El-Pistolero
Member
Quoted because you perfectly summed up the different facets of the game...
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Microsoft announces Xbox Live cross-network (PSN and other networks) play
- Thread starter Spider_Jerusalem
- Start date
Quoted because you perfectly summed up the different facets of the game...
Cthulhu_Steev
Member
Great stuff. Sony will probably say 'Nope' now after seeing your post.
Meus Renaissance
Member
What about a unified friends list? I want to play with folks on Xbox Live.
Unknown Soldier
Member
Ah, so this is the next thing that MS will try to Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish.
WhiteRabbitEXE
Member
Something like that would only happen on a game-by-game basis and would have to be handled by the developers. You're never going to see something like that implemented by MS and/or Sony directly.
How does that even work in this context? :|
dragonelite
Member
Lol wut.
Memorabilia
Member
About f-ing time. I remember this being a rumored possibility before the 360 launched. Only ~12 yrs late.
Doctor_Thomas
Member
Technically, it's always been possible. Final Fantasy XI on 360 allowed play with PS2 and PC on the same server, it was down to the devloper to impliment
Microsoft locked cross-platform away after courting Square Enix and establishing their walled ecosystem.
soul creator
Member
PC is Ben
PS4 is Lauren B
Xbox One is JoJo
PS4 is Lauren B
Xbox One is JoJo
J
JoJo UK
Unconfirmed Member
You are underestimating what pr can do, ms pretty much shit the bed pr wise pre launch of the Xbox one which pretty much nailed the lid on it, being a tad bit more price wise just added to it. If they had nailed pre launch they wouldn't be seeing the sort of numbers they are seeing world wide.
You guys are looking at this from the wrong angle. It's not about "what's in it for Sony". It's about "what does Sony stand to gain from saying no".
You think that the industry press won't tear Sony to absolute SHREDS if they say no? Of course they will. And at a moment when their brand power is riding high, they really don't need anyone tearing them down or making them look like the odd man out.
Speaking of which, once Sony rubbed Microsoft's nose in their attempt at draconian business practices, I knew that the moment Sony even thinks of trying to do something that sets back the industry (which is how this will be framed, make no mistake), the blowback from it will be EPIC. Their competitors will never let them live down that "throwing stones in glass houses" moment.
And this is without even mentioning the sheer mind-blowingly unthinkable prospect of Nintendo getting a PR leg up on Sony by coming to E3 and stating they'll play ball with online cross-play for NX, which would make Sony look even worse from a PR standpoint. And the moment Nintendo gets one over on Sony is quite possibly the day the world ends.
But saying no to online cross-play opens up this entire world of hurt that Sony could (and likely will) easily avoid.
Why are we still speculating that there is some UWP conspiracy enabling this news? We already know for a fact that there is no Win10 requirement, and that developers can use their existing networking client.
Source Rocket League Dev on Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/4adgb1/xbox_crossplay_is_happening/
PeregrinSe7en
Member
the american gaming press likes to paint MS as the good guys, even when they had the initial x1 and the draconian anti consumer policies in place
Doctor_Thomas
Member
Except for the fact Sony have never had a restriction in place for cross-platform online play before.
I can't understand why people are getting on Sony's back when they've never had an issue with it in the past.
Anyone who defended it was quickly and thoroughly shouted down, even amongst their colleagues in the press. And if it's as you say it is, that will make the reaction to a Sony "no" that much more severe.
Playing nice with PC and playing nice with Xbox Live are different beasts entirely.
But, as I said at the end of my post, they're very likely to be on board with this, if only to dodge the bad publicity, but does not exclude other reasons from being in the mix, including them wanting this to happen in the first place, which we have no way to prove.
blue_phazon
Member
What are you talking about?
Lol you crazy?
Why would Sony and MS allow you to see another networks friends list on their system?
Ya'll getting way ahead of yourselves.
It would only work game by game at most, with own dedicated list.
To be fair I agree with the poster you replied to.
This whole PR situation will be restricted to the tapped in hardcore mostly.
People all over the world wouldn't stop buying PS4's in a hypothetical scenario where Sony refused PS4/XB1 cross play.
The idea of equating MS failings at XB1 launch as devastating as Sony not enabling cross play are also laughable at best.
dodgykebaab
Banned
Finally more games that put Xbox players VS Playstation players.
We've only had one, Final Fantasy XI (360, PS2 & PC all in one game on same servers)
We've only had one, Final Fantasy XI (360, PS2 & PC all in one game on same servers)
KampferZeon
Neo Member
If Microsoft plays nice, the ROE may be just be a set of networking API with some encryption. ( i guess that is what sony and nintendo have at the moment for FFXI SFV)
If Microsoft wants to be aggressive and demands the full azure server stack integration, then it is easy to see the PR war becomes inevitable.
Also i like to argue that Sony actually benefits more than MS from cross network play if and only if Sony deemed the rules of engagement is fair to all parties.
Check out the xb1 vs ps4 usage thread on gaf, you will see a lot of gamers citing 3 main reasons for choosing xb1 over ps4: exclusive, controller and friends circle.
Cross network play remove the friends circle argument and suddenly there is one less reason to purchase a xb1.
Although one could argue ps4 also suffers from the same effect, I have a feeling that XB1 suffers much worse.
This is because the games become a much more important factor in choosing which console to buy.
1) Multi platform games still seems to always run better on ps4.
2) Sony 1st and 2nd party output is going strong while MS seems to grow weaker. ( halo 5, titanfall, tomb raider)
3) Japanese companies support on ps4 is a night and day comparison to Xb1
4) PS4 has a better reputation for catering less popular genre and have a larger indie scene.
Yes this is all my personal opinion but i think the public and gaming press is something similar to this. So average joe is more likely than ever to pick PS4 than XB1 if he doesnt have to care about his friends console choice.
Long term, if we looked back to PS3 and XB360, one of the reasons why PS3 cannot compete with 360 is because of the gamers circle lockin effect.
Sony always have been the popular gaming console brand and it relies on it to survivr the ps3 era.
Removing the lockin effect now means in the future it is easier for sony to recover from ps3 quesa disaster.
My 2 cents anyway. Peace
Bitch Pudding
Member
Think long term. We all know that MS wants to push Win 10 and I have no doubt that certain "features" will be limited to Win 10 / UWP games at some point. For "security reasons" or whatever MS' PR spins out.
This is really big, now I'm really curious to see what Sony will say about this.
I hope they will say something like "We always supported this feature" and that for them this changes nothing in their current policies. I see this as a win-win situation, it benefit Sony as much as MS by allowing the growth of the whole gaming ecosystem.
I hope they will say something like "We always supported this feature" and that for them this changes nothing in their current policies. I see this as a win-win situation, it benefit Sony as much as MS by allowing the growth of the whole gaming ecosystem.
Sanctuary
Member
I got that they were clearly doing it to gain something out of it on their end; but I don't really see why they would expect Sony to give a fuck about them and actually make it easy for this to work, or why Microsoft would even announce such a thing before Sony made any real decisions one way or another. It almost comes off as a PR stunt. Right now Microsoft are apparently "the good guys" and if Sony shies away from this, they will be considered "bad".
Bitch Pudding
Member
Well, who missed it anyhow, until now? Generally speaking PC players have superior hardware and input devices, so it's obvious that quite a lot of console players want to keep them separated. Depends on game types, of course. Cross-play with WiiU players was already possible, but that wasn't implemented on a grand scale because of obvious reasons.
But now we have two consoles with very similar hardware, input devices and online community, so there should be a huge potential / interest in playing against each other.
irrotational
Member
If rocket league have any sense they will release exclusive Xbox and PS branded cars and let console warriors go nuts trying to beat each other.
Doctor Shatner
Member
Pretty sure Xbox already has a few (Halo warthog and something from Gears?), so question is whether they'll add some to PS.
30yearsofhurt
Member
I commend this move but surely it's down to developers to choose this and then to choose whose servers hosts MP. Interesting times ahead. I would say the ball is in the developers court more than Sony's.
Butt imagine a glorious future where xbox zero, playstation 5 and nintendo NX2 players are playing Black Ops 6 together with team chat:
xbox playa: "to defuse the bomb you have to go up to it and hold X"
sony playa: "I have to jump?"
nintendo playa: "that just changes my weapon"
PC playa: "don't you mean space bar you casual console peasant?"
Butt imagine a glorious future where xbox zero, playstation 5 and nintendo NX2 players are playing Black Ops 6 together with team chat:
xbox playa: "to defuse the bomb you have to go up to it and hold X"
sony playa: "I have to jump?"
nintendo playa: "that just changes my weapon"
PC playa: "don't you mean space bar you casual console peasant?"
You can think long term, all you want. But your speculations aren't even considering the facts at hand.
If at some point in the future MS throws UWP stipulations in, we can address it then.
Currently, they appear to have an open policy, that works regardless of the API being used, or even the platform being used. I mean, you're expressing concern over hypothetical limitations to cross-network play with PC, when the news is about MS being open to cross-network play, even with devices that arent Xbox OR PC.
Why would a developer who has a game now and who wants to enable cross-play with Xbox live be concerned about some hypothetical future UWP restriction that has no bearing on their current work?
MisterJabo
Neo Member
Does the PS4 have skype? I guess that's one way to do cross-platform party chats with friends.
Psyrgery ES
Member
Heh, thanks. I just spilled my coffee
Dreathlock
Member
You seriously think that is more than a pr stunt?
No way we will see AAA titles like Destiny or Division use this.
No way we will see AAA titles like Destiny or Division use this.
Bananajama
Banned
Even if it is just a PR stunt
We can no longer blame Microsoft for lack of cross play.
All good for them
Both FFXI and Shadowrun were on 360 and allowed for Xbox/PC/PS2 players to play together.
Panajev2001a
GAF's Pleasant Genius
Very awesome for Microsoft to do this! For all the heat they've gotten over the Xbox One, they deserve praises here!
Probably too soon for Nintendo NX speculation but people are talking about Sony not opening up their servers for this. Are we forgetting Nintendo
and what appears to be their intent to go mobile/embrace online aspects more? Could Nintendo open up with MS for crossplay? A cooperative
Microsoft and Nintendo relationship(Minecraft is doing huge numbers on the Wii U) would be amazing. I'm not saying buy outs or that kind of thing.
Just friendly cooperation.
Either way, good job MS!
It could be good news indeed, but I am not going to praise them opening up to cross platform play when they are losing users to the competition (and this move may help them to slow this down a bit) and their competition is outpacing them at this kind of rate.
If they had done it at the peak of Xbox 360 popularity then yes, mad props would be in order... Good guy MS and all that. Now, let's see where this lead and remain cautiously optimistic.
Panajev2001a
GAF's Pleasant Genius
Panajev2001a
GAF's Pleasant Genius
If it were only a PR stunt then yes we can still blame them as it would be something that knowingly can never work in practice and/or has some really nasty side effects that do not make it worth the cost. Why wouldn't we blame them in such hypothetical scenario?
Aahah, nice one. 😂
Caipirinha
Member
Broski this isn't about PR, there's no money in "Nice Guy Microsoft" when it comes to the Xbox One at this point, look at this in context with the recent talk about Xbox being a W10 platform, all the W10 discussion at GDC, "maybe no future Xbox", Xbox revisions, closing studios, exclusives coming to PC etc.
It's all part of Xbox becoming some kind of monetisation model for PC gaming. In that world, Microsoft aren't competing with Sony, the PS4 is just another platform to provide it's services on, hence moves like this.
Microsoft. Is. Leaving. Traditional. Console. Gaming.
I'm really starting to wonder when the penny is gonna drop for some people here but I suppose emotional attachment to the idea of Microsoft being part of the "console war" is too strong for them.
Why wouldn't they continue to manufacture PCs specifically designed for the living room, or at least encourage other hardware manufacturers to do so (new X-Boxes would be similar to the Steam Machines, running Windows 10)?
Caipirinha
Member
Sure they would, but those aren't consoles, anymore than a Steam machine is, and there's no reason to think they will be a bigger market than those.