elite multiplatform

[Sneakytiger]

well looks like ED is being converted to work on xbox one

from what I hear the universe will be cross platform with pc,mac and xbone players.

[smilodon]

I have been waiting for the multi player/social side of ED to develop but have to admit this does not fill me with much confidence going forward. More often than not adapting a game for Console players results in the game dumbing down, and becoming a much poorer experience for it. Sometimes it can work but the list of games that fell to pieces when ported across is a long one. Likewise there are precious few console games that have been great PC ports. It can happen but it's uncommon. It's also likely to lock the graphics quality and feature set down so as to work on consoles, which by definition are old technology. There's a lot of things a Space Sim can do if it's free to use the full capabilities of a decent spec PC, which I worry won't be options if the game has to work on a console. And then there's a who can of worms that is Xbox subscription models. Not a good piece of news at all.

[albert]

On the flip side having more players will prolong the life cycle of the game. Speculation over whether quality can be maintained is exactly that, speculation. The game runs at 16000 wide resolution over 4 x 4000 monitors. I think that level of graphical quality will feed the upgrade and investment appetite of all but the most wealthy gamers for the next 2 years.

I also refer you all to Warframe, which is multiplatform over PC, xbone and ps4 and has over 10 million players registered and just keeps getting better with the PC version pulling along the other in terms of quality.

[smilodon]

As mentioned there's always the exception but most PC games don't improve when adopting a console version. It's good to hear that it's unlikely PC and console players will ever meet in game, but I still worry that when there's a development meeting it will go something like " We could introduce this fantastic new idea where players can now (insert amazing new game feature here)!", "Sorry we can't include that as it would never run on consoles.", "Oh well never mind then."

It might work and would increase revenues but I'm generally worried when a game starts flirting with Microsoft/Sony. Things generally don't end well. It stops being a game that is built on passion for the genre and love of the community that supports it and starts being about revenue streams, player numbers and $$$.

[ArithonUK]

My first thought was "well good for them, but how does this affect me?"

From what the devs have posted, they'd like cross-platform interaction (technically possible and since this is not an FPS, reasonable to contemplate) however Microsoft are the road-block to that, since they insist on holding all servers "for security" so in all likelihood, unless MS was to use this to promote their new Windows 10 XBOX Live, it won't happen.

They will just share galaxy data (who discovered what, prices, etc.).

Will it screw up Elite for the PC? No. The port that is happening is the Cobra Engine and not the "game" as such and I if they want to downsize textures and limit the accessible galaxy for the XBOX that won't affect us at all.

It will give Frontier a larger revenue stream, which can't be a bad thing and PC developers and console developers are not the same skill-set, so unless they downsize the PC dev side of the operation, nothing major should change.

Modelling, artwork, netcode etc. are all generic skills and would contribute to both sides of the fence.

[ArithonUK]

PC Gamer have published an article about this.

According to Frontier's David Braben, while he likes the idea of  cross-play between PC and consoles, there is one significant problem  that stands in the way.

"I think the challenges for us, which sort of fights against it," Braben told PCGamesN, "is  we’ve also said that we’ll continue to do updates across all platforms,  and what we didn’t want was PC updates to be held up for whatever  reason, like if there’s a delay on another platform."

Basically,  console patches require certificationâ€"essentially the approval of the  platform ownerâ€"and that means they can't be released as frequently as on  the PC. Either different systems run different versions, or PC patching  gets held up by the consolesâ€"something that, for obvious reasons,  Frontier doesn't want to do.

[smilodon]

Good to hear. It worked for Minecraft, to a degree. The two games ran in parallel and stuff on the PC didn't necessarily show up on the Xbox.

[albert]

PC Gamer have published an article about this.

According to Frontier's David Braben, while he likes the idea of  cross-play between PC and consoles, there is one significant problem  that stands in the way.

Basically,  console patches require certificationâ€"essentially the approval of the  platform ownerâ€"and that means they can't be released as frequently as on  the PC. Either different systems run different versions, or PC patching  gets held up by the consolesâ€"something that, for obvious reasons,  Frontier doesn't want to do.

This is the sort of path Digital Extremes have taken with Warframe. They release small and regular on PC and then larger features on the consoles which have run on PC for sometimes 4 weeks.

The PC gets the love in terms of innovation, the consoles get instant stability and compatibility because they have to work with the Sony and MS certification processes. It works!

I also believe Braben like Roberts ain't in this for the money, they're in it for longevity and satisfying a very hungry space lovin' community, both will not let is down.