Microsoft's Open Invitation To Valve, Nintendo and Others To Join Xbox One and PC Crossplay (vg247.com)

Microsoft has said it's ready to have a "conversation" with any development team that wants to feature crossplay support on consoles and PC. From a report: Mike Ybarra, vice president of Xbox, told VG247 that it's happy to talk to the likes of Valve and Nintendo when it comes to getting multiplayer games working across multiple platforms, not just between Xbox One and Windows. "It's more about gamer choice, more about making an IP on our platform last longer. I don't care about where they play, I just want people to have fun playing games because that's just better for the industry," said Ybarra. "The demands of consumers and developers have changed," he continued. "People are like, 'we want all of our gamers in one multiplayer pool together, playing.' "We totally agree with that. If any developer wants to have that conversation... Valve is right down the street from us, Nintendo is too -- they're like a block from us. We're having these discussions as developers come up, and we're completely open to that."

Comments

Crosspwn

[sinij]

At least in case of Valve/PC, any crossplay will quickly turn into massacre. For example, in FPS keyboard and mouse players of moderate skill would dominate competition-level console players. The same would hold in RTS or any other game where skill element revolves around player control.

Re:Crosspwn

[magusxxx]

Yes, but the console players can't set up macros. Which is a huge advantage to PC players especially during PvP matches. Hit one key = Perform several moves before the console player hits their second button.

Embrace, Extend, Extinguish...

[Lothsahn]

This would be the embrace phase...

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/...

You know once they're at 75%+ marketshare, they'll change their tune...

It's the same old Microsoft

[tietokone-olmi]

Inviting everyone to come join them in a walled garden Microsoft itself controls. It's not like their online service wasn't available to paid subscribers only, the low-level protocols undocumented and proprietary.

lol, very opportunistic of them to ask now

[HalAtWork]

MS was asked many times to do cross platform networking, FFXI (MS refused, Sony did it square skipped MS with FFXIV), Borderlands 2, Steam w/Portal 2 on 360 (MS refused, Sony did it on PS3)

MS gave this reasoning via Kotaku: "Here's a Microsoft spokesperson saying "no," while promoting how awesome the Xbox 360's online service is: "Xbox Live delivers the best entertainment experience unmatched by anyone else, with 35 million actively engaged members. We have a high level of expectation for our game developers to ensure that all Live experiences remain top notch. Because we can't guarantee this level of quality, or control the player experience on other consoles or gaming networks, we currently do not open our network to games that allow this cross-over capability.""

Now that they need players on Xbox Live and Windows Store and are having trouble making inroads in those areas, they're panhandling.

Could someone translate for me?

[roystgnr]

"I don't care about where they play, I just want people to have fun playing games because that's just better for the industry,"

sounds like it ought to mean

"We'll still support future Minecraft releases on Mac, Linux, and older Windows versions after all; sorry about the confusion at E3!"

but I'm guessing it actually means

"I'm lying. I'm lying right now. Isn't it fun that I can lie to your face, and you can't even call me on it or I'll just give someone else the "story"? Now type my lies for me, stenographer. Maybe tell your kids to take a few classes in economics rather than journalism, huh?"

Re:Let me get this right

[PingSpike]

"Microsoft invites competitors in positions of strength to cut their own throats."