Xbox Developers Are Now Allowed To Support Cross Platform Play! Xbox Meet PS4

The future of gaming is here. This is literally, a big fucking deal.

Announced today on the official Xbox Blog. Chris Charla, the director of Xbox’s GDC presence, announced a myriad of things you can expect to see at this years Game Developers Conference. Arguably, the most important one is the Cross Network Play.

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.

This is EXTREMELY exciting news. The way Chris punctuated the statement is what everyone should be excited about. “…open invitiation for other networks to participate as well.” is a nice way of saying, “Hey Sony! Lets bury this shit and lets our gamer’s game!”. This isn’t the first time Microsoft has dabbled with cross platform play. If you remember way back in 2007, they attempted to bridge the Xbox 360 and PC market with their online shooter, Shadowrun. It failed miserably, mostly due to the fact that players on the PC had an inherent advantage over their controller wielding counter parts. Yes this go round their putting Windows 10 in the forefront, it’s the possibility that users on OTHER consoles can join in on the fun.

I hope that Sony will get on board with this, and developers will start patching their games! Getting the Xbox One and PS4 Destiny, The Division, Rocket League, etc. etc. together is going to be HUGE. HUGE!

Chris goes on to discuss their Indie Game support, as well as allowing their XNA framework an open source option for Xbox One.