Earlier this week, Microsoft released cross play support for Gears of War 4 between Xbox One and Windows 10 players. Since then, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has taken to Twitter and stated that he hopes to see more games support this feature.
When a fan asked if future games will have cross play support like Gears of War 4 does, Spencer replied, “I hope so, that’s our goal.”
As it is now, only a few games actually support cross play between Xbox and Windows 10 platforms, most of which are smaller titles by indie developers. In addition to the previously mentioned Gears of War 4, other titles that have this feature include the likes of Forza Horizon 3 and Astroneer. Upcoming games like Gwent and Crackdown 3 are also slated to support it when they release.
There’s always been some worry with Windows 10 and Xbox cross play, with many thinking that PC players would have an unfair advantage when it comes to certain genres like shooters. However, Microsoft has stated that there wasn’t any notable difference between performance from both PC and Xbox players when they had a cross play multiplayer test weekend last year in Gears of War 4, which is why they decided to push forward with fully implementing the feature in the game.
In addition to that, this perceived advantage doesn’t exist with other genres. 2017 will see the release of several multi-platform fighting games such as Tekken 7 and Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite. Unlike shooters, fighting games don’t have an edge on what platform you play it on and would be the perfect games to see cross play support in the future. It will also help these games stay alive as fighters, more than most other genres, require a large player base to stay relevant.
It will be interesting to see if more developers will integrate Windows 10 and Xbox cross play support in their future games. It will definitely help shorten the divide that seems to exist between PC and console players as well as expand the library of games for both platforms.
