Microsoft Corporate Vice President Phil Spencer has acknowledged during an interview that cross platform play between Xbox One and PC "makes a lot of sense." Gamers across the globe have always wanted the chance the play games with their counterparts on Xbox/PC/PS3 and it seems Microsoft are possibly one step closer in making this dream come true.
"A connected ecosystem is the way the industry is heading" said Spencer, and "Microsoft has learned a great deal from its past experiments with games like Shadowrun and Skulls of the Shogun."
"I’m not allowed to leak things" said Spencer. "But I think what you’re talking about makes a lot of sense. Now you have differences in Windows gaming and console gaming around control and input... in fact if you go back to Shadowrun on Xbox 360 -- something I worked on -- we had PC players playing against Xbox 360 customers. We didn't have tremendous success with that, but we learnt a lot from it."
"This connected ecosystem across all the different devices is definitely where I think the future of gaming is going; you don’t have to do it as a developer, but you have the capability and I think a system like Xbox Live across all those screens where you know who someone is and who their friends are, what their Achievements are and their progression is really critical to that."
I can see this being a massive plus point for the Xbox One if it ever actually happens. With Microsoft owning its Windows software and having the Xbox software it must definitely have the power to intertwine the multiplayer possibilities between machines and integrate a multiplayer cross platform method. Many of my friends don't have gaming PC's and spend their days sat in front of their consoles but if cross platform happened it would be great to jump into their game of FIFA '14 or Borderlands from my PC. We will have to wait and see if this story effervesces somewhat but just to hear the possibility makes me excited.
