Be careful what you wish for!
Fresh off their jam packed Windows briefing, Microsoft rolled out several huge announcements that have caused some serious waves as of late. You can check out my original report right here , but I can tell you chief among them (aside from massive integrations with the new Windows OS) will be the fact that cross-play between Xboxes and Desktops is finally going to be possible!
This news certainly has some game-changing implications once walls such as these are eventually torn down for good. For years gamers have been isolated from each other when playing online. Obviously you wouldn’t expect PS4 and Xbox gamers to mix with the “enemy” camp, but PC users have always been kind of the Switzerland in the scenario. They’ve been stuck in-between, hoping to find a place among their console brethren. That is, at least some of them. Others have no desire to “mix races” as it were. Luckily for them, Phil Spencer assured us this would not be something forced down gamer’s throats (during a group press interview). “I think cross-platform play is an enabling technology to make games great. If somebody decides that cross-platform play isn’t something that’s going to make their game great, there’s no way I’d ever create a publishing requirement that says you must do this…In the end, some people are hardcore about the competition, and some people just want to have fun playing. I want to make sure we’re enabling both.”
I for one am excited about such an innovation and welcome its arrival. Although, I am sensitive to some of the concerns I’m hearing from within the community. The idea of taking two platforms that bring VERY different mechanics to the table and dumping them into one melting pot is not as easy as flipping on a light switch. There will be a huge subset of unintended consequences that will likely arise. For example, imagine you’ve just fired up your late-night frag session of Halo on your Xbox One and you join a server that is a console/desktop hybrid (with players using both hardware types in the same lobby). You’ll likely notice the amount of headshots the other team has been able to rack up has significantly jumped (more so than you’re accustomed to seeing in the past). That can be attributed to those users on Windows having the advantage of a mouse and keyboard setup, where you’re left with the same old clunky thumb sticks. In essence, the opponent’s accuracy rate has just jumped by a factor of 50% or more!
It’s these kinds of unfair advantages developers will have to contend with in the future. Obviously there will need to be some kind of leveling agent (possibly nerfing the weapons of those on desktops) to help keep the playing field even. Halo is just one example, as these effects will be felt across all genres. Just be prepared to hear more of this manner of complaints on blogs and forums in the future.
For me, I still say bring it on. We shouldn’t allow these little speed bumps to hinder our progress, which is exactly what I would call cross-platform play. PROGRESS!