Microsoft Hints At Cross

It's a simple question. Why can't PC and console players play against each other if both own the same game? The answer of course, is quite complex.

Despite being a requested feature by gamers for years, the technical side of making this happen is a lot of work, and the differences in control schemes could give one side a large, un-fun advantage over the other. Valve once famously called the idea a 'gimmick,' and when it has been attempted in games like Shadow Run, it hasn't been the most successful of features.

But new console generation, new rules, and Microsoft's Phil Spencer recently spoke in depth about the idea to AusGamers, while simultaneously not giving away any firm plans.

'I'm not allowed to leak things,' Spencer said with a smile. 'But I think what you're talking about makes a lot of sense. Now, you have differences in Windows gaming and console gaming around control and input... in fact if you go back to Shadow Run on Xbox 360 - something I worked on - we had PC players playing against Xbox 360 customers. We didn't have tremendous success with that, but we learnt a lot from it.'

'And then earlier this year we released Skulls of the Shogun, which was a game we launched on all three platforms on the same day, and you could start on one platform and then save the game to the Cloud and play across any of the screens and progress. And then Halo: Spartan Assault has some links between Halo 4 and Spartan Assault, even though they're very different games.

'This connected ecosystem across all the different devices is definitely where I think the future of gaming is going,' he went on. 'You don't have to do it as a developer, but you have the capability and I think a system like Xbox Live across all those screens where you know who someone is and who their friends are, what their Achievements are and their progression is really critical to that.'

So what Spencer is talking abut here isn't necessarily Player vs. Player on Xbox One vs. PC, but rather say, a shared Xbox Live account that keeps track of stats and achievements across games played on Windows and games played on Xbox. Or perhaps more cross-platform interactivity like that seen out of Halo or Skulls. But I'm not sure the hints here include direct competition between PC and console.

Despite the fact that this is a request that often gets made, I'm not convinced that the market is really there for it. After all, it takes a pretty specific scenario for this cross-play ability to actually be useful. How many times does one of your friends buy Call of Duty for PC while you own it for Xbox only? Probably infrequently, and much of the time, you're playing with or against strangers. In that case, the only difference would be that you would never know who would be using the precise aiming of a mouse and keyboard, and who would be using a traditional controller like you. I imagine that would be frustrating, and outweigh the ability to play with your PC-only friend.

Rather, I see a larger opportunity at least in theory for cross play between say, a PS4 copy of Call of Duty and an Xbox One version. I think that's a scenario more groups of friends find themselves in lately, but it's also pretty clearly close to impossible. While Microsoft might be eager to link games played on Windows to those on Xbox, both products they own, I imagine there is little motivation for Sony and Microsoft to work together for cross-platform multiplayer, even if such a thing would be more useful to the general public. But hey, we can dream, can't we?

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