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Forums > Home› Star Trek Online General Discussion

revealing news re: cross-platform play?

westmetalswestmetals Member Posts: 8,479 Arc User
edited August 2023 in Star Trek Online General Discussion
Just was reading this article and wondering if it may expose one of the reasons we don't have cross-platform play in STO. (It refers to objections/financial hurdles apparently imposed by Sony)

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/borderlands-3-cross-play-update-is-ready-but-playstation-consoles-are-being-left-out/1100-6492082/

(for the record, I am by choice a PC-only player... I haven't even owned a console since Super Nintendo was a thing back in the 90s.)
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on

Comments

  • paradox#7391 paradox
    paradox#7391
         Member Posts: 1,776 Arc User
    another reason is that we usually get content a few weeks or months behind PC, it would take some time getting used to everyone doing events and content in sync.
  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,512 Arc User
    edited May 2021
    westmetals wrote: »
    paradox#7391 wrote: »
    another reason is that we usually get content a few weeks or months behind PC, it would take some time getting used to everyone doing events and content in sync.

    I don't think that's so much a cause as it is an effect. If we had cross-platform, they could hold the PC updates until the console update was possible.

    How would they beta-test new content without making PC play it first? ;)

    Cryptic management had to decide whether to do the work for cross-play well before the console versions came out, and at that time I think Microsoft was still unfriendly towards cross-play too though not as bad as Sony.
  • leemwatsonleemwatson Member Posts: 5,343 Arc User
    davefenestrator wrote: »
    westmetals wrote: »
    paradox#7391 wrote: »
    another reason is that we usually get content a few weeks or months behind PC, it would take some time getting used to everyone doing events and content in sync.

    I don't think that's so much a cause as it is an effect. If we had cross-platform, they could hold the PC updates until the console update was possible.

    How would they beta-test new content without making PC play it first? ;)

    Cryptic management had to decide whether to do the work for cross-play well before the console versions came out, and at that time I think Microsoft was still unfriendly towards cross-play too though not as bad as Sony.

    MS seems to have softened it's stanch, especially now with Game-Pass across PC and XB. Phantasy Star Online 2 has been on parity across PC and XB since it was released to Global.
    "You don't want to patrol!? You don't want to escort!? You don't want to defend the Federation's Starbases!? Then why are you flying my Starships!? If you were a Klingon you'd be killed on the spot, but lucky for you.....you WERE in Starfleet. Let's see how New Zealand Penal Colony suits you." Adm A. Necheyev.
  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc
    phoenixc#0738
         Member Posts: 5,504 Arc User
    edited May 2021
    Defiance uses cross-play and it was always a huge mess for their devs to keep everything going since the bugs are usually different across different platforms. And not only were the bugs often different, the way the machines would react to things that were otherwise working well were different too.

    Back when I used to play that game regularly they had to nerf some of the better weapons to the point that they ended up rather poor niche weapons because the consoles at the time could not handle that much physics load.

    There was a plasma shotgun in particular that fired a pair of bouncing plasma balls that became a troll favorite before they were nerfed to near uselessness. The trolls used to like to fire it into a small room or building so it would start bouncing around rapidly which would crash out all the console players nearby as their physics systems were crushed by trying to keep up with all the bounces.

    The way STO does the separate rollouts gives them extra time to track down bugs that suddenly appear when a patch goes live with the superior debugging tools available on PC to fix it before it goes to the more difficult to work with consoles.
  • vetteguy904vetteguy904 Member Posts: 3,857 Arc User
    there is the minor detail of different servers...
    Spock.jpg

  • leemwatsonleemwatson Member Posts: 5,343 Arc User
    westmetals wrote: »
    vetteguy904 wrote: »
    there is the minor detail of different servers...

    But is that a cause or an effect? What I mean is... if crossplay was possible, it may have been technologically possible to connect all players to a single server. But since crossplay was not possible, then separate servers become necessary. It might be a chicken-or-egg sort of question.

    The biggest hurdle, as said in another post, is getting updates and patches. PC would be locked into Sony and MS reviewing them, meaning slower lead-in times with every update and patches would suffer if MS and/or Sony delay anything.
    "You don't want to patrol!? You don't want to escort!? You don't want to defend the Federation's Starbases!? Then why are you flying my Starships!? If you were a Klingon you'd be killed on the spot, but lucky for you.....you WERE in Starfleet. Let's see how New Zealand Penal Colony suits you." Adm A. Necheyev.
This discussion has been closed.