Cross-Console Multiplayer: Is it a Big Deal?

[Brend]

So, with recent announcements this week that Switch, Xbox One and PC will all be able to play Rocket League and Minecraft together...it got me wondering - how big is the hunger for this feature?

As fans of the racing genre, there's clearly huge scope for this. Cross-platform championships in titles like Project CARS 2 would be incredible. As it stands, the closest we have to total platform unification are the leaderboards in DiRT 4.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you think Sony are making the correct decision, or would you like to have as huge a player-base as possible all the time?

 

[TJ13]

It's good and bad.

Cross Platform should be more combined into Consoles having their own and PC being their own thing.

Reason why I say is it's harder to "Modify" games on consoles than PC.
Get a PS4 players with a PC player. Almost PC is going to win.

But PS4 with Xbox it's more level since then it's mostly how well you can be better.

Switch well.
Just Switch it?

Also from what Sony Europe has said that they are going to remove all cross platform gaming from it. So Sony is still being the odd one out.

 

[HELLAFLUSH240SX]

For me it's sad. Microsoft's refusal to do crossplay with PS is the reason why I can't play War Thunder on Xbox.

 

[dice1998]

It's good and bad.

Cross Platform should be more combined into Consoles having their own and PC being their own thing.

Reason why I say is it's harder to "Modify" games on consoles than PC.
Get a PS4 players with a PC player. Almost PC is going to win.

But PS4 with Xbox it's more level since then it's mostly how well you can be better.

Switch well.
Just Switch it?

Also from what Sony Europe has said that they are going to remove all cross platform gaming from it. So Sony is still being the odd one out.

I'd have to agree with this. While it's awesome if games could do it, there's a bad side to it as with anything. It could work well in Destiny, for example, if you can play with PC players in PvE environments and maybe only Console users for Multiplayer.

For me it's sad. Microsoft's refusal to do crossplay with PS is the reason why I can't play War Thunder on Xbox.

You sure it isn't the other way around?

 

[Eh Team]

It would be a great thing I think, between consoles at least. If console players are all together then online games will be easier to find. The problem is that it is most certainly viewed as hurting sales of the actual box. The only reason why you would buy one over the other would become whose exclusives do you like better. Sure it would be a considerably better situation for customers, but that's obviously not how Sony thinks it should be.

 

[HELLAFLUSH240SX]

I'd have to agree with this. While it's awesome if games could do it, there's a bad side to it as with anything. It could work well in Destiny, for example, if you can play with PC players in PvE environments and maybe only Console users for Multiplayer.



You sure it isn't the other way around?

Well WT is on PC so Sony wouldn't have any control over them. You could be right though.

 

[Lion-Face]

It's funny how MS are attempting to paint Sony in a bad light for this one, where it is often been MS preventing multi-platform online play in the past IIRC.

I'm all for it personally. Why not have just one online community within a game? Play on the platform of your choice. I play both War Thunder and Paragon on either my PS4 or my PC, have no issue with playing on either, just depends on what I feel like and whatever device is turned on at the time. There are certainly some issues with fairness of systems, like fast FPS games one PC having a control advantage over the consoles, but for the most part, that can be eliminated by giving the consoles the same input options, like War Thunder having the option of keyboard/mouse if you like. For most casual players, it wouldn't make much of a difference. I use controller on PS4 and don't feel like I'm at a disadvantage in either game by using a controller.

You sure it isn't the other way around?

"Microsoft is not allowing cross-play completely; which means [War Thunder] cannot be on Xbox One," … “Sony is much more open to indie developers and free-to-play games in general. So Sony has been in the free-to-play market for a few years already, they started on the PlayStation 3"

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Wh...osoft-Prevents-Cross-Platform-Play-63035.html

 

[sesselpupser]

It's a great idea, but only in games where a controller is the best input option. Rocket League is one of those, Forza Horizon 3 is another, but unless there's a filter to allow console players to only play with other console players and not PC, it should never be a thing in first person shooters because of the enormous mouse advantage. Same goes for settings like draw distance or games where the tick rate for anything that could cause fairness problems is related to the frame rate (which is unfortunately quite common).

 

[Tornado]

It's hard for me to really say it's a big deal, and in my experience (Dreamcast-era, granted) PC players tend to slaughter console players even in situations that you wouldn't necessarily expect. That being said, it's definitely a positive change to the industry, and Sony's attempts to justify why they are in the right for not doing it are pretty hilarious.