Cross Network Play announced for Xbox One and Windows 10; Rocket League playable across X1, PC, PS4

http://news.xbox.com/2016/03/14/letter-chris-charla-idxbox-updates-gdc/

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

By Chris Charla Director of ID@Xbox

posted on March 14, 2016

at 8:00 am

I’m excited today to announce a couple new things that grew directly out of developer feedback.

Cross-Network Play

First, in addition to natively supporting cross-platform play between Xbox One and Windows 10 games that use Xbox Live, we’re enabling developers to support cross-network play as well. This means 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.

Of course, it’s up to game developers to support this feature, and Xbox Live players will always have the option of choosing to play only with other Xbox Live players. 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.

UPDATE: Rocket League is going to be playable across multiple consoles and PC

http://www.rocketleaguegame.com/news/2016/03/xbox-one-cross-network-play/

"Cross-network play has been the number-one most requested feature our community has asked for since Rocket League was first announced on Xbox One, and now that we are able to pursue complete online unity on all platforms, today’s announcement is a dream come true."

Other networks could potentially include PSN and Nintendo Network. Anyone have any guesses as to what our console multiplayer games will be like across multiple systems? What will be the first game to support such a hunch? Call of Duty.

Half the fun of Rocket League is shit talking other players. It's always a bonus when the players are on other systems, so this is welcome.

@Blabadon: Minecraft maybe, i dont know. Seems Microsoft wants a piece of that PC pie.

They had too because the Xbox community is near death with everyone jumping to PS or/and PC.

This is bound to PC games sold as UWPs via the Windows Store. Makes it pretty worthless, at least for now.

It's an improvement on the console side for Xbox, though.

EDIT: Ah, I'm wrong, they're opening up to other PC networks too.

Destiny and the division sound like good candidates

oh wow that's cool

I get that they wanna do this as a way to prop up the Windows games on PC thing, but if they really want it to take off, then it needs to come to Steam. Its just too big to ignore.

@bunchanumbers: It is coming to Steam.

Now this is awesome! Well done MS! Hopefully Sony and Ninty won't raise issues on their part. The more, the merrier!

That is awesome.

Guess now they can count PC and PS accounts for their "eco system".

@Desmonic: Nintendo have been allowing cross network cross platform play since at least 2013, so there shouldn't be any issues from them.

Something which the Playstation has been doing for a while.

What both console makers should do is allow network play without a subscription if the dev runs their own servers, or without signing in to the network at all.

@ten_pints: Pretty sure Sony allows limited access to online play for games where the developers are running their own consoles.

This is a feature that I've long wanted.

Why shouldn't PC and console gamers be able to play together ? Say you own The Division on PC and your friends own it across Xbox and PS. It would be so awesome to team up with them. No matter what platform they are on.

Only problem could be is in competitive online shooters, where the faster reaction time of KB/M comes into play.

@charizard1605:

That's nice. I'd say Sony too, but all the games I can think off (from the top of my head) are just PS3/4 + PC. So not sure how they'll react to this in particular.

In any case, this one of those things where all 3 + the bigger PC networks SHOULD be working on together. It ends up benefiting everyone. You, as a consumer, can buy game X on a random platform and KNOW you'll have a decent user base to interact with, which in turn implies the console manufacturers (in particular) will have an active user base (ie, even if small they'll buy the MP games since they know they'll have plenty of people to play with) and for the devs it means a more seamless experience across the board (as for costs I'd assume it's cheaper for those who setup their own servers).

One of those things that, at first glance and without knowing the full costs behind it, seems to filled with benefits for everyone.

So does this mean that we can expect cross play between any game? i mean like Division on PC and Xbox One .... lol this would be fun

@Desmonic:

Sony and Nintendo allowing cross play for years.

For those wondering, games like Dreii currently allow cross-platform play between PlayStation 4, PS Vita, Wii U, PC, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android.

Or Dragon Quest 10, cross play Sony - Nintendo

This is what I get for listening to you!

@bunchanumbers: I'm unreliable, we've been over this before!

Oh this will be so much fun lol

Xbox is becoming a brand more than a traditional home console.

MS is overhauling the business model severely. Windows is the new center of gaming and Xbox a sub-brand.

This move drastically intensifies the exclusives war. If multiplats can reach the entire gaming community, exclusive titles are 10x more valuable than before.

"If you can't beat em, join em"

Again, why do you guys feel the need to make this out to be something negative.

Why can't you just say "that's cool" or something or even "awesome, now I can talk shit to guys on Xbox"... I mean come on man...

It's nice that Microsoft is finally doing away with their dumb policies.

Didn't say it was negative. But I don't believe this feature would exist if they weren't getting their ass kicked in sales and losing games like FF XIV and SFV and getting late ports of Rocket League because of being so stubborn about not allowing it in the past.

I hope to see every third party multiplayer game take advantage of this feature in the future. There is no logical reason to divide the communities of multiplatform titles anymore. Although there should be an exception for PC players for competitive shooters because controller vs kb and mouse will never work.

The real question is why does that bother you so much. Why do you want to tell people on a forum how they should respond?

You're throwing out a negative connotation towards them for this regardless, it falls under the damned if you do and damned if you don't line of thinking, just appreciate it without the snide remarks, this is something good for everyone.

Isn't Final Fantasy XIV a Windows only game and I thought Sony money hatted Street Fighter V?

I hope to see everyone together also, but for shooters, PC needs to stick to PC, like you said KB/M is way too large of an advantage.

Now watch Sony not allow cross platform play with Xbox.

Thank Microsoft. This feature didn't exist because they needed to revamp Windows gaming. But now that Windows 10 is here and their console gaming networks are on par, they could finally have better cross-network play. The Microsoft family continues to flex and show its strengths. It's still up to the developers but Microsoft opening this up is great news no matter how hard some will try to make it look bad.

this wont change things too much, unless you are an xbox player.

inb4 Devs keeping FPS games non-crossplay for Consoles - PC. We all know what will happen there.

Actually one of the questions is, if a game is hosted on a Microsoft server, will they let Sony use it for free?

Or is this cross play thing only for devs who do not take the option of using Microsofts servers for free.

It's system wars, not the official xbox forums.

XIV is on PS4, PS3, Windows. It's not on X1 because M$ didn't want to allow cross platform play with PlayStation users. One of the big reasons Sony was able to lock up SFV was with the promise of allowing cross play with PC players to not split the community up.

How can anyone spin this as negative story .It's no wonder I question the love.for gaming

Cool. Expanding the online communities can only be a good thing.

Sony won't allow it because it undermines the impetus to buy a PS4. Most people follow the crowd so they can play with their friends. Why would Sony throw away one of the reasons why more people might pick up a PS4 in the future?

Good move by MS either way. If Sony allows it their online communities will grow and some may not feel forced to buy a PS4 to play with their friends. If Sony doesn't allow it they look like assholes who aren't really "for the gamer".

@mems_1224: Where did the Sony exec touch you?

Sony already allows it.

Extending the crossplay just heightens the already immense staying power that Rocket League has. Looking forward to seeing other games follow suit.

@dynamitecop: They have to make everything negative because they're a bunch of miserable losers with nothing better to do.

But anyway, well done to MS for introducing this.

Why should PC stick to PC for shooters? You can play many fps on the PC with a controller. While the majority of PC gamers are playing with the M/K there are some who are playing with a controller. Its strange that the only people who i have seen wanting this separation are PC gamers. Also using a mouse and keyboard does not make you automatically good, in addition to that most kills in FPS games are opportunistic kills.

MS isn't introducing this. They were the ones holding everyone else back in the first place.

How?

I can tell you this right now, people who play with me in M/KB games are already unhappy, I destroy normal people and ruin games for them, imagine people with a controller.

It's not even remotely fair, M/KB is a drastically superior input method.

They were the ones against cross play in the first place at the beginning of this gen. Sony was never against it this gen. This is why games like FFXIV, SFV, and Paragon skipped the Xbone.

This is crossplay across any platform not just a console to PC.

That changes nothing. If someone wants to play against another person with a mouse and keyboard so beit. The reasoning for not having the option is nonsensical especially when its coming from the folks who has the "advantage".

Exactly. Which is something Microsoft has been against up until now. PS4 and Xbone owners would already be playing games like FFXIV together if it wasn't for Microsoft's dumb policies they made when they thought they would be on top this gen.