How a company can manipulate the environment to make something like the Cloud look better than it might fundamentally be from an adoption rate:
http://www.respawn.com/news/lets-talk-about-the-xbox-live-cloud/
This game, TitanFall, is the biggest game this year (or should be). The deal was that Microsoft would provide free servers (from Azure) in return EA/Respawn, would NOT make this game available on the PS4. Only PC & Xbox. It helps Microsoft give bragging rights as to how many cloud servers they have (which people think it means they are running ERP systems, not a videogame) and at the same time helps Microsoft stick a giant finger in Sony's eye.
Whether it's a financially losing proposition to Microsoft is another story, but it won't be the first time they use their money to influence the market (probably legally, but not all that 'nice')