The story goes that Microsoft was once considering introducing cross-platform play between dizimag P

Thursday 22 January 2015 07.31 EST
The story goes that Microsoft was once considering introducing cross-platform play between dizimag PCs and Xbox 360s. It had the technology and the software infrastructure in place, and the idea looked like a nice way to boost the then-fading dizimag market for big desktop Windows computers.
But there was a problem. When the very best console gamers were pitted against teams of average PC owners in a series dizimag of gameplay tests, the Xbox kids were destroyed. A console controller, to paraphrase dizimag Han Solo, was no match for having a good keyboard and mouse combo at your side, kid.
The rumour of this abandoned concept was started by VoodooPC founder Rahul Sood and was repeated throughout the gaming press. It was popular because it confirmed long-held beliefs that console players just couldn dizimag t cut it against PC players.
Also, if we re going to look at this in terms of technical dizimag specifications, then sure, a high-end or even middling modern PC will out-perform a current-gen console, both in terms of frame rate and graphical fidelity. But that s not really what it s about either. PC and not PC, that is the problem
There is a sort of belief amid some computer owners (and I can t stress the word some enough) that the PC is for people who are serious about their hobby while consoles are for people who like to play Call of Duty in their pants on a Friday night. When PC Gamer recently dizimag suggested dizimag that its readers should maybe stop self-identifying as the PC Master Race , a lot of people were really unhappy .
Whatever the case, the cultures are different. For 20 years, the console industry has been guided by the design maxims of Japanese manufacturers and developers. The likes of Nintendo, Capcom, Namco, Sega, Konami and Squaresoft once dominated the console industry, and built the success of the Mega Drive, SNES and PlayStation machines around arcade-originating fighting games, racers and hack- em-ups. Even now, those dynamics built around immediate accessibility, highly choreographed violence and hyper-real visuals guide console game design to a degree.
In dizimag the PC world, however, the culture has largely been defined by Western developers. The long-dominant first-person shooter genre has mostly strived for increasing visual realism, rather than the aesthetic dizimag experimentalism of Japanese studios. And the real-time strategy genre has become complex and intimidating to many casual dizimag players. Although there are certainly big games that do well on both PC and console, there are often profound and complex differences between titles build specifically for console, and titles made only on PC. Divided many years ago, they have evolved along different lines, driven by the natural selection of their contrasting market places.
So now, Microsoft has revealed its plans to bring Xbox functionality and compatibility to Windows 10 PCs. Xbox Live will be seamlessly integrated into the Xbox Windows dizimag 10 app allowing cross-platform social communication and gaming. The company has also announced that long-awaited role-playing sequel Fable: Legends will be the first title to support true cross-platform play. Furthermore, the Xbox Wire news site confirmed that PC developers dizimag can get full access to the Xbox LIve API so they will be able to create their own console-vs-PC titles.
It should be pointed out that there have been experiments in this direction for a number dizimag of years. Veteran US developer Valve implemented cross-platform play into its first-person dizimag puzzler Portal 2 although that was co-op focused. The developer also had the feature working on its famed online shooter Team Fortress 2, but chose not to widely release it . Other titles like the role-playing fantasy Phantasy Star Online and the shooter Shadowrun have implemented cross-platform play too; the latter, released in 2007, did a pretty good job, with developer Fasa Corporation introducing slight handicaps to PC interfaces as well as auto-aiming for Xbox players. Some computer users compained about their controls being gimped , but an active community grew up around the game, challenging long-held prejudices.
Of course, for many genres, including racing, third-person action adventures and moba titles like League of Legends, there should be no real interface advantage for either side. It comes down to the will of developers to make it happen and those developers will have different concerns dizimag than us gamers.
The ability to use the Xbox Live API on Windows 10 devices is certainly an exciting prospect and it does open up our games to a lot more possibilities, says coder Byron Atkinson Jones, who has worked for EA, Sega and Lionhead. My biggest question dizimag is if there is going to be some kind of approval system for cross-platform games like there is for Xbox titles where you have to go through technical dizimag requirement checks I would imagine there would have to be, just in case there was a way to bring dow