Cross-platform gaming, in my opinion, really needs to make a comeback, and a huge one at that. Many great games are available on multiple platforms, but very, very few of them are able to cross over and allow players to play with those on other platforms. One game which managed this early on was Shadowrun, which to this day brings back all too many nostalgic memories of incredibly fun gameplay. Granted I hardly ever actually played against the PC gamers in the game, but those times I did it worked and worked well.
So this brings up the point I wish to make here. Why is it, in 2013, we are able to make incredible devices which can connect the world and share things with whoever, whenever... but as soon as it comes to games we can't seem to get the PS3 version of GTA IV to work with the Xbox 360 version of the exact same game. Graphics can't be an argument, because PC gamers have the option of turning graphics up or down and it doesn't affect other players. I'm probably missing something here, but how hard can it be from a development standpoint to make it so console gamers see slightly dulled down textures (i.e. replace the texture files on the disc with lower-res ones) compared to the PC gamers?
I think it'd be great to be able to buy the next generation console, or keep on my PC, and stay connected with all of my friends on all platforms, and play together using whichever platform we want. What better way is there of bringing the platforms together, than a huge list of cross-platform games.
What are your thoughts?
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Obviously profit is the biggest factor in any companies decision making. This does not exclude Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo. I can assure you this would have been implemented long ago and would now be mainstream if there was a profit to be made by Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo.