The Game Developers Conference is in full swing in San Francisco for the week, and the biggest announcement thus far has come from the ID@Xbox program – a program designed to “make it as easy as possible for independent developers to publish games on our platforms.”
In a letter from Chris Charla posted on the Xbox website, the company announced that they will natively support cross-platform play between Xbox One and Windows 10 games that use Xbox Live. The program is also enabling developers to support cross-network play as well – this means that players on the Xbox One and Windows 10 will be able to play with players on other online multiplayer networks – “including other console and PC networks.”
Rocket League, Psyonix’s smash hit that originated on the PlayStation 4 and was recently ported to the Xbox One, will the first game to take advantage of this feature by enabling play between the Xbox and PCs running Windows 10.
In response on Rocket League‘s website, Psyonix confirmed their part in cross-network play. The team is “honored and excited” to have Rocket League as the first cross-network game. Players should expect cross-network play working between Xbox One and PC “later this spring,” with information about other platforms “coming soon.”
Charla repeated several times throughout his letter that ID@Xbox is simply enabling the feature – it’s entirely up to game developers to support it, and other networks have received an open invitation to participate as well. This doesn’t mean that Sony and Apple have already signed on in agreement, but it is a promising step forward on Microsoft’s part, and something both developers and fans have been clamoring about for some time.