Xbox One cross-play with PC not allowed, says War Thunder dev

[George P Global Moderator]

Sorry, I'm still not sure I'm understanding what you are asking.  I'll give it a shot though.

Why was this issue on MS or the platform holder only and not an issue with developers since they are choosing not to do cross-play even when they can? (My best guess at what you are asking, sorry if I've misunderstood again).

In the case of this particular thread it was started in response to a developer (War Thunder dev) who claims they DO want to do cross-play but MS is stopping them.  So in this particular case it is not the dev who is making the choice and it IS a platform restriction by MS that is standing in the way so the issue is clearly on MS.  There are tons of examples though on other platforms where devs/publishers could have done cross-play but didn't and in those cases sure it's the dev/publishers fault too but that has nothing to do with the War Thunder story this thread is about.  Ultimately I believe the point is that MS has more restrictive policies than Sony on their consoles and given that MS has changed policies in the past when there was dev outcry I imagine the War Thunder dev is just trying to stir up a hornets nest in the hopes that they can get a policy change.  Clearly 3rd party Devs/publisher would like the least restrictions on them as possible and if one competitor is offering more restrictions than the other they're going to play up that difference in order to try to get them to change.

 

 

I agree with you but I don't see this push from developers for MS to change this policy, not at this time or maybe it's going on but behind the scenes.  Still, as pointed out, if it was such an issue overall then developers would do cross-play more yet they don't.   Cross-play aside I think the much more bigger issue that MS should look at dropping is keeping MMOs behind Gold, though if you're going to play a MMO on the Xbox odds are you're going to be paying for gold to play the rest of your games online as well, so the point seems moot.   It'd be nice though either way, and if a store for apps and stuff hits the XB1 like I expect I can see them changing the way Gold is today because you have other incentives to getting it besides just MP, like If digital game sharing comes back and so on.

[MikeChipshop Member]

i don't see that as so much of an issue for a few reasons.

 

1. you can use controllers on PC and with an extra item such as XIM you can use kb+mouse on consoles. plus at least on the ps3/ps4 game devs are given the option of natively supporting kb+mouse

2. for shooters there are players that are just as accurate if not more accurate w/ controllers than those on kb+mouse

3. for racers there are race wheels and flight sticks you can get for consoles too

 

 

It's up to the dev to decide that though, not a system wide restriction

 

Got to agree with this.

MS should make it up to devs and not say no right off the bat. Even working in separate lobbies for those using different control methods wouldn't be that much of a pita.

 

At the end of the day, if enough devs kicked up a fuss i'm sure they could get MS to rethink the idea.

[dead.cell]

It's just curious why there has to even be X amount of developers just to see change. Why do we need a middle man making this decision? If the developers want to put in the extra time and resources to allow for seamless play between console and PC, that's really on them more than anything.

[+Asmodai MVC]

MS should make it up to devs and not say no right off the bat. Even working in separate lobbies for those using different control methods wouldn't be that much of a pita.

 

At the end of the day, if enough devs kicked up a fuss i'm sure they could get MS to rethink the idea.

MS doesn't let Publishers/Devs host their own servers. I can't imagine that ever changing, it's a fundamental aspect of Xbox Live and one of the key differences with PSN. If devs/publishers can't host their own servers that means either the games have to be peer-to-peer (as were most 360 multi-player games), in which case MS is not going to let a PC client connect directly to an Xbox, or server based where the server is hosted on the Xbox Live network (instead of by the developer/publisher). Now in the past this second option was rarely used because paying MS to host a server for you was prohibitively expensive so it was rarely done. This is what Shadowrun did I believe though and a few other games. In the current gen though MS has made this more realistic by offering free cloud hosting on the Xbox Live network via Xbox Live Compute (their special game centric Azure cloud.) MS still won't allow any old PC client to connect to a Server (cloud or otherwise) on their Xbox Live network though. In the past this was possible ONLY through the "Games for Windows Live" program which I'm pretty sure charged a fee to the developers to access the server and MS had to approve the game (and any updates to it). "Games for Windows Live" is dead though so no program to connect a PC game to the Xbox Live network currently exists. They could start a new one in the future though (probably Xbox branded) and then you'd be able to connect specially curated Windows games to Xbox games but that is as far as MS will likely ever go.

This is in contrast to Sony where developers/publishers are free to host their own servers. If a developer wants to make a game that has clients for the PS3, PS4*, Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS they can and they can make them all play together on the same servers. By and large this isn't something developers are interested in though because it means constantly having to keep multiple clients for different architectures in sync which isn't really seen as worth the effort. The War Thunder dev here is the exception where they would like to release their game with cross-play but I doubt this is a large demand in the industry as a whole.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Wait, how are you adjusting your laser speed?

 

If I'm incorrect on my terminology I'm sorry but I think most people know what I mean. Is it DPI? Those crazy mice that Razer and others release.

[McKay]

Went to my friends today, he has titanfall on PC, I have it on Xbox. I plugged my PS4 controller into his PC and used that to play, in true unbalanced titalfall style I managed to come top of the leaderboard 3 times in a row, and in the top 3 the other 2 times I played.

 

I wish it had been PC/XO now. Seeing as there's no difference in the campaigns they could have done it up so PC players can only play as one side, XO play as another to get some friendly rivalry going etc. 

 

A man can dream..

[xendrome]

It's more about the difference in level of control, depending on the game, MS tried this in the past once and it didn't work out well, the PC players had the clear advantage.   If it's a shooter the mouse+kb is better,  if it's a racer or flight sim then if the PC guys have race wheels and flight sticks those give an advantage.

 

There's no backend technical limitations here, they just, as they put it, want to give the same experience to everyone.  Who knows what the future will bring, maybe they'll change it, maybe not.  I don't quite get why it matters really specially if your game sells well on the Xbox and or the PS4 why do you need cross-play with the PC exactly?

 

Yeah I believe they did some MP testing with Halo 3 or something I can't remember the game, and the K/D ratio for PC vs Xbox 360 was like 50 to 1 for PC players vs XBox 360 players.... it may not have been MS, it might have been when Battlefield 3 was in beta...

[trooper11]

This is just more 'MS bad' news.

 

MS won't allow something that Sony allows, so once again, MS loses.

 

Sony gives more choice, MS gives less.  Plus, MS is apparently terrible at accepting indie developers, so that is more bad news.

[spenser.d]

This is just more 'MS bad' news.

MS won't allow something that Sony allows, so once again, MS loses.

Sony gives more choice, MS gives less. Plus, MS is apparently terrible at accepting indie developers, so that is more bad news.

:rolleyes: you should know that's nonsense.

[trooper11]

:rolleyes: you should know that's nonsense.

 

My gut tells me to agree with you, but man, when public figures such as indie developers make a statement, it carries a lot of weight.

 

If you take what is being said at face value, how can you not come to my conclusion?

 

There needs to be a counter point in public if most people are going to even consider the idea that what one developer has said is not the whole story. That means other developers that have had a good experience.

 

Until that happens, the negative is taken as the norm.