Console makers making noises about relaxing multiplayer exclusivity

As far as multiplayer gaming on consoles is concerned, single-platform protectionism has been the de facto standard for years now. Series like Call of Duty sell millions of nearly identical copies across the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, yet players can only take part in online matches against others playing on the same platform. Now, console makers are showing encouraging signs of lowering these artificial walls and letting developers create games that cross between platforms more easily.

[NewMonday]

would love that to happen.

as for the inevitable "PC players will dominate because of M/K" I don't think many will mind, many players like me and my brother use a controller playing BF3 on PC, and the controller isn't even finely calibrated like it is on consoles.

at least they should make it an option on paid servers.

[thekhurg]

If the option to not play against MB/K PC users is there, then I don't care what they do.

Otherwise, I won't spend a dime or even a minute of my time playing a game that is connecting me to PC users just so I can be a quick and easy kill for them.

[NewMonday]

sure if you can't handle it then don't, that is the point of "option"

[mikeslemonade]

There's ways to work around the restriction of M/KB anyway. It's better to just have X1 vs PS4.

[N4g_null]

Then we can get thur this fanboy war in style.

[1OddWorld]

BF4 cross platform play between XB1 and PS4 makes perfect since.

[Gazondaily]

I wish that would happen. Imagine teams based on the console you have! That would be so much fun! The banter that would go around would be brilliant!

Ah I pray this happens. It really needs to.

[Joe913]

Like I said before this would be nice and maybe the fanboys would battle it out online and not in the comments lol.

[3-4-5]

The tech is available for it to happen and if these companies were actually ran by gamers it would have happened at least 5-10 years ago.

[SuperBlur]

i loved playing portal 2 coop with ps3-pc friends

felt refreshing , we should get more of that if possible!

[Phoenix76]

I'm with you on that. Portal 2 was a fantastic 1st person puzzle game and if rumors are true, then portal 3 should be in dev now.
More x-play pls....... "For science"!!

[PopRocks359]

Nintendo already seems to be going that route with letting the developer of Pure Chess make their multiplayer cross-platform. It would not surprise me at all if Sony and Microsoft are thinking of doing the same thing.

[The Great Melon]

I can see Sony being open to it, but the real challenge is convincing Microsoft to open up their platform. Historically they have been very against it. F2P games will likely be catalysts that cause this transition given that they depend on a healthy community to be successful.

[Mega24]

Capcom and Microsoft did crossplatform, Lost Planet Multiplayer was cross between PC and 360, and this was at the start of the Gen, FFXI was crossplatform between ps2, 360 and PC too.

[TronEOL]

Sony and Valve already did cross-platform play between PC and PS3 for Portal 2. Final Fantasy XIV is also cross-play between PC, PS3, and soon PS4 (and your character/progress also carries over to all platforms).

This is the case for a lot of Playstation games that allow it where it makes sense. For example, Counter Strike GO was supposed to be Crossplay PC/PS3, but through testing it ended up being unbalanced so they cut it.

Allowing crossplay across the board on all platforms would be incredibly healthy for most online games. It's something that definitely needs to happen.

[Brix90]

Isn't Planetside 2 and Warframe or War thunder cross platform from PS4 and PC?

[NewMonday]

AFAIK Planetside 2 is not

[majiebeast]

Yeah but lets be honest console players would get utterly destroyed in Planetside 2. Warframe works very well with a controller from what i played on PC.

I would love for my Planetside 2 character to be playable on PS4, make it happen SOE.

[Brix90]

Ok thanks wasn't too sure but I can't wait to try Warframe.

[BobBelcher]

would take 'console wars' to a whole new level.
Could you imagine the 'console clans' going against each other? There'd be more pissing and moaning than there would be actual gameplay.

[Johnny Jiron]

If MS and Sony fans had a chance to go at it against each other, I imagine it'd be something like makeup sex between a bickering couple. All hardcore rage and vitriol being leveled upon one another. Digital body fluids spread across the landscape. Then the passion will kick it, acceptance of the differences between one another, rationale starts to set in. Then BAM, they are one.

It may be the greatest thing to happen for console gaming as peace amongst the living room gamers spreads. Debate continues, but with reason. Frustrations are emptied with each bullet fired at the opposing camp, yet their is a mutual respect behind it. Yup.

Until the PC gamers show up...Haaaaaar.

Anyhow aside from communication limitations I dont see much a problem with implementing such a thing.

[Mega24]

It doesn't have to be necessarily against each other, it could be with each other, fighting in teams against other teams of PS4/XBO.

[memots]

yup, It should matter if my buddy on xbo wan't to play coop with me on ps4. That would be awesome and i could see us buy more games to be able to do that.

[Soldierone]

If you ever want to see this in action, change your name to something that offends one camp lol. I did it before. On Xbox I was "PlayStation Rules" or something and on PS3 I was "Xbox Addict" forgot how I spelled them, but it was hilarious how offensive these names seemed to be while playing.

I even called customer service for the Xbox one since they kept charging my card after I had cancelled already, and the guy was like "really? Thats your name?" and laughed haha

[NatureOfLogic]

I wouldn't want to hear Xbox players claiming halo and Xbox is the best all day. No thanks. Most PC gamers are easy to get along with(my FFXIV:ARR experience so far).

[Soldierone]

There are many factors in this though.

1 Each console wants the share of the field. they make money by patches and so on costing money. they also want them to be few updates, which is where Sony and Valve got in a fight.

2 If everyone is playing the same game with everyone, then why buy one thing over the other? Why pay for Live AND PS Plus? People buy Xbox because their friends have Xbox, for example.

3 What about servers and all the BS about one network being better than the other? doesn't make sense when all 3 are playing the same game on the same server.

4 Console would need game mods, something id love, but don't see happening anytime soon.

[Fishy Fingers]

Fine if they game suits or you have parity between platforms. But that usually means someone's getting the short end of the stick.

If there are enough players on each individual platform I don't see the need, sure it would be nice to play with mates but I've heard enough complaining and fanboy BS without having to hear it in game.

[Crazay]

I think that is like to see this happen but at the same time, I feel like it would be something of a double edged sword when it comes to hacks or mods especially on the part of the PC gamers.