Epic has finally decided not to support cross-platform online play between PC and PS3 on launch - although it may appear as a future addition.
Mark Rein has explained that the biggest challenge in doing cross-platform play is synchronizing the builds such that the build on the PC is 100-percent compatible with the build on the PS3.
"Unfortunately (or fortunately) when you [develop] games on console you have a lengthy certification process to go through each time you release anything new," Rein said in an IRC chat, reports Shacknews via the IRC Q&A session with Epic set up by BeyondUnreal.
"We looked at how this would impact our ability to respond quickly to things happening at internet speed on the PC side of the equation and realized that this would not be in the best interests of our very loyal PC userbase because we would constantly be holding on to updates to wait until they passed cert on the console platform."
Rein went on to say that cross-platform may be introduced down the line, but that the likelihood of that happening is still small.
They could at least just temporarily disable the cross-platform play while the versions don't match, or give people the chance to refuse an update on the PC and keep compatibility until the console version is patched to an equal build.
I remember many old online games (Unreal included) in which people were playing with different versions, and it just didn't let you connect if your version didn't match.
No, just not bothered. There'll be enough PC users to play against. Don't have anything to prove against PS3 owners, don't care if they're better or worse at it than PCs. Just wanna play the game.
Doesnt matter one bit as console gaming differs to PC.
I appreciate that UT3 has mouse n keyboard support for PS3 but still not the same type of people playing.
I have a PC and a PS3 and while i love the PS3 the sort of people who play online are a-holes who team kill you in games like warhawk and find it funny......
How come 360 can support this feature with ease? Surely an open network such as the PSN would be even easier to develop cross platform play for?
That's not the point, it is not the network. The problem is that it takes longer to release a patch for a console than the PC because the patch has to be certified on console (checked and approved that it meets certain standards). I guess either Microsoft were fast-tracking patches for Shadowrun or PC patches were/are being held up waiting for the console certification.
I still can't see how you can even up the superiority of the mouse+keyboard over the joypad, from what I have read Shadowrun did it poorly, so what is the point anyway? (Assuming not everyone is going to get the PS3 mouse+keyboard)
I don't care either. All this cross platform stuff sounds like a really bad idea. At least if you are playing with people on the same platform. Everyone is on a level playing field, same console, same controller etc. When it comes to a console versus a PC and mouse control, the PC gamer is surely going to have the advantage.
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