Rumor: Microsoft Killed PC/Xbox Cross Platform Play

[AngryMongoose]

Well, I'll probably be using this page as a citation in many arguments to come.

They should still make it possible for Coop games to be cross-platform enabled.

 

[Hoplon]

More likely poor vs poor.

as that is the vast majority of both groups (I'm in there too for FPSes in PvP)

Am sure the top people would be pretty much even Stevens, though a bit of an edge to the PC gamers, and they have more refinable control systems.

 

[Jonny49]

Didn't the PS3 version of Unreal Tournament 3 have cross-platform play? How well did that work?

 

[oranger]

I doubt that differences in controls caused them to dump the cross over: It probably had something to do with development times (if one game does it, then another and another, eventually it becomes the standard), or the larger conspiracy of dumbing down the gamers themselves by lowering their expectations through content consolidation.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

It was never really that great an idea. If competitive PC gamers do not want to play a game with forced handicaps and slowed down gameplay then they can choose to play other games. If no commercial option is available then they are more than happy to play open source games or mods of fifteen year old games.

 

[wheeman]

I played counter-strike with an xbox controller today, I played for half an hour and only got 2 kills.was

 

[Sikachu]

I personally think crossing them over isn't the best idea. PC wise we have mod tools, precision aiming with a mouse, custom maps, hackers (sadly) etc. It would just be too much programming, test-trial and error.

It would be good to see it one day where it IS balanced, but it wont be anytime soon.

Short of turning console fps into complete auto-aim where all the player has to do is press a button to shoot quicker than the PC gamer does everything (which isn't much of a stretch from where console FPS is now come to think of it HUR HUR HUR), balancing them would be impossible without gimping the PC controls to the point where no-one would buy the game.

 

[ImprovizoR]

I can't believe they didn't see that one coming when they first came to the idea to do this cross platform play. It was so obvious. You can't beat someone who has a mouse and keyboard with a fuckin' joypad. Not to mention damn hackers who still roam every major FPS game.

 

[Woodsey]

This decision has been based either on either really pathetic 360 players blaming the PC players or possibly exaggerating PC players. Or both together.

If it's true I'd imagine they actually monitor which platform had the most kills - not just leave it down to players to guess at how many they killed.

There's no a lot of difference between the 360 controller and a keyboard+mouse if you put the sensitivity at it's higest.

There really is: you can spin around in less than a second with a mouse, it moves as fast as you do. A gamepad - even on the highest sensitivity - still has a mechanical turning speed.

And I killed dozen of PC gamers in my few weeks with Shadowrun. It's an advantage, but not an insurmountably massive one.

Like I said, handicaps were put in place on the PC version:

"Because of the lack of 'pixel-accuracy' with the Xbox 360 analog thumbstick, the designers have included an aim-assisting technology, which basically interpolates the player's movement and causes the reticle to stay over an enemy player like a weak magnet. In addition, FASA has implemented a feature which causes the cross-hair to expand during quick movements, thus lowering the player's accuracy, making it impossible to quickly turn and maintain accuracy, reducing the potential advantage of playing with a mouse.[7][8] PC players, who have a more sensitive control scheme, are able to turn significantly faster than their controller-using counterparts and would have gained an unfair advantage."

(Wikipedia)

I also remember reading that the crosshairs on the PC version would wobble around slightly.

 

[Jezzascmezza]

As a 360 owner, I'm glad that PC/360 integration never happened.
I'd probably get my arse kicked a whole lot more.

 

[kristiankramer]

Strange that Microsoft based this decision on just one experiment. And even if the PC players turn(ed) out to have a huge advantage, what about co-op play? It would have been nice to play certain RPG titles in Co-op. And damn the lag the console player has to suffer (if it even exists).

 

[shaboinkin]

But in fast paced games, console gamers would have a mobility advantage, as WASD isn't all that great for movement...

Which is why you come up with a new control scheme that isn't so [f**kING G*DA*NED] cramped with your hands.

 

[dochmbi]

It's simply a biological fact that you can get beter motor accuracy with your hand than with your least agile finger, the thumb.

 

[Cynical skeptic]

... uh, duh? Microsoft's main goal with the 360 is to replace the PC with similar "walled garden" type services in the average consumer's home. Allowing even one-way access from outside their little network wouldn't exactly be conducive to that goal. "Dude, have you seen [awesome website]?" "wtfs a website? is it part of LIVE?"

Like someone mentioned, they crippled PC aiming to give the auto-aiming console users a chance, turned into an advantage, entire project died.

But the biggest problem with shadowrun is it was too much counterstrike and not enough SHADOWRUN. Was seriously the worst example of a "reskin" game last decade.

 

[mogamer]

MS could have naturally enabeled the Xbox 360 to use a Kb/M. But they didn't and so cross-platform gaming will never work correctly.

 

[jamesworkshop]

This isn't excatly news of course it's up to microsoft to allow PC games to access the xbox live network because it's a walled garden controlled by Microsoft.

Other problems reside in that PC games are rarely limited to 30fps with much higher resolutions available and better PPI (pixels per inch) and by Digital Foundarys recogning the average console suffers from 3 times the input lag that a PC would have
Killzone 2 for example has an imput lag of 150ms

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

I personally think crossing them over isn't the best idea. PC wise we have mod tools, precision aiming with a mouse, custom maps, hackers (sadly) etc. It would just be too much programming, test-trial and error.

It would be good to see it one day where it IS balanced, but it wont be anytime soon.

Consoles have hackers, too. Are they as common? Maybe, maybe not, but they are there none-the-less.

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

Well, the way I see it, the PC setup is better suited for marksmanship, while a controller would be far better suited to close-quarters combat (hence, why MW2 on consoles is absolutely LITTERED with knifers and shotgunners, but on the PC port, most engagements I've participated in were at a respectable distance. Yes, I own both. Long-ish story).

 

[erbkaiser]

Consoles have hackers, too. Are they as common? Maybe, maybe not, but they are there none-the-less.

Console hackers must usually modify their consoles by soldering mod-chips on the motherboard, or by using specially grafted savegames/disks with exploits. This costs a lot of time and usually money.
PC hackers just need to download an exe and run it, or use transparent textures, or use macros... etc..

I've no doubt there are console hackers, but I doubt it's even 1 promille of the people. Just go in any PC multiplayer game that is not using something like VAC or Punkbuster, and you'll see that there it seems to be at least every third player who is using exploits or hacks.