Can PC gamers play online with gamers using games consoles?

Tomaspol · 19-02-2015 09:41AM #1

As above.
Can PC gamer connect and play online with his friends which are using play station or xbox?
For example gta 5.
I presume the answer is "no" but i am not sure is that true and what would be the reason.
Different servers, accounts etc?

Burgo · 19-02-2015 10:29AM

The only games that i can think of that were cross platform were shadowrun on the 360 and Q3 on the dreamcast.
I'm sure there were a few other titles but none spring to mind at the minute.

Retr0gamer · 19-02-2015 10:29AM

There's been a few historic games where PC gamers could connect to Consoles servers, Quake 3 on Dreamcast and Shadowrun on 360 (although did this happen in the end?). It's perfectly possible and reasonable for PC gamers to connect to console servers, it's the people that run the console servers, the publishers and platform holders basically, that stop it.

dreamers75 · 19-02-2015 10:35AM

Different server architecture and the consoles would not want to dilute a consumer base.

There was one Xbox game that allowed this, cant recall the name of it was a dude with a bow and arrow on the cover. It wasnt a very good game.

Xbone and Windows 10 have hinted at some sort crossover play.

jumbobreakfast · 19-02-2015 10:43AM

There is speculation that Windows 10 could bring more cross platform play

Kiith · 19-02-2015 10:47AM

Microsoft have said many times that Pc Gaming is important to them, and than completely and repeatedly backtrack when push comes to shove. So i'd have no faith whatsoever in them to ever implementing this.

bakerlite · 19-02-2015 11:02AM

Via a steam account I hooked up with a friends ps3 to play cross platform portal . great fun. Shame there aren't more options.

gizmo · 19-02-2015 11:15AM

jumbobreakfast wrote: »

There is speculation that Windows 10 could bring more cross platform play

Speculation?

Shiminay · 19-02-2015 11:54AM

The problem of course is, as was learned the hard way in the case of Quake 3 on the DC, scrubs on a controller will be battered all around the place by a mouse and keyboard in certain games. Now, of course, the DC did in fact support mouse and keyboard (it was running a modified version of Windows CE), but not too many people had it from what I recall. Also, Quake 3 in particular needed to run at 125 FPS minimum if you wanted to be competitive - movement speed was tied to frame rate in that engine and there's not a lot of customisation that can be done with a console.

From a software point of view, there're actually very few reasons cross-platform play couldn't be supported all the time - providing it's built with that in mind from the start and isn't something you're trying to patch in after the fact.

The hardware providers are 1) not at all interested in making "my mate has an XBox and I have a PS4" something that is no longer a problem - they need you to buy their hardware and to lock you into their ecosystem and 2) deathly afraid of their competitor's console being shown to be demonstrably "better" and thus ending the fanboi wars.

Varik · 19-02-2015 12:36PM

Few PS4 games do allow cross platform play, most had removed after launch due to the differences in updates but some had it added.

War thunder on was made cross play recently, not sure what others.

Sephiroth_dude · 19-02-2015 01:50PM

Its not possible with Minecraft is it?

Shiminay · 19-02-2015 03:43PM

Nope.

Can PC gamers play online with gamers using games consoles?

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