Xbox, PC Gamers Will Be Able Play Online With Other Platforms

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Microsoft has officially announced that it has made it possible for Xbox One and Windows 10 games to play together online with other console and PC networks. Imagine if Sony decides to play along, you could have PC / Xbox versus PS4 battles. :eek:

First, in addition to natively supporting cross-platform play between Xbox One and Windows 10 games that use Xbox Live, we’re enabling developers to support cross-network play as well. This means players on Xbox One and Windows 10 using Xbox Live will be able to play with players on different online multiplayer networks – including other console and PC networks.

Of course, it’s up to game developers to support this feature, and Xbox Live players will always have the option of choosing to play only with other Xbox Live players. We’re thrilled to confirm that Psyonix’s Rocket League will be one of the first games to take advantage of this new capability by enabling cross-network play between Xbox One and PC players, with an open invitation for other networks to participate as well.
 
cool feature but won't PC players have the advantage in certain games playing with kb/m?
 
That's what nice about Rocket League, as the best input method is the controller, so there's no advantage. Depends on the game whether there will be an advantage or not.
 
polonyc2 said:
cool feature but won't PC players have the advantage in certain games playing with kb/m?
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Well if Xbox Live players can have the option of only playing with other XBL players, I would assume that this wouldn't be an issue. But aim assist is becoming really aimbot level these days to the point playing with a controller in Black Ops III on the PC version is preferred.

But I would love to see FPS matches play out like this.
 
I'm pretty sure they'll block cross-platform play for anything that requires precision aiming.
 
polonyc2 said:
cool feature but won't PC players have the advantage in certain games playing with kb/m?
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And for certain games console players will have the advantage by playing with a controller. I'm sure developers will do what they can to level things but you can't mitigate everything.
 
tisb0b said:
Then PC players will simply plug in a controller.
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Right. The best move? Just allowing KB/M support on the consoles. It's been done before(with poor success because they halfassed it), and it's not like they aren't already coding for it in the games that get ported to PC anyway.
 
Merc1138 said:
Right. The best move? Just allowing KB/M support on the consoles. It's been done before(with poor success because they halfassed it), and it's not like they aren't already coding for it in the games that get ported to PC anyway.
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Not only that, but it seems to me that console gamers are becoming more and more like PC gamers. Most of their multiplayer gaming is online and at a desk (using a LCD monitor paired with an expensive set of headphones), I don't think it'd be much of a leap for console gamers to embrace a KB+M over their gamepad. The days of consoles being used for same room multiplayer social gaming in front of a large HDTV is nearing its end (if it hasn't already arrived).
 
Another MS announcement that boils down to them supporting people that are not using their products. In this case I guess its an end around... more like we don't want people to feel like they can't play with their friends if they buy one of our products. (seeing as their friends likely didn't).

I know I know I'm reading in... still I can't be the only one thinking the same thing.
 
Sony has been in favor of x-platform play for years. Microsoft was the one's dragging their feet. I'm glad they finally came around.
 
Armenius said:
Well if Xbox Live players can have the option of only playing with other XBL players, I would assume that this wouldn't be an issue. But aim assist is becoming really aimbot level these days to the point playing with a controller in Black Ops III on the PC version is preferred.

But I would love to see FPS matches play out like this.
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Why is that Quake 3 so horrible looking? I mean are the graphics even on?
 
bigdogchris said:
Sony has been in favor of x-platform play for years. Microsoft was the one's dragging their feet. I'm glad they finally came around.
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If microsoft was still leading the console race i doubt this would have ever happened.

In the past they have bragged as if their service as something of a untouchable gold standard with no plebs allowed but that has really wavered since sony pushed plus and now the ps4 player base is larger for essentially every mutliplatform release.
 
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I'm all for cross platform play, but Microsoft will find some way to fuck it up. Look at the mess that is games on the Windows 10 store.
 
lucidrenegade said:
I'm all for cross platform play, but Microsoft will find some way to fuck it up. Look at the mess that is games on the Windows 10 store.
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Rise of the Tomb Raider played perfectly fine for me on release date through the Windows 10 store. Did you know that game was on the Windows 10 store? As far as I know, only 2 big games came out on Windows 10 store. Gears of War had issues at launch but then again, I can name a lot more than 1 game on Steam that had issues on launch day.

I think this is a good thing. Microsoft is trying new things thanks to competition. This is what drives the industry. I really dislike narrow-minded people when companies are trying to branch out and try things because they need to in order to survive. Sure they could mess up really bad but they could do really well, too. Just gotta see how it pans out.
 
Dwango said:
And for certain games console players will have the advantage by playing with a controller. I'm sure developers will do what they can to level things but you can't mitigate everything.
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Aim assist has gotten pretty good in the past few years. Just look at games like CoD:BO3 or Titanfall. When people talk about the mkb being superior to the gamepad, they're using obsolete thinking. Yes, the game mkb is vastly superior to a gamepad which doesn't have aim assist. But there's a reason people on the Steam forums are complaining that aim assist is practically cheating. Even when it comes to pro gamers:

'Titanfall' tournament puts PC-versus-console debate to the test

For many PC players, playing against talented controller users backed by aim assist sometimes feels like struggling against a player with an aimbot, a cheat in PC games that uses the computer to aim for the player.

“I underestimated that shit,” Justin White, a player on the team Free Refills, said about aim assist.
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In a way though, I find it weird that Xbox gamers are opposed to playing with PC gamers, and defending the mkb as being vastly superior, rather than being open to the idea of PC players joining, and finding out that they can actually compete. Sure, the PC has cheaters, but it's not like that many people are cheating, despite all the allegations. I can understand PC gamers though, as they might not actually want to admit that maybe aim assist has caught up, and they can no longer dominate gamepad users.

I mean, I use to think the same thing, the kbm > gamepad under all circumstances. But from personal experience, it's just not true anymore. I have a XIM4 I use on the console. With games like Battlefield 4 and CoD, guess what? My kdr is actually worse on the console than the PC. BO3: My kdr is 1.73 on the PC and 1.24 on the PS4. Sure, the XIM4 doesn't emulate a keyboard and mouse perfectly, and it's fairly evident the first time you use that, but console users are constantly complaining how it's cheating and gives an unfair advantage, without actually ever using one to see for themselves.

But the cross platform playing will allow people to play with only their own platform, or mixed platforms. And the developer has to support it. It's not like cross platform is really a new thing, and I doubt Sony or any developer will actually support it beyond a few games like Rocket League.
 
NeoGohan said:
Rise of the Tomb Raider played perfectly fine for me on release date through the Windows 10 store. Did you know that game was on the Windows 10 store? As far as I know, only 2 big games came out on Windows 10 store. Gears of War had issues at launch but then again, I can name a lot more than 1 game on Steam that had issues on launch day.

I think this is a good thing. Microsoft is trying new things thanks to competition. This is what drives the industry. I really dislike narrow-minded people when companies are trying to branch out and try things because they need to in order to survive. Sure they could mess up really bad but they could do really well, too. Just gotta see how it pans out.
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The problem with the Windows Store when it comes to big, core, PC games is the lack of import features that come with the store. Thing like the lack of overlays and the ability to mod games.
 
Taking fps games out of the equation I think this is a pretty good idea. I often have friends who play the same game but it's scattered among different platforms. MMOs, adventure games, rpgs etc... I think those would work well cross platform. I'd love to see a future Dark Souls take advantage of this then I could rally up my buddies who don't have a gaming pc to enjoy the madness with me.
 
Majinhoju said:
Taking fps games out of the equation I think this is a pretty good idea. I often have friends who play the same game but it's scattered among different platforms. MMOs, adventure games, rpgs etc... I think those would work well cross platform. I'd love to see a future Dark Souls take advantage of this then I could rally up my buddies who don't have a gaming pc to enjoy the madness with me.
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It might end up well on something like Need for Speed...or say plants vs zombies... or side scrollers maybe... but even with MMO's...or RPG's... the ease of use to click buttons is still going to give an advantage to PC players...I never played dark souls so i have no idea how it plays, but im guessing the accuracy of movements and selection of abilities of any kind, are still going to favor the PC... imagine World Of Warcraft on PC and say an Xbox One... PVP is going to destroy people with all the spells and abilities and movement on a console...the more commands there are. the worse the Console players are going to have it... its that simple...8 buttons versus dozens within fingers reach still gives you an advantage...now imagine like Grand Theft Auto... LOL... as soon as you jump out of your car to shoot a PC player, you are going to be dead before you can zoom...

I dont see this lasting very long without them giving aimbot abilities or limiting spells in say RPG's... either way, the button limit and accuracy is going to hinder the consoles immensly.
 
bigdogchris said:
Sony has been in favor of x-platform play for years. Microsoft was the one's dragging their feet. I'm glad they finally came around.
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Sony was in favor, so they could save money. They'd simply have a Playstation Store and let the separate companies handle their own online multiplayer aspect of their games. It was a terrible idea on PS3.

Sony vs MS, MS was the one to push cross platform play games a hell of a lot more than Sony. Between the two, MS put out a cross platform game before Sony. They also pushed Games for Windows Live, which helped 3rd party developers implement cross platform play.

Nytegard said:
Aim assist has gotten pretty good in the past few years. Just look at games like CoD:BO3 or Titanfall. When people talk about the mkb being superior to the gamepad, they're using obsolete thinking. Yes, the game mkb is vastly superior to a gamepad which doesn't have aim assist. But there's a reason people on the Steam forums are complaining that aim assist is practically cheating.
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Kb/m is superior to gamepad (for certain games). Aim assist is part of the game, not part of the game pad. There can be games with aim assist and without, for both gamepad and kb/m.

I also don't see how they're complaining that aim assist is practically cheating. It is cheating. It's a cheat that will automatically lock onto a target when the reticule gets near it. Take it a little further and it'd be an aim bot.

Am I against it? No, cause gamepads do suck at those kind of things, but if they're going to allow aim assist in cross platform, then just enable it on PC too, like many PC ports have anyways. I always turn it off, cause it annoys me when I'm aiming for one person and it auto aims at someone else that's nearby.

Majinhoju said:
Taking fps games out of the equation I think this is a pretty good idea. I often have friends who play the same game but it's scattered among different platforms. MMOs, adventure games, rpgs etc... I think those would work well cross platform. I'd love to see a future Dark Souls take advantage of this then I could rally up my buddies who don't have a gaming pc to enjoy the madness with me.
Click to expand...

That's how it was for me. I bought the first Borderlands on PC, but I ended up buying it on Xbox 360 also, cause that's where all my friends were playing. That's the type of game that's better played with friends than with random ppl online.

SS_Wehrwolf said:
It might end up well on something like Need for Speed...or say plants vs zombies... or side scrollers maybe... but even with MMO's...or RPG's... the ease of use to click buttons is still going to give an advantage to PC players...I never played dark souls so i have no idea how it plays, but im guessing the accuracy of movements and selection of abilities of any kind, are still going to favor the PC... imagine World Of Warcraft on PC and say an Xbox One... PVP is going to destroy people with all the spells and abilities and movement on a console...the more commands there are. the worse the Console players are going to have it... its that simple...8 buttons versus dozens within fingers reach still gives you an advantage...now imagine like Grand Theft Auto... LOL... as soon as you jump out of your car to shoot a PC player, you are going to be dead before you can zoom...

I dont see this lasting very long without them giving aimbot abilities or limiting spells in say RPG's... either way, the button limit and accuracy is going to hinder the consoles immensly.
Click to expand...

They can make a cash grab and put out a numpad keyboard for MMO/RPGs, but call it like, Mad Catz Super MMO Console Supreme Ultra keyboard with Cherry MX switches. That or put out something stupid like this.

gamecubekeyboard.jpg
 
NeoGohan said:
Rise of the Tomb Raider played perfectly fine for me on release date through the Windows 10 store. Did you know that game was on the Windows 10 store? As far as I know, only 2 big games came out on Windows 10 store. Gears of War had issues at launch but then again, I can name a lot more than 1 game on Steam that had issues on launch day.
.
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The thing is, the issues on the windows store were directly related to the game being on the windows store and issues that come from steam are usually in game issues that are fixed by patches from the developers. The only issue ive seen on steam is when a game first comes out sometimes the servers get overloaded, but that hasnt happened to me for a while.
 
without auto aim kb/m would crush controller in a heartbeat. With AA, it depends on how much Auto is put on it, and be at the biased discretion of the game developer lead. I would only enjoy bullying controller users so much until I got board and would be irritated if AA was imho overpowered. I'd generally avoid cross-platform play if I could. Bad idea, imho.
 
They have no reason to block those playing controller vs KB+M, just look at Division on PC, half the players are using Xbox controllers, half the players are using KB+M .. In fact when I talk to other players it's often an asked question of which one your playing with and prefer. So cross-platform doesn't matter much when your already playing against controller junkies.
 
........................And the number of XBox players BAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW'ing that they're getting slaughtered by PC players, in

3.

2.

1.
 
krotch said:
Sony was in favor, so they could save money. They'd simply have a Playstation Store and let the separate companies handle their own online multiplayer aspect of their games. It was a terrible idea on PS3.

Sony vs MS, MS was the one to push cross platform play games a hell of a lot more than Sony. Between the two, MS put out a cross platform game before Sony. They also pushed Games for Windows Live, which helped 3rd party developers implement cross platform play.
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Literally the only reason ms tried to push it was to force pc gamers to pay for xbl service on pc, when that bombed they quickly gave up.
 
yourgrandma said:
Literally the only reason ms tried to push it was to force pc gamers to pay for xbl service on pc, when that bombed they quickly gave up.
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Except that it was free. It was more a push to try to make their own online store like Steam, while having XBL features like achievements. Course Valve just turned around and started putting achievements into Steam. Or maybe it was before. I don't remember.

I also doubt MS could have ever charged for multiplayer on PC. Too many alternatives and the PC community would just start hacking games to get around it.
 
I am all onboard with this as long as concerning FPS games I can OPT out of playing with people using controlers and auto aiming cheatware.
No thanks there is a big enough issue of cheating and hax that they can not stop, why open the door to another level of hax?

I do find it funny how every year we get a report of how bad the market share is for PC declining in favor of consoles but we see consoles now on the decline and they want to join the PC ranks.
I am leaning towards this is a bad idea to mix this all together just my opinion.
 
AK0tA said:
I am all onboard with this as long as concerning FPS games I can OPT out of playing with people using controlers and auto aiming cheatware.
No thanks there is a big enough issue of cheating and hax that they can not stop, why open the door to another level of hax?

I do find it funny how every year we get a report of how bad the market share is for PC declining in favor of consoles but we see consoles now on the decline and they want to join the PC ranks.
I am leaning towards this is a bad idea to mix this all together just my opinion.
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I am sorry but, where do you see consoles as being on the decline? Good old PC Master race elitist, cannot see beyond the edge of his or her PC case. ;) I am all for this online gaming stuff going forward but, I have yet to see a game in 12 years that is worth putting a lot of online time into. (Wolf: ET and UT2004 were and still are the best for online play.)
 
ManofGod said:
I am sorry but, where do you see consoles as being on the decline? Good old PC Master race elitist, cannot see beyond the edge of his or her PC case. ;) I am all for this online gaming stuff going forward but, I have yet to see a game in 12 years that is worth putting a lot of online time into. (Wolf: ET and UT2004 were and still are the best for online play.)
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Havent console sales been pretty piss poor compared to the previous generation? Also there are plenty of online multiplayer games that are worth sinking time into. I have 1100 hours in CS:GO and i know there are tons out there with the same, even some on this forum.
 
krotch said:
Except that it was free.
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Microsoft Unites Xbox and PC Gamers With Debut of Games for Windows — LIVE | News Center

GFWL was seen as a return to pc gaming and was a total shitshow close to what we have going on now but not quite as bad. Cross platform play for shadowrun required you to purchase xbl. Many of the games were gimped (no ingame voip or dedicated servers) unless you bought xbl like halo 2 or GoW. Most the games at launch were forced vista exclusives that still could easily run in xp as well.

For example halo 2 "Through LIVE – you will be able to jump into Quickmatches on public servers throughout internet. If you have a Gold account, you’ll be able to jump into Gold-only LIVE servers. "
 
nvgrim said:
Havent console sales been pretty piss poor compared to the previous generation? Also there are plenty of online multiplayer games that are worth sinking time into. I have 1100 hours in CS:GO and i know there are tons out there with the same, even some on this forum.
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It might just be a change in the taste of games of what's popular. For example, in the 80s, Adventure Games on the PC and Platform games on the console ruled. Maybe FPSs are just going out of vogue. Unfortunately, AAA game companies are becoming less diverse in what they're selling
 
NeoGohan said:
I think this is a good thing. Microsoft is trying new things thanks to competition. This is what drives the industry. I really dislike narrow-minded people when companies are trying to branch out and try things because they need to in order to survive. Sure they could mess up really bad but they could do really well, too. Just gotta see how it pans out.
Click to expand...

Poor little engine that could, a monolithic megacorp that's been abusing a monopoly position for decades now finding itself with its pants down. MS only seems to bother to wake up and try to 'compete' after the train's long left the station.
 
ManofGod said:
I am sorry but, where do you see consoles as being on the decline? Good old PC Master race elitist, cannot see beyond the edge of his or her PC case. ;) I am all for this online gaming stuff going forward but, I have yet to see a game in 12 years that is worth putting a lot of online time into. (Wolf: ET and UT2004 were and still are the best for online play.)
Click to expand...
Well either console sales are on decline, or PC game sales are on the rise, take your pick:

Ubisoft reports PC sales are rising, current-gen console sales are dipping

PC games sales to eclipse value of console games sales in 2016 - Industry - News - HEXUS.net
 
yourgrandma said:
Microsoft Unites Xbox and PC Gamers With Debut of Games for Windows — LIVE | News Center

GFWL was seen as a return to pc gaming and was a total shitshow close to what we have going on now but not quite as bad. Cross platform play for shadowrun required you to purchase xbl. Many of the games were gimped (no ingame voip or dedicated servers) unless you bought xbl like halo 2 or GoW. Most the games at launch were forced vista exclusives that still could easily run in xp as well.

For example halo 2 "Through LIVE – you will be able to jump into Quickmatches on public servers throughout internet. If you have a Gold account, you’ll be able to jump into Gold-only LIVE servers. "
Click to expand...

Oh, I remember that Games for Windows Live. I avoided it like the plague after getting Red Faction Guerilla. I also didn't know that you had to buy XBL for cross platform gaming for some games.

I also hate force exclusive games, like they did when XP came out. I had to install the game on XP, then copy the files and registry entries to my Win2k box.
 
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