While I’ve already bemoaned the lack of real technological advances in the past console generation, not every innovation of the PS4/Xbox One era had to do with visuals or framerate. One of the quieter revelations, and one of the most forward-thinking, has been the slow adoption of cross-platform gaming, aka crossplay.
[referenced id=”1193860″ url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/11/maybe-the-ps4-pro-and-xbox-one-x-were-a-bad-idea/” thumb=”https://www.gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/11/19/lnqdwooekollefijhd0r-300×169.jpg” title=”Maybe The PS4 Pro And Xbox One X Were A Bad Idea” excerpt=”I know they’ve sold a lot of units — big techy launch things always have and always will — but there was no avoiding the fact that this month’s next-gen console launches felt a little…muted.”]
For as long as there have been video game consoles, it was long just assumed that they were locked down. That was the point. You were buying into a closed ecosystem, one controlled entirely by the platform holder, and in return for that control you were expecting a certain level of consistency and quality from the experience.
That was true of Atari, it was true of Nintendo, Sega, and later the PlayStation and Xbox. As multiplatform games became more common in the 21st century, though — or at least multiplatform games of similar design and performance — that assumption started to look a little shaky. If I’m playing FIFA on my PlayStation, and my friend is playing FIFA on his Xbox, and they’re basically the same game, why can’t we play against each other?
The initial defence, of course, was just because. PlayStation gamers could play against PlayStation gamers, Xbox people could play Xbox people, and never the two should meet, because that’s how it always was and changing it would be hard and they both had their own dedicated multiplayer networks and…
This past console generation, that changed. Microsoft, finally waking up to the possibilities of releasing its games on both Xbox and PC, found ways for players to go up against each other across these two platforms, on games like Killer Instinct and Gears 4.
Sony, meanwhile, had also been exploring the ties between console and PC gaming with stuff like Final Fantasy XIV, and even earlier than that had worked with Valve to get Steam running on the PlayStation 3, something that seemed monumental at the time but which ultimately didn’t really go anywhere.
This stuff worked! And if it worked there, then…maybe it could work anywhere. And so after a quiet few early years of this past console generation, where not much progress was made on turning crossplay into a thing, in 2016 Microsoft started taking things a bit more seriously.
Microsoft led the way in getting first Rocket League working in crossplay, then Minecraft, in both cases aided by Nintendo opening up the Switch in 2017, allowing gamers to play with/against each other across the Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch.
And where was Sony? Initially, dragging their heels. By June 2018 the PlayStation’s crossplay situation was bad enough we’d write blogs about it, but pressure from fans — and the emerging importance of some of the biggest games in the world being cross-platform titles, like Fortnite — eventually forced the company’s hand, and in September 2018 Sony relented and allowed crossplay on the PS5 for “select third party content”.
[referenced id=”877841″ url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2018/06/the-sorry-state-of-ps4-cross-play/” thumb=”https://www.gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/06/28/ovvnjpiavbwqm8bceucj-300×169.jpg” title=”The Sorry State Of PS4 Cross-Play” excerpt=”Minecraft, owned and operated by Microsoft, supports cross-play with Nintendo Switch. Right now, if you download Minecraft on Switch, you can play with any of your friends who are on PC. You can play with any of your friends who are on Xbox, or even on their phones. There’s just…”]
That was only two years ago, and we’re still a long way from achieving crossplay’s ultimate end goal, which — for fans at least — would be playing any multiplatform game you want on any system you want. But now that all three console platform holders are on board, along with Microsoft’s PC efforts and Epic’s cross-platform tools, it feels like that end goal is something we can actually see, and not just dream about.
What I love about this advance is that it’s more than just technological. Sure, a lot of work has to be done behind the curtain to get games working across entirely different consoles in terms of code and networks, but crossplay’s first confident steps have required diplomacy as well, not an endeavour that usually comes to mind when thinking about rival platform holders.
Console generations have long been associated with console wars, so bringing all three companies together like this might end up being one of the past generation’s greatest achievements. Here’s hoping that the efforts continue through the PS5/XBX era, and in a few year’s time we’re all playing Destiny and FIFA together, regardless of the box sitting under our TV.
MORE STORIES FROM THE LAST GENERATION:
[referenced id=”1195980″ url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/12/we-sure-got-used-to-microtransactions-and-dlc-huh/” thumb=”https://www.gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/12/03/z0pq2xw2we1rotfw84oh-300×169.jpg” title=”We Sure Got Used To Microtransactions And DLC, Huh” excerpt=”There once was a time — around when Bethesda had the idea to sell armour for a horse back in 2006 — that the prospect of buying a video game then paying more money for stuff in the same game would prompt outrage.”]
[referenced id=”1194983″ url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/11/my-ps4-was-fun-but-it-was-also-a-piece-of-junk/” thumb=”https://www.gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/11/26/jt0httjc4x0ghlwfbtb0-300×169.jpg” title=”My PS4 Was Fun, But It Was Also A Piece Of Junk” excerpt=”The Xbox 360 was as famous for its catastrophic hardware failures as it was its A-tier catalogue of video games. My PlayStation 4 is very close to being remembered in the same way.”]
[referenced id=”1194750″ url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/11/nintendo-completely-bailed-on-console-generations-and-nobody-gave-a-shit/” thumb=”https://www.gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/11/25/ao2syuybra8bnah6560m-300×169.jpg” title=”Nintendo Completely Bailed On Console Generations, And Nobody Gave A Shit” excerpt=”The last time we said goodbye to a whole generation of video game consoles, it was 2013, and we said our farewells to three machines. This time around, we’re only saying goodbye to two, because Nintendo walked away from this game a long time ago.”]
[referenced id=”1193451″ url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/11/goodbye-to-the-xbox-one-the-most-pointless-console-i-have-ever-owned/” thumb=”https://www.gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/11/17/p8b0tj2exgjoigathaba-300×169.jpg” title=”Goodbye To The Xbox One, The Most Pointless Console I Have Ever Owned” excerpt=”I moved house last year, and while packing everything away my wife and I made a simple rule: if anything was still in its box 12 months later, we would get rid of it, because that meant we never used it and didn’t need it. Last month, I sold my…”]
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