Microsoft is bringing cross platform play to Gears of War, allowing gamers on PCs to compete with Xbox One players and it is one feature that players have been requesting for a very long time.
At first, the company announced that they are introducing cross buy. It allowed players to buy the game once on Xbox One or Windows 10 PC. They could own the title on both platforms by paying once. It was such a welcome addition and merged them into one. Right now, there are almost no exclusives reserved for the Xbox console. All of them are on computers except for the Halo 5 Guardians.
Following the strategy, Microsoft has now announced Gears of War 4 cross platform play. The information was posted on their Windows blog. They took their time testing how it works before rolling out the new feature. The option is restricted to the Social Quickplay feature. In other words, it is not applicable for the serious competitive mode as it might give PC gamers an unfair advantage in terms of peripherals. The option to use an Xbox One controller or the extremely precise keyboard/ mouse combo is something that prevent cross platform gameplay for many titles.
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Gears of War 4 focus only on the casual aspect of the multiplayer mode where players from any platform can connect and engage in a firefight. In their post, Microsoft wrote, “The Core and Competitive modes will still be restricted to its respective platforms. Xbox One and Windows 10 players can play against each other in the Social Quick play mode. During our Test Weekend, we spotted that users on both platforms were closely matched and they could efficiently compete against each other. However, our Ranked experiences should be competitive and shouldn’t have any disparity which is why this feature is not enabled for those matches.”
The concept is new and going by the terms Microsoft has defined, it is not only Gears of War 4 but many other Xbox One games may soon be available for cross platform matches with Windows 10 users. Limiting it to the casual only mode is always mandatory because of the input devices PC players use. The difference has always stopped games like Battlefield 1, Call of Duty Infinite Warfare and Overwatch from being made available for cross platform play. For a third person shooter title like GOW4, the performance wouldn’t be so concerning like first person shooters but to keep things balanced, the developers have disabled it in competitive matches.