Breaking out of the ghettoes

by stabbim , Des Moines, IA, USA, Monday, February 18, 2013, 13:20 (4302 days ago) @ Slightly Live

It sounds like you guys are assuming that there's only one server a given game will talk to to perform ALL activities. That's not really how it works.

The most likely scenario is the one that already exists in other console games - Bungie's servers will take care of things specific to the game - the persistent universe, the minutiae of which world you're on, which enemies are present - basically any content or activity that is specific to Destiny. Whereas XBL/PSN etc. will handle things like messaging, inviting other players to join you, and matchmaking services.

This is the case in ME3 multiplayer. Bioware/EA's servers handle things related to ME3 specifically - purchasing of weapon packs, which enemies spawn into a match, balance updates to weapons/enemies/difficulty, etc. XBL is used to invite players, display player names, link to profiles (gamercards - ugh I hate that phrase), and so on. The fact that EA has servers doesn't mean they automatically do everything. And, notably, in ME3 I'm still not able to invite PS3 players, or interact with them in any way, because many of those functions are done through XBL. And even if it was technically possible, XBL isn't going to talk to PSN. I wish this weren't the case, but it is.

The only time we've ever really seen cross-platform gameplay with a console is with certain PC/360 games, and even then it's only when using MS's Live platform. Which still isn't going to talk to PSN.