For many years the idea of cross-platform gaming has reached some issues. Most prominently was Microsoft’s first try on this idea when Shadowrun, and FPS game based on the tabletop IP, enabled cross-play between Xbox 360 and Windows Vista players via Games For Windows Live. As we know now, Games For Windows Live was a disaster and the idea of cross-play is rarely explored nowadays barred a few games like Rocket League and Street Fighter V.
The mains issue back then was the inherit advantage of the keyboard and mouse control scheme over controllers. So far we have yet to see any FPS games that do any cross-platform multiplayer successfully.
But Gears Of War 4, a third-person cover shooter and a first-party title from Microsoft, is going to enable cross-play multiplayer not only for casual matches, but ranked as well. Beforehand, the game was already being tested for cross-play, and casual multiplayer has this functionality for sometime.
Developers The Coalition are aware that some players may be concerned with the PC folks having inherit advantage, so for Xbox One players have the ability to avoid PC players. PC players have no options however. “As we want to make sure Windows 10 players can experience any Ranked Playlist, the toggle will not be available on Windows 10,” The Coalition said.
It’s clear the intention for cross-play is to help out the PC player base as it is reported that they have a hard time getting into multiplayer matches. Any effort to consolidate and maintain a playerbase is worth commending- multiplayer games live and die on how many players, and matches you can get quickly.
Ranked cross-play for Gears Of War 4 has no concrete release date yet, but it should be out in the coming months.