A Letter from Chris Charla: ID@Xbox Updates and GDC

by Chris Charla Director of ID@Xbox Posted on March 14

This will be ID@Xbox’s third Game Developers Conference showing off amazing new games from independent developers in the ID@Xbox program. For us, it’s a great time to highlight new games, but also a place to connect with new developers and old friends and listen to their feedback about our program – what people are liking, and where we can do better.

We actually started ID@Xbox by going out on a listening tour that seemed huge at the time (more than 50 developers!), but today, with more than 1,400 studios creating games for Xbox One and Windows 10 via ID@Xbox, 50 seems like a pretty small number!

[Overload]

"players on Xbox One and Windows 10 using Xbox Live will be able to play with players on different online multiplayer networks – including other console and PC networks."

Holy crap!!!

Chris Charla just confirmed this is for all games, not just ID@Xbox.

http://m.neogaf.com/showpos...

[Majin-vegeta]

Lets hope devs use it.Which means longer thriving communities for games even for the lesser known games.

[Hoffmann]

That are the best news related to Microsoft in a good while.

[Christopher]

Major news about the opening up of their network. And, this will make a lot more third-party developers very happy.

Edit: I will add, not much praise to be had here IMHO. Microsoft are the only ones who have been causing this issue and they were the ones who put up the wall in the first place.

[Gazondaily]

WOw cross network play. Finally Microsoft...

"We’re thrilled to confirm that Psyonix’s Rocket League will be one of the first games to take advantage of this new capability by enabling cross-network play between Xbox One and PC players, with an open invitation for other networks to participate as well."

Wow now that's great. Xbox vs Playstation players haha!

We can conduct our console wars on Rocket League!

[christocolus]

Agreed. This is good news. I also like the fact that Xbox players get the option to choose to play with other xbox players. Really neat. Also lack of crossplatform play was the main reason FFXIV wasn't on the console I hope they get back to it now.

[DopeTech]

WOW!! That's GREAT news, thanks Microsoft!

Keep doing what you're doing, you're making gaming a MUCH BETTER place.

[Rookie_Monster]

Great news indeed. This could potentially mean the next call of duty could be played crossplay on XB1 and Ps4. Hmmm, interesting developent.

[gangsta_red]

IF Sony accepts.

I wouldn't get my hopes up just yet to play games against players on PSN.

[MagicBeanz]

Actually you can get your hopes up, Sony has been doing this for some time, there's another article on N4G that talks about it, Sony has done this with lots of games from back in the PS3 days, they're not apposed to doing it.

[rainslacker]

So i made a comment above about how "open" all this is. Is this available for games purchased on Steam as well, or does it require the Windows Store?

Would like to know so I don't go ranting about it wrongly elsewhere, and since you did an article on it, I'd figure you'd have more insight, and I'm too lazy to look it up myself right now.:)

[SpeakTruthAlways]

This is great news, cross-play is really welcomed.

Edit:-

I hope he is not only referencing to ID@xbox titles.

[shiva1]

if its ID@xbox titles then a huge boost for indie developers right...

if its all games then the same applies to all developers....

but what ever it is, for all gamers its much bigger news.

[Free_Fro]

Wow, that's very exciting news.

This could be the beginning of something great.

-
oxox

[nowitzki2004]

Should have happened years ago.. MS finally decided to join the party.

[Kribwalker]

Imagine destiny 2 or the next div as cross console. Wow that'd be nuts. Prolly confirms ff14 for Xbox one as that was the one hurdle Square had to get it on Xbox.

[MachuchalBrotha316]

This is awesome I hope Sony allows Xbox gamers to play against PS4 gamers. Would love to see how PS gamers do versus us.

[MasterCornholio]

They had no problem allowing that with FF14 so I'm pretty sure Sony won't have any problems doing it again.

[rainslacker]

Would be fun just because it allows you to play against more people.

Truthfully though, on any system you'll have the full range of players from the best in the world, to those that have no clue how to play.

Might be fun for some people to set up console war events though, but I would be loathe to think this becomes some console war tripe where the users try to "win" for their preferred console by using whatever metric they can twist to their agenda.

For the few games I've played that had cross-platform, it was never even a topic that was mentioned. In some games, you wouldn't even know if they were playing on a different platform....although I'd imagine there would be some logistical issues given the set up of user accounts that would have to differentiate it.

[slate91]

And so it begins!

[Deathdeliverer]

Well this should mean that XB1 can finally get Final Fantasy 14. I don't know why Microsoft tries so hard to keep things closed but it's better late than never. Gave square hell about FF11 and finally caved. Things went great but the still gave hell about 14 and would not let it happen at all. This is great news. I'm sure Square has known about this coming before this announcement so I wouldn't be surprised if FF14 gets announced at E3 and releases before this years end.
I wonder if Warframe will update to allow Xbox players join with PS4 and PC players. PS4 and PC players can only play together when patches are synced which is normally a 1-2 week gap. It would be cool to have a multiplatform dojo (clan) on there.

[bleedsoe9mm]

the die hard sony fanbase needs to put pressure on sony to make this happen , this is ridiculously good idea for gaming communities .

[Overload]

Not needed. Sony has always been OK with it. It's happening.

[bleedsoe9mm]

tweet a nice happy with this message to yoshida , this is very good for smaller game communities , and all consumers in general. Everybody wins with this being widely adopted .

[gangsta_red]

Or so Sony has said.

Let's see if Sony actually goes through with or if it was all BS to make them look good.

[MasterCornholio]

Don't need to put any pressure on Sony because it already exists.

The conditions of many FTP games and MMOS is that it has to be open to all platforms.

If Sony didn't accept that they wouldn't have gotten games like FF14 and Warframe.

[bleedsoe9mm]

in a world where more and more AAA games relie on microtranactions as a source of revenue , larger longer lasting vibrant communities make allot of sense from a business perspective . everybody wins if we encourage this to be widely adopted .

[nowitzki2004]

PS3 has done crossplay....

[Skate-AK]

Cross Network can be big for MMO's across both platforms.

[Free_Fro]

I'm really impressed with Microsoft's Xbox Division this gen.

There's a lot of potential behind this, up next, incorporate this into AAA games too..

-
xoxo

[DopeTech]

WOW!! I'M IMPRESSED!

[MCTJim]

Sounds like a good plan. I hope to see you all on the battlefield!!

[ShellB]

Finally. It's time to bring Realm Reborn to XONE.

[no_more_heroes]

This probably opens the door for FF14 to get ported over now.

[NeoGamer232]

Now, if only MS, Nintendo, and Sony would ship their "exclusive" games on all platforms!

I would be able to buy the device I want all the time vs. the device that has most of the games I want.

[Majin-vegeta]

Na lets keep the exclusives how they are.

[NeoGamer232]

Gamers talk about wanting choice all the time.

Yet, when it comes down to the most fundamental gaming choice (the device you play on) gamers say they don't want choice.

You have to have a PS4 to play Uncharted 4. You have to have a X1 to play Halo 5. You have to have a PC to play World of Warcraft.

That's just a bunch of BS. I want to buy my preferred set of devices... A Smart Phone, tablet, PC, console, etc. And I want to be able to play all games.

That is what gaming is all about. GAMES! Not devices.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

and with this announcement we move one step closer to Dennis Dyack's one console future.

[MasterCornholio]

So which two are going to get eliminated?

Forgive me but I don't understand what you mean by one console future.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

So the premise Dennis Dyack talked about isn't actually eliminating a "platform" per se. Dyack said we would get to a point where all console hardware would be on the same architecture. So basically games would be developed with one code and any hardware (console) could run it. The experience might differ in terms of UI like features for the machine itself but games would basically be the same. The notion was under the hood a developer could write a game code that would work on everything..

His theory was built from the history of other media platforms and hardware. Things like VHS, DVD and Blu Ray for example. Early on there were competing media (Betamax, Laser disc, HD-DVD) and you had different hardware that ran different media. VHS couldn't run Betamax, Laser Disc didn't play with DVD, and HD-DVD wasnt compatible to Blu Ray, etc... Once a platform won out, you saw a shift in all hardware offered. The UI experiences were different but the hardware for each winning platform from all hardware makers did the same basic things in principle. This made creating content that could run on the hardware much more economical to the media companies.

So looking at console and PC gaming...If X86 architecture is going to be the basic building blocks of game development moving forward, and we have console makers opening up their networks more and more we could get to a point that every game made could run on any hardware, and the UI features, controllers and such would be what differentiates for the hardware not so much the software it runs.

I don't know I totally buy into his theory but it raises good questions when you start to think about the direction consoles have been going.

[Tsunade]

I have been enjoying cross play with PC since the PS3 and is really a good feature to have.

[MasterCornholio]

It really is not to mention it can dramatically increase the population of a game.

[shiva1]

man do they have anything big left to announce at E3 or are there even bigger things revealed at E3 for Xbox this year?

really amazed at xbox team who are listening and implementing requests put on feedback site.

[rlow1]

Well this is a interesting move on the part of MS. We are finally starting to see how far the rabbit hole goes. If by what I've read then this should means that Steam and Xbox1 players will be able to play. Question is, have we arrived at the bottom of that rabbit hole yet???

[BigBosss]

Uniting all consoles to play together is an amazing thing! Fantastic news indeed! :)