Tuesday, July 7, 2020

Should cross-platform multiplayer be a thing for every game? (Debate)

Just five or so years ago, you would never see a multiplayer game that is capable to be played across various game consoles/PC. Now we have just a handful of games where this is implemented included Call of Duty Modern Warfare, Fortnite and Rocket League. There has always been an argument on whether all online games should be cross-platform or not. Some are against it, while others really like the idea. I would say I am more in between, so in this post I will address the reasons for being "for" and "against" the idea. To begin with, I am for the idea because with cross-platform you are able to play with your friends online that are on different consoles. This is pretty beneficiary if you are a big fan of one console and your friend likes another console a lot more, thus with cross-platform you are not forced to conform to using a console that you are not a huge fan of. Another reason I am for it is because it allows a games online player base to be much greater, which in turn results in quicker matchmaking. On the contrary, you could say that having a bigger player base allows PC players to be added into the mix. PC players in particular are referred to have a huge advantage over console players, so this addition can actually punish console players overall. One more reason for having cross-platform available everywhere is that it will basically eliminate companies like Microsoft and Sony from trying to steal fan base and in turn lower the concept of "console wars". Console wars have been going on for a while now and it is basically supporters of each console going after each other supporting their system and their system only. If online games were able to be played with everybody across different consoles rather then in their own ecosystem, then people would view each others consoles as more equal. That being said, the opposition would point out that having "console wars" allows video game developers to make as much money as possible, which they believe to be a great thing. Without a console war, there would be no competition they'd say. All in all, I feel like both sides have valid arguments but I think it would be best to stick with only have some really popular games as cross-platform.

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Should cross-platform multiplayer be a thing for every game? (Debate)

Just five or so years ago, you would never see a multiplayer game that is capable to be played across various game consoles/PC. Now we have ...