XBOX Live Works with EVERYTHING?

I think that cross platform play was always on the table, since Microsoft was planning on it for their Xbox and Win10 strategy(adding ps4 to the list is weird though, but it could potentially mean cross play between Nintendo NX and Xbox One.). Free online play for Xbox owners should definitely be the next big move from Microsoft(probably won't be), but I think if they are worried that people wouldn't pay for a subscription then they need to offer something new to replace the online gaming aspect. Like maybe have more sales for people that are playing for the subscription and increase the discount you get from buying a game from deals with gold.

Considering the industry is now split three ways between Microsoft, Sony and the PC side I find it interesting that phil has more or less acknowledged that his system is basically redundant for a lot of PC gamers. I hope this crossplatform play works out. I really do like the idea of not having to buy an xbox or a ps4 in order to play with my console focused friends. I also hope sony works with microsft because then it would mean all the console makers are finally working together. its 8 year old mes biggest dream.

They HAVE to make it work with everything. Contrary to what they are trying to claim, it isn't because they care about the gamers. It's because they are getting trounced in the console war this generation, and this is their only hope of keeping late adapters on Xbox hardware, rather than swapping over to PS4, as so many already have.

It's a great addition that they should have been doing when they started with the X-Box 360. The initial issue will be if Developers/Publishers and also Sony/Nintendo actually want to be a part of this open playerbase cross platform play on games they make for all the platforms. Which is a lot of variables for any company to consider when making a game. Rather than what platforms they will be making a game on, but will they be able to make cross platform play for all of them and deliver the experiance for each. Honestly the biggest issue that may cause there to be a slow pick-up for games is balancing them all out against one another.

How to do you ensure that PC gamers who can run the games with higher FPS and arguably far better controls for many games against a console that has to run it at 30 FPS natively and another console that may run it at 60 FPS? There is either going to be a specific standard at which all the games play regardless of platform to ensure fair graphical options and controls. Which means we get games that are intentionally held back by the lowest hardware in the mix. Which will split people even more when it comes to consoles and also why they should have to get games made to suit one platform. I detest when I get a PC version of a game and it's clear when they have developed the system on the console and the game suffers from it on PC.

It may be an old arguement, but PC gamers tend to prefer their games to be as good as they can be with options that make sense for that platform. A common feature for a lot fo FPS games for example is to have FOV options to better fit larger or multiple moniter set-ups (it also helps people with motion sickness caused by smaller FOV's). High FPS to ensure they have an advantage in competitive play (smoother visuals of what's happening has always been a must in competitive play), solid controls and customisation of inputs, minimal latency as a whole to ensure they don't feel cheated in competitive matches from unresponsive controls or network lag. Aim assist will be a must for consoles and that will need to be balanced. You only need to look at the Shadowrun franchise and look at all the mechanics they need to try and balance both of the platforms out. from augmented Cones of Fire to slow PC gamers down and the amount of aim assist that was there as well. It's a lot of balancing back and forth that will take a fair amount of development time outside the norm for multiplay.

I am not against it at all and know a lot of people who read this will come to that conclusion. I feel that we will see a lot of things we won't like early on and that could be detrimental to the whole thing and possibly make the decision for developers. Much like people's view of the Shadowrun experiance that didn't remain cross platform throughout the life of the game itself. People on PC know that it was down to the fact it wasn't balanced and it never worked as intended. Even when Microsoft argues they never killed it or that cross platform play was always there for developers. It was removed from the game way before it actually lost it's playerbase on both machines.

Since they are saying PC and other platforms, do they mean (not windows 10) PCs too? Because if they are opening the networks does that mean that it would even work with Linux system (and Mac too, I guess)? I'm not planning on switching to Windows 10 for various reasons and I think that the enforcement of UWP will eventually fail, but hopefully this feature paves the way for Microsoft to be more open.

Funny they should mention Killer Instinct as the PC(Windows 10) version of the 2013 reboot launches on March 29th at the same time that the start of the Season 3 content lands on Xbox One, if you already own any of the X1 content the PC version of that content is cross-buy (AKA buy one version get both) and will support cross platform multiplayer between the two systems.

Season 3 I believe will launch with 4 characters at once, Kim Wu and Tusk from the original games along side a pair of guest characters Rash from Battletoads and the Arbiter from Halo, leaks appear to suggest that General Raam from Gears of War might turn up in the future.