Gearbox: Steam and Microsoft Should "Play Nice"

[Tom Goldman]

Gearbox: Steam and Microsoft Should "Play Nice"

Gearbox wants Steam and Microsoft's Games for Windows to support cross-platform play.

Before Steam and similar platfoms, everyone with a PC copy of Counter-Strike [http://www.amazon.com/QUAKE-Windows/dp/B000H1AGA6/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1286738903&sr=1-1] used to be able to play against everyone else. However, the PC market is becoming segmented with games now incorporating programs like Steam and Games for Windows that are incompatible with other types. Gearbox hopes to bridge this gap.

The studio has good reason too, with popular multiplayer title Borderlands [http://www.amazon.com/Borderlands-Game-Year-Pc/dp/B0042WXQ62/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1286739166&sr=8-8] available through various retail and digital distribution outlets. At the recent London Games Festival, Gearbox's Steve Gibson said: "[We] want people to be able to play together and right now if a guy buys a game on Games for Windows and a guy buys a game on Steam - they can't play together."

"If another guy bought it in a retail store, he can't play with the first two guys," he added. Gibson is concerned that "silos are being built" within the PC gaming industry itself and hopes that everyone can someday work together. "Everybody's separating out and it's really... as a developer who just wants gamers to be able to play games together, it's frustrating right now," Gibson continued. "Things like that are hurting the PC industry for gamers."

He hopes PC players will encourage Valve and Microsoft to "play nice." On the surface, Gibson's idea makes sense because he's talking about cross-platform play that is really on the same platform. On the other hand, I don't think we would ever see cross-platform play between the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, and the difference between Steam and Games for Windows seems to be about the same. "Playing nice" is something that would make multiplayer game developers like Gearbox happy, but is it really possible?

Source: CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=268880]

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[skitskat]

i have a few games on GFWL and a few on steam...neither of them have anyone playing the multiplayer at all, so i spend all my time hoping to find someone to play with either way! (splinter cell convition i'm looking at you here!) and most of my friends bought the steam copy of borderlands, whereas i'm a tard and bought the retail copy i'm stuck playing with hackers on gamespy, and they're running around having fun on steam someday my time travel machine will be completed and all this will be fixed though

 

[Something Amyss]

But that flies in the face of both companies' self serving ethos!

 

[Steve the Pocket]

GFWL can play alongside Xbox Live, and Steam has support for MacOS as well as Windows, and might get support for the PS3 next year when Portal 2 comes out. It's not so much that one platform is getting segemented; it's just that the definition of "platform" is shifting from being a hardware thing to being a software thing.

 

[DayDark]

I'm starting to like gearbox. Even though I haven't bought any of their games, I guess I should look into borderlands at some point.

 

[Nimbus]

At the recent London Games Festival, Gearbox's Steve Gibson said: "[We] want people to be able to play together and right now if a guy buys a game on Games for Windows and a guy buys a game on Steam - they can't play together."

"If another guy bought it in a retail store, he can't play with the first two guys," he added.

Um... How true is this, exactly?

 

[Pyrofoxable]

I would rather Games for Windows just went away & died. Steam ftw.

 

[Irridium]

Yeah, I agree. Its just stupid as hell and publishers need to stop making their own little systems for their games. Its a pain in the ass and helps no one.

Each publisher is trying to control the PC multiplayer environment, and they're failing and making everything worse. But they won't stop, because they're idiots who don't understand the platform.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

I'd like to see that possible, so I could play my GFWL version while most other people use Steam.

It won't happen though... neither of them can get over their own egos.

 

[oliveira8]

At the recent London Games Festival, Gearbox's Steve Gibson said: "[We] want people to be able to play together and right now if a guy buys a game on Games for Windows and a guy buys a game on Steam - they can't play together."

"If another guy bought it in a retail store, he can't play with the first two guys," he added.

Um... How true is this, exactly?

Not true at all I think. Unless the game uses Steamworks, and if it does you can only play the game using Steam so...

 

[GiantRedButton]

i have a few games on GFWL and a few on steam...neither of them have anyone playing the multiplayer at all, so i spend all my time hoping to find someone to play with either way! (splinter cell convition i'm looking at you here!) and most of my friends bought the steam copy of borderlands, whereas i'm a tard and bought the retail copy i'm stuck playing with hackers on gamespy, and they're running around having fun on steam someday my time travel machine will be completed and all this will be fixed though

Just play it via tungle or hamachi, its pretty easy.
Or just tell your friends to use the retail .exe and make a gamespy account.
Lan or gamespy both work^^
Gearbox gave players Lan and no need for a cd key to make it as easy to play with each other as possible. Great guys just realy bad as pc developers. No vsynch page up down instead of the mousewheel for scrolling....

 

[Weaver]

I don't really understand what he's saying about the retail copy not being able to play.
My friends bought Company of Heroes on steam and I bought it retail and I can play with them just fine.

I also didn't know games that used GFLW had separate "versions". I've never seen this in my life. Like, for instance, I've never seen game X that used GFWL which has a steam version which also does not include GFWL.

Just because Steam's version of Borederlands didn't use gamespy is really not the fault of Steam or Gamespy, it's the fault of Gearbox. Steam would have had no issues allowing gamespy to continue to provide the multiplayer for the game.

 

[Amnestic]

Wait a second, didn't Gearbox's Borderlands multiplayer require Gamespy and was a complete kick in the penis to set up on the PC? Practise what you preach and all that.

"If another guy bought it in a retail store, he can't play with the first two guys," he added.

Um... How true is this, exactly?

Well it's certainly not true for all games. I'm pretty damn sure a retail copy of any Valve game can play perfectly well on Steam. It might apply to some games. I couldn't say, but it's certainly not true for all of them.

 

[Elementlmage]

"[We] want people to be able to play together and right now if a guy buys a game on Games for Windows and a guy buys a game on Steam - they can't play together."

Yeah they can, it's you guys over at Gearbox who couldn't be bothered to build a functional server browser or community tools like a FRIENDS LIST that keep people from playing together. Don't try to blame it on other people.

 

[Anah'ya]

I don't really understand what he's saying about the retail copy not being able to play.
My friends bought borderlands on steam and I bought it retail and I can play with them just fine.

What he said..
..huh?

I played Borderlands just fine with friends using the Retail Copy. Where is the issue here? Further, someone mentioned Splinter Cell: Conviction. That has nothing to do with STEAM or Games for Live.

... this article really confused me. There is no technical hurdle between STEAM and none STEAM game owners in multiplayer, as long as the Developer doesn't muck up their multiplayer bits.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

On the other hand, I don't think we would ever see cross-platform play between the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360,

Well, if the Xbox allowed Steam...like the Mac, PC and the PS3 have...

 

[TheDoomPenguin]

Gearbox knows absolutely nothing about PC gaming anymore. As far as I know, this is patently untrue. I've never heard of a single game where copies purchased from different distributors couldn't play together. There are Steamworks only games that use GFWL for multiplayer even, like Dawn of War 2 and F1 2010.

 

[skitskat]

I don't really understand what he's saying about the retail copy not being able to play.
My friends bought borderlands on steam and I bought it retail and I can play with them just fine.

that was me going on about splinter cell....but only because i was yet to get around to having no one to play co op with at all

*edit* whoops i screwed up quoting you LOL

 

[Jacob.pederson]

I don't really understand what he's saying about the retail copy not being able to play.
My friends bought Company of Heroes on steam and I bought it retail and I can play with them just fine.

I also didn't know games that used GFLW had separate "versions". I've never seen this in my life. Like, for instance, I've never seen game X that used GFWL which has a steam version which also does not include GFWL.

Just because Steam's version of Borederlands didn't use gamespy is really not the fault of Steam or Gamespy, it's the fault of Gearbox. Steam would have had no issues allowing gamespy to continue to provide the multiplayer for the game.

The Steam Version of Borderlands DOES use gamespy last time I played.

 

[binvjoh]

Just stop with the whole Games For Windows stuff. It's so annoying.