t7vKsiKUf1
— Jon Shiring (@jonshiring) March 10, 2014
