Next gen is killing multiplayer.

[BD2003]

Ever since last year, multiplayer is effectively dead amongst my circle of friends. Last gen we could all agree on the 360, but some of us have moved on to the PS4, some to the xbox one, and some to the PC.

I just don't see how games like call of duty and destiny can continue to put up such huge numbers when people are split across 5 viable MP platforms.

Anyone else in the same predicament?

 

[Berliner]

No. I just stick to my PC for multiplayer.

Paying just for the option of multiplayer is not my cup of tea.

 

[cmdrdredd]

From what I see now, people just pick a platform and go unless they know people. It really doesn't make a difference anymore which one you're on unless there's some content you want that the other doesn't get.

 

[dguy6789]

My circle are all Xbox people but many of them still don't have a One yet. Everyone with a One bought Destiny for it but those with just a 360 also bought Destiny so we can't play together.

I think it's mainly just growing pains from being so early into the next gen however. Developer insistence on still developing games for the last gen is definitely contributing to the slowness though.

 

[nitromullet]

If Sony and MS had made the new consoles a bigger leap in tech to actually compel gamers to buy the new consoles there wouldn't be this problem. I've been toying with the idea of getting either a PS4 or X1, but honestly, both of them are still trounced graphically by my PC plus a sub $300 graphics card, and neither of them offer any tangible benefit over the Xbox 360 as a media device IMO.

...I just really would like to play The Last of Us. That game looks awesome.

 

[HeXen]

If Sony and MS had made the new consoles a bigger leap in tech to actually compel gamers to buy the new consoles there wouldn't be this problem. I've been toying with the idea of getting either a PS4 or X1, but honestly, both of them are still trounced graphically by my PC plus a sub $300 graphics card, and neither of them offer any tangible benefit over the Xbox 360 as a media device IMO.

...I just really would like to play The Last of Us. That game looks awesome.

Leaping further in tech would mean higher price and that never works out too well either. If you want to play Last of us, just get one. Games come first, hardware is secondary.
If you ever upgraded your video card for Doom or Crysis...etc when they were about to release then this should be no different.
According to some posts here, there were certainly plenty of gamers that had no trouble buying $500 cards for a new game and console is no different. I bet just before Witcher 3 releases, we'll see a number of posts regarding performance and those wanting to buy new cards or entire upgrades.

 

[zerocool84]

If Sony and MS had made the new consoles a bigger leap in tech to actually compel gamers to buy the new consoles there wouldn't be this problem. I've been toying with the idea of getting either a PS4 or X1, but honestly, both of them are still trounced graphically by my PC plus a sub $300 graphics card, and neither of them offer any tangible benefit over the Xbox 360 as a media device IMO.

...I just really would like to play The Last of Us. That game looks awesome.

Yup they need to do something to get people to buy these new consoles. With only 15 million combined PS4 and Xbox One consoles sold in less than a year, they surely need to come up with a new game plan.

/sarcasm

 

[ImpulsE69]

Yea, at the end of the day, once you are done with whatever game you want to play, you can just sell it all.

@ zero, um actually they aren't doing so hot on either end, but that is more about the lack of games people want.

 

[dguy6789]

Yea, at the end of the day, once you are done with whatever game you want to play, you can just sell it all.

@ zero, um actually they aren't doing so hot on either end, but that is more about the lack of games people want.

My understanding was both the Xbox One and PS4 are selling faster in their first year than any other console in history

 

[cmdrdredd]

My understanding was both the Xbox One and PS4 are selling faster in their first year than any other console in history

Yep they set records.

 

[BD2003]

If Sony and MS had made the new consoles a bigger leap in tech to actually compel gamers to buy the new consoles there wouldn't be this problem. I've been toying with the idea of getting either a PS4 or X1, but honestly, both of them are still trounced graphically by my PC plus a sub $300 graphics card, and neither of them offer any tangible benefit over the Xbox 360 as a media device IMO.

...I just really would like to play The Last of Us. That game looks awesome.

Even if everyone upgraded, with the viability of PCs on TVs now, you've still got three separate platforms that people can't play across. The fact that both consoles charge for MP now also means I'm much less likely to pick up that second console for occasional games and exclusives.

 

[nitromullet]

Yup they need to do something to get people to buy these new consoles. With only 15 million combined PS4 and Xbox One consoles sold in less than a year, they surely need to come up with a new game plan.

/sarcasm

Valid point, yet game developers still feel compelled to support X360 and PS3 on all the major AAA titles a year after the new generation's launch, which is causing the fragmentation the OP Is referring to.

Don't get me wrong, it's pretty much an inevitability that I'll get one of the new consoles, but I'm just not in a huge hurry to do it.

 

[ImpulsE69]

My understanding was both the Xbox One and PS4 are selling faster in their first year than any other console in history

The attachment rate is low. It doesn't matter really how many they sold until people are buying games (or are all the people that screamed the Wii was doing horrible due to attachment rates going to conveniently forget that?). And since people love links here is one:

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/13167/20140815/playstation-4-xbox-one-video-game-sales.htm

It remains to be seen what will happen up until November, but I wouldn't expect much change any time soon. Of course I also agree this will change later on as more games are released, but just because they are outselling systems NOW, doesn't mean they will actually reach the level of sales of past gens, and THAT is what really matters. Much like the day one sales, while it looks good on paper and hype, it doesn't mean much at the end of the day if you never sell much more than 1st year sales. What is interesting is in previous generations, there wasn't nearly as much cross gen games developed as there is this time.

 

[purbeast0]

so because you and your buddies can't all agree on a console, multiplayer is dead for everyone.

great concept.

 

[purbeast0]

If Sony and MS had made the new consoles a bigger leap in tech to actually compel gamers to buy the new consoles there wouldn't be this problem. I've been toying with the idea of getting either a PS4 or X1, but honestly, both of them are still trounced graphically by my PC plus a sub $300 graphics card, and neither of them offer any tangible benefit over the Xbox 360 as a media device IMO.

...I just really would like to play The Last of Us. That game looks awesome.

except that ... there isn't a problem, at all. it's just the op being butthurt because him and his buddies can't all agree on what to play on so that they can play together.

 

[BD2003]

except that ... there isn't a problem, at all. it's just the op being butthurt because him and his buddies can't all agree on what to play on so that they can play together.

This is a group of five people that otherwise would have bought the game if there was cross platform play. I'm sure there are countless other people in the same position. Impossible to quantify, but its not going to be insignificant. A loss of potentially millions of sales all because two companies are more concerned with dividing people than uniting them. These games won't be able to justify these major budgets a large segment of their potential audience won't buy them cause they can't play together.

This isn't the typical console cycle problem - last gen was the first legitimate online generation, and with the xbox coming out first and XBL being superior for so long, the 360 was the defacto multiplayer console for so long. Now you've got hundreds of millions of last gen consoles still out there, lots of "xbox people" switching to the PS4 and quite a few people dumping consoles altogether and buying gaming PCs to hook up to their TV.

There hasnt been a fully successful MP game since the next gen consoles hit. Ghosts was the worst selling COD in years. BF4 was a disaster in so many ways. Titanfall made a splash and kinda fizzled out. I don't expect this year or next to be any different. I guess we'll see how destiny does.

Is MP dead? No. But it may be a weak few years in the genre unless third parties push on the consoles to support cross platform play.

 

[digiram]

I was pretty set on PS4 after such a failure on MS part at E3 2013, but my group all decided on Xb1 and that was the only deciding factor for me.

 

[purbeast0]

This is a group of five people that otherwise would have bought the game if there was cross platform play. I'm sure there are countless other people in the same position. Impossible to quantify, but its not going to be insignificant. A loss of potentially millions of sales all because two companies are more concerned with dividing people than uniting them. These games won't be able to justify these major budgets a large segment of their potential audience won't buy them cause they can't play together.

This isn't the typical console cycle problem - last gen was the first legitimate online generation, and with the xbox coming out first and XBL being superior for so long, the 360 was the defacto multiplayer console for so long. Now you've got hundreds of millions of last gen consoles still out there, lots of "xbox people" switching to the PS4 and quite a few people dumping consoles altogether and buying gaming PCs to hook up to their TV.

There hasnt been a fully successful MP game since the next gen consoles hit. Ghosts was the worst selling COD in years. BF4 was a disaster in so many ways. Titanfall made a splash and kinda fizzled out. I don't expect this year or next to be any different. I guess we'll see how destiny does.

Is MP dead? No. But it may be a weak few years in the genre unless third parties push on the consoles to support cross platform play.

you all couldnt play cross console last gen either, you all just agreed on the 360. this gen you guys didn't decide to do that. if it was that big of a deal, you all would have decided on one platform.

there is no "new problem" this gen. this is a "problem" that has existed last gen as well.

if you think games like destiny and titanfall aren't "successful" then i really don't know what to tell you. destiny broke presale records.

 

[BrightCandle]

The whole silo to a platform is the real issue here. Seeing as how a PS4 and xbox one are very similar hardware it doesn't really make any sense to not have them able to play the same game with each other, other than artificial restrictions in place due to the match making services of each company I suspect they are basically compatible already. Heck you could even have PC in there as well without too much difficulty, although allowing the restriction of controllers for games would be necessary to ensure an even playing field.

The issue is MS and Sony's strategy to make money that hurts customers.

 

[BD2003]

The whole silo to a platform is the real issue here. Seeing as how a PS4 and xbox one are very similar hardware it doesn't really make any sense to not have them able to play the same game with each other, other than artificial restrictions in place due to the match making services of each company I suspect they are basically compatible already. Heck you could even have PC in there as well without too much difficulty, although allowing the restriction of controllers for games would be necessary to ensure an even playing field.

The issue is MS and Sony's strategy to make money that hurts customers.

Exactly. It blows my mind that people think it's acceptable just because it's the status quo. It's ridiculous that we have to agree on a platform to play the exact same game together.

 

[BD2003]

you all couldnt play cross console last gen either, you all just agreed on the 360. this gen you guys didn't decide to do that. if it was that big of a deal, you all would have decided on one platform.

there is no "new problem" this gen. this is a "problem" that has existed last gen as well.

if you think games like destiny and titanfall aren't "successful" then i really don't know what to tell you. destiny broke presale records.

Just because that's the way it's always been, doesn't mean that's the way it should be.

And if you can't understand how players being split between two platforms vs five platforms isn't a bigger issue than before, I dunno what to tell you either.

 

[purbeast0]

Just because that's the way it's always been, doesn't mean that's the way it should be.

And if you can't understand how players being split between two platforms vs five platforms isn't a bigger issue than before, I dunno what to tell you either.

again, this is nothing new. this happens at the first year or two of any console launch. happened with the 360/ps3 and multiple games came out on normal xbox and ps2. and then we had the wii. call of duty was on wii, 360, pc, and ps3.

this has nothing to do with "next gen" like you think it does.

 

[BD2003]

again, this is nothing new. this happens at the first year or two of any console launch. happened with the 360/ps3 and multiple games came out on normal xbox and ps2. and then we had the wii. call of duty was on wii, 360, pc, and ps3.



this has nothing to do with "next gen" like you think it does.

Wii is and always has been irrelevant for multiplayer. I'm not even counting the Wii U. If I was, it'd be 6 platforms MP is split across. Likewise the ps2 had almost no online capabilities of note, and XBL on the Xbox OGL was a mere shell of functionality. I can't think of any MP games that came out simultaneously on Xbox and 360.

I'm talking about viable platforms that millions of people actually play on. It has never been this splintered before.

 

[Lil Frier]

I find this premise to be dumb. "My friends don't play the same platform, so hardware manufacturers ruined online multiplayer." I mean, the new consoles aren't equal from a hardware standpoint, and they're underpowered compared to PCs, but that's not different than last generation, it's just easier to compare the numbers now.

To me, the downfall in my online multiplayer activity this generation has been the lack of adoption by my peers of the new consoles, the general trend of FPS players' not using mics (objective-based coordination blows and fewer friends are made), and the lack of compelling multiplayer games has me sticking to offline play (Madden 15 on the One lags like crazy, for example, so I stick to MUT offline, mostly).

Once my peers get the One and Halo comes out, I'll play online more.

 

[BD2003]

I find this premise to be dumb. "My friends don't play the same platform, so hardware manufacturers ruined online multiplayer." I mean, the new consoles aren't equal from a hardware standpoint, and they're underpowered compared to PCs, but that's not different than last generation, it's just easier to compare the numbers now.

To me, the downfall in my online multiplayer activity this generation has been the lack of adoption by my peers of the new consoles, the general trend of FPS players' not using mics (objective-based coordination blows and fewer friends are made), and the lack of compelling multiplayer games has me sticking to offline play (Madden 15 on the One lags like crazy, for example, so I stick to MUT offline, mostly).

Once my peers get the One and Halo comes out, I'll play online more.

So you think the premise is dumb...and then you go on to agree that the downfall in your online multiplayer activity this generation has been the lack of adoption by your peers of the new consoles? :hmm:

More platforms = increased likelihood your friends aren't playing on the same platform than you. Its that simple. You're assuming your friends are getting the xbox one...are you sure thats a safe assumption? Because in my case, it definitely wasn't.

Even if everyone gets the xbox one for the next halo game...what about the next third party game like destiny? Even if everyone owns all the platforms, that doesn't mean everyone wants to buy the game for the same platform. What if half your friends prefer the ps4, the other half prefer the xbox?

The only reason we can't buy a game and play with each other regardless of platforms is solely because that doesn't fit in with the business aspirations of competing companies. No one should be defending that.