News
Microsoft Allows Lost Colonies to Clash in Cross-Platform Duel
What if there was a war and no one showed up?
by Dominic
On December 17th Lost Planet players will be able to face Xbox Live or Games for Windows users in a cross-platform showdown hosted by Microsoft. Microsoft hosts these match-ups once a month with a different game, with last month's game being the not-so-popular Universe at War. It's hard to imagine what real benefit the event will offer other than to continue to push Games for Windows and provide those few still playing Lost Planet someone to play with. Lost Planet seems a little too old to draw any sort of crowd, especially with games like Left 4 Dead dominating multiplayer interests. Hey, maybe Microsoft should strike a deal with Steam to allow cross-platform matches. Now that's an idea!
Comments
This is something that should be more common, playing Left 4 Dead with your PC buddies would be awesome. It's a shame they're hosting it with a game no one plays.
Good god, cross platform L4D and TF2 would be wonderful.
I have a feeling true adoption of cross-platform play is at least another generation away. If Vista wasn't so godawful they might have achieved it sooner.
Dude. Cross platform L4D is where it's at. I hate having to get together with one group of friends on steam and another on xbl to get my zombie-slay on.
I think I remember reading something about TF2 originally being cross-platform (which would lead you to believe that if successful, L4D would have been too), but I can't remember what happened.
Microsoft happened, that's what.
I have to say though, cross-platform is tricky.
One, you've got MUCH better PC rigs playing the same game - higher frame rates, the ability to use mad h4x, and other such PC nonsense that will throw a wrench into things.
Second, PC being the ultimate platform, you've got free updates coming in the form of patches almost continuously (I'm mostly talking about Vallve here).. After a game has been out for 6 months, half of the community isn't even playing the same game that was released. That cant be said for consoles, and I imagine keeping those two communities on the same page would be a difficult task.
I think that's what Microsoft is trying to do with their Games for Windows initiative: Maintain control over the product. Right now they have a pipeline on Xbox Live for patches/updates that only go out with their approval, and are required to be downloaded by every user to play online. I think they're going to attempt to do the same with GfW. The PC community will shit a brick though, because the big incentive of playing on a PC is the mod community.
I'm right there with Hamz!
ALL HAIL HAMZ!