What does being a next-gen game or hardware mean, exactly? While the answer is kind of murky — in some ways, the coming generation doesn’t feel like a huge departure from our current generation of hardware — one of the places we can see concrete changes is when it comes to multiplayer games.
So let’s talk a little bit about what we can expect out of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 when it comes to (console) multiplayer games, shall we? Improvements, changes, continuations of trends, predictions — you name it. Here are some of the many ways next-gen games and hardware will affect multiplayer games.
Control
- Better shooting: Both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 controllers have been revamped with a number of improvements to their gamepads, some of which will prove to be a boon for first-person shooters. The new triggers on the Xbox One controller, for example, mean that you can feel rumble feedback when you press down — and depending on how developers use it, that can be particularly rad for games that require shooting. The PlayStation 4 might not have fancy built-in rumble features the triggers, but the triggers are still improved, too. Hopefully this means in improved kill/death ratios for us all.
- Better…raging? While raging is kind of dickish and inadviseable, one of the improvements on the Xbox One controllers is that they’re designed so they wont shatter. Hopefully this means those of you that can get kind of heated during matches don’t have to worry about buying as many controllers anymore.
- More second screens: A number of upcoming next-gen games continue what the DS started — gaming via multiple screens. Smartglass promises that it will let you keep tabs on friends, and find better matches. Games like Tom Clancy’s The Division allow players to use an iPad to get a different view of the action, tag enemies, issue buffs, debuffs and commands to other players, amongst other things. Driveclub will let players send others invitations to races via smartphone. Second screens in multiplayer gaming seems like a trend to bank on.
Online Experience
- Dedicated servers: When playing against each other, Xbox One players don’t have to worry about dropped matches or bad connections as much — matches won’t be hosted by other players. Thankfully.
- More online-only games? Current trends make it a safe bet to assume even current-gen games will require you to constantly be connected to the Internet — and already, we’re seeing games like next-gen racer The Crew require players to be always-online. Heck, at least one game — Titanfall, the mech-shooter by the folks who brought us Call of Duty — won’t even be bothering with single player; it’s multiplayer-only. Hopefully, the more we see online-only or multiplayer-only games, the better developers can utilise online features to give us more alive and complex games — versus online-only functioning as DRM for players. But even just based on the fact that the Xbox One initially wanted to be an always-online console, we can safely assume we’ll see way more always-online, if not multiplayer games.
- Better Connections: The ways we connect with our friends and with each other will improve, too. Our friends cap on the Xbox One will increase — we can now have up to one thousand friends. Dang. And the new reputation system on the Xbox One means that not only will feedback affect what your reputation is — which affects the sort of player you’ll be matched up with — but it can also recognise when you’re playing like a troll or griefer.
Social Experience
- Better social options: One of the PlayStation 4’s biggest, most exciting features is its share button — which allows you to easily broadcast your games in real time, if not easily spectate games. Heck, your friends can take over your games and assist you. And the Xbox One makes sure that it records your latest and greatest achievements — you know, so you can brag to your friends? Neat.
- More inattentive players? The Xbox One’s new snap mode means that players can multitask with ease; we all have the ability to ‘snap’ from one application to the next. Why wait in a multiplayer lobby when I can browse Twitter or something while I wait? Heck, why not have Twitter running at the same time/over my game? Snap mode is a cool feature, but I can totally see some more absent-minded players using it and then basically going AFK in whatever game they’re playing.
Game Content
- Absent friends: Of course, while online-only is on the rise, so is asynchronous multiplayer. That is to say, your friends don’t always need to be present when you’re playing against them. Forza 5 for example will base AI on actual players and their behaviour — so it’s like others will be able to race against you, without ever actually playing against you. It’s kind of spooky, actually!
- More Free-to-Play games: Here’s another trend that is likely to continue, if not grow in the coming generation. Already, there’s proof of it: fighting game Killer Instinct will start off free with one unlocked character, and any additional characters will cost five bucks a pop. It will undoubtedly not be the only game of its ilk, especially since free-to-play games go hand-in-hand with multiplayer games.
- Downsized MMO: one of the big buzzwords for the coming generation is “shared-world shooter” — not quite MMOs, and not quite single-player/multiplayer, either.
Lots of changes, lots of improvements, and perhaps some worrying trends — what are you looking forward to or dreading out of next-gen games and hardware?
The Multiplayer is a weekly column that looks at how people crash into each other while playing games. It runs every Monday at 6PM ET.
Comments
82 responses to “How The Xbox One And PlayStation 4 Are Changing Multiplayer Games”
Miiverse.
Oh wait.
Looks less like innovating multiplayer and simply catching up to the status quo of PC and mobile games
PC has had dedicated servers for ages…
You’ve been able to use multiple screens for ages..
PC has had all of this for ages lol
yeah thats great but we are talking about consoles.
That’s great but frankly PC’s are better
There’s a heavy bias to Xbox links and commentary there. Not surprised; the author is from the US – but interesting.
How is there a bias? This article lists the pros of each console. It’s not the authors fault that you can’t multi-task on the PS4 and that Sony doesn’t have an equivalent of the Azure network.
Choo choo, the Xbone cognitive dissonance train is leaving the station!
You can’t just throw around insults and expect to be right. Does the PS4 have a true multi-tasking feature? (i.e. being able to use two different programs at once) and Sony does not have a cloud network anywhere near the size of Azure. Where is the cognitive dissonance?
But ignoring all that, I’d love a response as to how the article is bias.
The cognitive dissonance is in you not recognising the obvious Xbone leanings. Almost every single ‘point’ references the Xbox One directly or Xbone exclusives, and not the PS4, even in cases where they are both doing the same thing. Also, despite explicitly referencing Xbone exclusives when discussing features, the ‘shared world shooter’ point, which is almost exclusively the realm of Destiny in the coming generation, is not mentioned at all by name of either game or console.
What features of the PS4 that relate to multiplayer do you think should be mentioned? XB1 is certainly mentioned more in the article, but I don’t think it’s bias as such – the XB1 has been marketed from the start as an online device that brings a ton of features to the multiplayer experience.
My computer has multitasking and Steam. It’s like 3 generations old.
The PS4 DOES have true multitasking, as has been shown off several times.
Previously Sony has used a free to play model when it came to their online services on the Playstation platform. The main reason why they were able to maintain this is because they reduced costs as much as possible, which meant reducing the required infrastructure. Due to the more online focused nature of the PS4, that is no longer feasible, which is the reason why online gaming is now behind a pay wall. This will enable them to spend more money on upgrading their infrastructure to a competitive level. The Xbox has enjoyed 10 years of a paid subscription model which has very clearly enabled MS to spend large chunks of that cash on infrastructure upgrades.
The two companies are now using the same approach, however MS has a good head start. Good thing is that Sony has already closed a large part of that gap with Gaikai alone.
You’re going to have to help me out here. I am yet to see anywhere where the PS4 can have two games/apps running at the same time side-by-side.
My google searches resulted in http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/11/ps4-video-shows-off-ui/ but all that shows for multitasking is being able to message and use social networks while in-game.
The problem is your use of the word “multi-tasking” to describe a specific feature. The PS4 does have true multi-tasking. You can have party chat going while you play a game and have things downloading and installing in the background and I’m sure that other apps can also be run asynchronously with your current focus. What you are talking about is user multi-tasking, specifically, having two thing playing at once (a variant of Picture in Picture mode in TVs). The PS4 also has user multi-tasking, as in you can be chatting to other people while playing games.
I guess I am using the wrong term then, because I’m not talking about something as simple as being able to chat to friends while in a game.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but you cannot run apps side by side on the PS4, but you can have a chat program running in the background?
I think that’s a stretch to call that user level multitasking. It sounds to me like the tasks that can run in parallel on the PS4 are pretty heavily limited. XB1 appears to have more complete multitasking capabilities. Whether you call that true or full or whatever else comes down to semantics, but I think you’d agree that comparing the XB1 and PS4 as advertised currently, the XB1 is more capable in this area.
“Sony has already closed a large part of that gap with Gaikai alone.”
But it’s a completely unproven solution they’re throwing money at. It could work, but it could also be a train wreck. It’s just a promise no different to the PS3’s cell processor talking to your fridge and toaster or the Xbox 360’s allowing you to create and sell custom race car skins on the marketplace. And is there even an ETA of the service being available?
Agreed on that. The closest thing to Gaikai out there right now is OnLive, and that service is a disaster. The latency is too high to properly play anything that requires reaction time and that’s even in the US with the servers a state or two away. Even if they overcome existing issues with streaming services, I have serious doubts that Gaikai will be a pleasant experience in Australia.
Bias as in the information provided is Xbox heavy with barely a cursory mention of the PS4.
You could remove the three mentions of Sony in this article and not impact on the body; it reads as if someone wanted to write about how great they felt the New Xbox was but had to include a PS4 mention for balance.
If you look again, you’ll find there are no mentions of the PS4 in isolation, and obvious places it should have been included aren’t. Free to play, for example – the PS4 isn’t mentioned despite the multiple FTP games and MMOs to be available.
Second screen gaming – no mention, even though it’s a feature. And so on.
Bias. Or imbalance if you prefer
The PS4 was mentioned in the second screen section… (Driveclub)
So what isolated PS4 stuff should’ve been mentioned that wasn’t then?
I’m sorry but Sony shouldn’t even be mentioned in a discussion regarding Online and multiplayer they aren’t even in the same league as Microsoft in that department it’s like Sony may as well be in peewee with Nintendo and their friend code garbage because Psn is a absaloutle joke have they even got cross game voice chat yet? Xbox had that in 2006 ffs!!!!
Dude….your comment is SO BIASED towards Xbox! Corporate spy!
Eh, it’s more the exclusion of comparative features on the other platform that jumped out at me. My takeaway from the article was “Xbox sure looks neat!”, but I was hoping for “Next gen looks neat! Both have awesome features (some equiv some not)”.
If that makes sense?
all the interaction with the vita for a start, Of course, that clearly pales in comparison to sending invites on a smartphone, truly, the future is now.
I too got a general feeling of bias in this article. A lot of the ‘changes to multiplayer’ were things that the Xbox One is doing. It was a subtle way of saying the Xbox One is awesome.
I too got a general feeling of bias on the internet. A lot of the “improvements on hardware” were things that the PS4 is doing. It’s a subtle way of saying the PS4 is awesome.
See how stupid this sounds?
This would bother me if the months since E3 on Kotaku weren’t a complete love-in on the PS4.
Did patricia get bag’d out a few weeks ago for exactly the same thing but being to bias to PS……guess theres no winning here lol
yeah correct. there have been lots of Pro PS4 articles on here for months. I guess people have short memories. All is fair IMO.
PS games will move trigger actions from the L2 & R2 buttons to the L1 & R1 buttons, now that they have actual triggers on the controller.
I strongly dislike multiplayer… strongly, and I lament that this drive towards ‘connected experiences’ will force me away from games.
You are more than likely a recluse with no friends I’m sorry but having online multiplayer vastly expands the replay ability of a game tenfold and as far as I’m concerned that is a very very strong selling point in today’s market
The days of sitting at home alone playing with yourself are coming to an end
Could you explain the logical process of how you got from ‘I dislike multiplayer’ to ‘You’re a recluse with no friends’? I’m having trouble following your line of thought here.
The one thing I’d want above anything else would be cross-platform multiplayer. No chance of Microsoft changing their policies to allow that though
http://au.ign.com/articles/2013/10/15/microsoft-xbox-one-pc-cross-platform-play-makes-sense
nothing about playing with PS4 owners though
Well it doesn’t come off like that when you only specify Microsoft and not Sony.
well, I’m going off that Microsoft’s policy doesn’t allow for any cross-platforming. I’m not familiar with Sony’s policy, but I’m going off other policy comparisons between the two companies and would suggest that they’re more relaxed about it, also considering something like they’re putting PS Mobile on non-Sony phones.
Microsoft also has Smartglass on non WP8 devices too.
I’d love cross-platform play between the two consoles, don’t get me wrong, but I just think it’s hardly fair to say that this isn’t due to both. Also what Microsoft policy on cross-platform? My google searches found nada.
the fact that Microsoft have favoured the Xbox and 360 over the PC with various games as well as not enabling any cross platform play previously indicates that their policy is that 360 games don’t interact with anything else.
Portal 2, you can play PS3 alongside a PC co-op friend. While it’s only one game it would indicate that Sony are more relaxed about letting their gamers play with other platforms
Universe At War: Earth Assault, Shadowrun, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition, BlazBlue Calamity Trigger, and Skulls of the Shogun all have cross platform multiplayer between Xbox 360 and PC.
One could also argue that considering Microsoft came out and said that cross-platform play makes sense (as per my link before) would indicate that Microsoft are more relaxed about letting their gamers play with other platforms.
But considering we have seen nothing from Sony or Microsoft addressing the state of crossplay between the Xbox and PS4, I stick with my original point that it’s pointless to put more blame than one due to their being no crossplay games.
Xbox was doing cross platform way before portal 2.
I doubt we would see cross platform between xbox and ps…..mind you how good would that be titanfall xbox vs ps teams
Cross platform play with the PC doesn’t make any sense, and shows how dumb Nelson is. Cross platform play between consoles is what the OP was talking about, and it is a feature that EVERYONE would love, but it also doesn’t make sense, as it destroys the essence of having different ecosystems.
Why do you think cross platform play with the PC doesn’t make sense? If you’re referring only to the controller issue, I have friends whose controller skills would rival the best keyboarders. Plus it really only affects games like first person shooters, while others like driving, mech games, flight sims and such benefit from having analog controls.
I was in a shadowrun clan called mojo and we always beat the PC gamers, actually we won most our games so dosnt really add anything to this disscusion
They’ll probably alter their policies to read that it is do-able, but only if you buy the same game on their console and register it.
Pfft, if there was any indication of players losing control and having to work at making it better, it was a destroyed controller. Now we’re gonna see kids just regularly and casually throw their controllers around constantly with no worries of losing it.
Also, people still don’t seem to understand how dedicated servers work. Completely unaware that dedicated servers can actually make the lag worse, especially if all servers are only located in US (which I’m inclined to believe has a high chance of happening).
Xbox servers will be hosted out of Sydney with another cluster to be setup in Melbourne 2014. So yeah…
At best, we will have a (warning: this may be outdated as I quit Wowcrack a couple of years ago) Blizzard scenario – the servers will be located in Asia. I think WoW was Singapore.
That improves lag.
If by improve, you mean the server is as far away from you as if you were in the U.S. and had to play on a server in far northern Canada, as opposed to being in the U.S. and playing off a server in Aus.
Xbox Azure servers will be in Sydney and Melb…..not sure whats going on with PS serveres
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2013/05/microsoft-to-launch-australian-azure-region/
Azure announced earlier this year that they’d be releasing in Australia going into 2014. IIRC Microsoft already has a data center presence in Sydney and are in the process of setting up in Melbourne too.
Yes, but can I gaurentee constant access instead of hoping I do?
I don’t understand the question.
Constant access to what and what hoping?
Can I select the option to only ever connect up to an Australian server for my videogame? Or are they gonna do their typical BS of saying that matchmaking will search for that server for 2 seconds before throwing me into a US one?
Well that depends on the developer of the game as to whether or not they add in a server browser as well as utilizing Microsoft’s smart match feature. I also prefer that and think Valve does it best in the CS games (both having good matchmaking and a server browser for public games), however I think it’s silly to believe in this day and age that any match making service would put you on anything 100-150ms+ if servers reside in your country, it’s about one of the first things you’d take into account with a match making algorithm and considering MS said they put a bit of effort into smart match I think they would have.
So, basically what’s been possible on PC for like…forever, but not done to pander multiplat capabilities to be in line with console?
Dedicated servers? Welcome to the 1990s.
Exactly, why is everyone making such a big fuss?
Actually, there’s been games utilizing dedicated servers on the 360 since its launch. I believe the dedicated servers the article refers to the cloud/online service Microsoft has implemented and made freely available to developers. If you develop a game for the Xbone you get access to free dedicated servers and cloud computing. Which is a pretty big deal, getting that service and infrastructure completely for free. Most devs have to set up and pay for all that themselves, and there’d be many devs who simply can’t afford to.
Let us all welcome @mattm from the Xbox PR team providing us with information.
Would you know if we will get another graphical boost on the X1 to complete with PS4?
Hey man if I worked for MSFT or any major tech company I would be a pretty happy man, but I’m not commenting anonymously, you’re welcome to trek through my 800+ comments to see that I’m just an ordinary tech consumer with different tastes than you.
Cheers I understand but you are coming in too strong on some of the members and was trying to crack a joke to stop the flame.
Anyway, which next gen console are you getting based on the informations so far? I’m looking into getting both since I can’t decide as both console have their pro and con and its hard to judge at this stage.
Trying to stop non-inflammatory comments with a flammatory ‘joke’? Does. Not. Compute.
Seriously, mattm’s nothing compared to how MS fanboy I go sometimes… 😛
😛 Well the only people that will get insulted by my comment are fanboys anyway. Look at them negs.
I have nothing against fanboys as I was one of them but I can’t choose a side anymore since i decided to support both.
Agreed a real gamer would have both systems……just. In. Case. 🙂
as well as board games lol
People who’re interested in intelligent discussion will get insulted by it. We don’t want that sort of name calling and trolling on this site. Even if you think mattm is annoying, don’t go adding to it please. You’re just making things worse.
Gotta agree with @lambomann007, it’s not just fanboys you’d insult with a comment like that. Anyone that’s tried to have intelligent conversation about the pros and cons of different devices has encountered people who dismiss any positive comments about whatever device isn’t the one they like as being from a paid shill or employee. It just shuts the whole thing down, as soon as someone says that you know they have no interest in discussing the actual facts and merits.
Yeah, I don’t understand how calling Matt a member of the Microsoft PR team didn’t go over well. I mean, how could you take that as anything other than a light-hearted joke? It was just too obvious.
#stopbeingsosensitivematt
Article should be titled: “How the xbone and PS4 are still 15 years behind PC Multiplayer, and why they will never close that gap”
So they are making consoles more like PC for online game. This after a few years of shit from the COD people trying to make PC gaming more like consoles. Trying to tell us that was better. Just shows how rubbish it all was. Screwing PC players over with an inferior product.
Yep.
yep, now if they allow to game with mouse/ keyboard i might even buy one.
But they wont because that will put every one with a controller at a disadvantage.
In my opinion it is piracy that rendered PC gaming as a secondary gaming platform. But things look like they’re slowly swinging back in PCs favour.
That’s a separate issue.
The multiplayer experience on a lot of PC games like COD has at times been made worse, more laggy due to just replicating the inferior console system.
COD4 on PC with dedicated severs for instance was way better than MW3. It was very fast and smooth.
My fav down sized mmo was chromehounds……man how i wish for chromehounds 2.
It’s not the authors fault the PS4 doesn’t have as many multiplayer features as the Xbox
I don’t know…almost every notable I nstsnce of always online,sim city ,Diablo three the xbone had been met with outright hostility, do they really think they can keep levering us the sane meal after we’ve turned it away several times?
While some of the hostility to those games was on the principle of an online requirement, most of the hostility came from the fact the games didn’t work properly in the opening days (or weeks, in the case of SimCity). If Microsoft launches an online experience that works smoothly, I’d say the reception will be quite a bit more positive than it was for SimCity.
What a bad article, to put it bluntly almost all of this is wrong or subjective. Had you just worded it differently it would have been better. Saying things like “better shooting” are just incorrect and if you had offered opinions on things like the FTP trend about the nserious negatives , the whole thing would have read less like a fluff piece for microsoft (Where is the sony stuff?? and more like journalism.
Controls:
None of the changes will make you “control” better or shoot “better”. they will make the controllers more comfortable and perhaps intuitive, neither of which will give you better control of a game. Your still shooting with the same trigger and changing weapons with the same button press.
It has been shown 2nd screen SUCK SUCK SUCK. I don’t care how intuitive you think your 2nd screen game is (because its not), be it the horribly controlled flares for dead rising 3 or some watchdogs app. All of it can be done faster and better on your tv screen without you juggling 2 devices. How are you going to hold and use both a smartphone/tablet and a controller at the same time, in any answer your putting one down and using or picking up the other and refocusing your attention from the game to something else.
Online:
Key word “AS MUCH”, not every game will be dedicated its entirely up to individual developers so the entire point is moot.
I would also point out VERY FEW games are “bettered” with online functionality, at best you get a side show most people don’t care for. (think the harassing someone in a single player game like watchdogs, i will turn that shit off because most people don’t like having single player interrupted) and at worst your looking at some stupid diablo 3 or sim city bullshit where useless and inferior online components are used to force a always online connection instead of a simpler easier and superior regular single player experience.
Better connections is nothing short of idealism at its best, shit even league of legends who has arguably the very best anti troll stuff in online gaming today is still filled with the cesspool of society, Microsoft wont be any different. Until its released we wont know either way so this isn’t a “fact” as you would claim.
Social experience:
Has nothing to do with gameing, period. If you want to tweet about your gamerscore you can do that on your phone since your the kind of person using a 2nd screen anyway….
I would also point out having people able to “que” while basically being afk is NOT A GOOD THING (as you pointed out with “snap”).
Though i will say being able to capture video and what not, then edit and upload is a nice feature and the only actual positive thing in this article.
Game content:
This Ai modelled on friends is iffy at best, while if it worked it would be nice its still a bot and few people enjoy fighting bots thats assuming it works.
Free to play games aren’t good, at all. At the VERY best you get a league of legends which is still shit because all the content in the game is going to cost you literaly $1000’s I would much prefer a 1 up payment. On the other side you get bullshit like the latest Star wars mmo which went and gated everything behind a paywall so much so that you can’t even play a basic experience without paying. Then there are the very worst that have bone-a-fide pay to win.
IN EVERY case FTP is worse than a regular once off payment or subscription.
I don’t really know what the point of this article was, if you were striving for a microsoft edition of things that will might change next gen and that are incorrectly labeled defined or under a false/misleading headers and titled descriptions then you succeed.
What if a more comfortable controller reduces strain? After hours of playing, a more comfortable controller is going to yield more accurate results right? What if the rumble trigger on the Xbone controller indicates the direction from which an explosion occurred, alerting you to danger, allowing you take cover and avoid death, therefore increasing your K/D? What if the thumbstick don’t wear as roughly and provide smoother panning and movement which could aid in sniping or twitch gameplay? There’s plenty of ways an improved controller could allow you to perform better. Sure, it’s minimal, but not negligible,
My eyes strain a little reading loads of text from my 55 inch TV that I sit about 9 feet away from. It makes reading lengthy text like the books in Skyrim or in deoth item descriptions. I’d love it if that text could be displayed on my ipad which is comfortable to read from. That’s just one example of many examples I could think of why seconds screens could be great. You can’t just declare that they suck. That is, as you said, subjective.
100% agree that single player games that don’t work because their online requirements are fulaty. Yuck! but I disagree that “at best you get a side show most people don’t care for.” Trials Evolution is a text book example of a game that works perfectly offline but is greatly enhanced with an internet connection. Everybody raves about this feature. It’s great.
Well said.
“Hopefully this means in improved kill/death ratios for us all.”
/facepalm
I can only assume that line was thrown in for gaming buzzword bingo.