Valve wants Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to be cross-platform

Valve is aiming to make Counter-Strike: Global Offensive sport cross-platform play, but recognizes that contractual or platform-holder business realities might keep it from happening.

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Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is planned for PC, Mac, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360--but ideally, Valve wants you to be able to square off against players of any platform. "We never want to create these 'islands of players'," Valve boss Gabe Newell said at Gamescom.

One of the real limitations of cross-platform play may be input devices. "You have to be sensitive to control differences, and make sure you're accommodating that, but you know, our view is players should be able to play as part of a community on whatever device they can," Newell told PCGames.de (via Blues News). He said that cross-platform play is "certainly our goal."

But, sometimes business realities get in the way. "You know, sometimes there are contractual, or other issues that make that hard, where somebody, a platform holder doesn’t want you to do that for whatever reason, but that’s always our preference. To let customers play and be part of the larger community." Of course, saying "a platform holder" instead of "Microsoft" was awfully tactful.

There is some hope for a cross-platform solution. Valve pushed for Steamworks and cross-platform play in Portal 2, and--minus the PlayStation Network outage--it seemed to work out fine and dandy. If cross-platform play is implemented, Sony will probably be up for letting Valve do it again with CS:GO. But will Microsoft relent to match their chief competitor?

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    August 19, 2011 2:00 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Valve wants Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to be cross-platform.

    Valve is aiming to make Counter-Strike: Global Offensive sport cross-platform play, but recognizes that contractual or platform-holder business realities might keep it from happening.

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      August 19, 2011 2:05 PM

      That's funny.

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      August 19, 2011 2:13 PM

      Portal 2 is cooperative so it's not a straight-up comparison - why would Sony or MS let PC gamers with mice and keyboards and with lower barriers to cheating come on and destroy any chances of a playerbase get created?

      Console users would pick up the game and end up getting destroyed by PC players who have been playing this game in some form for years.

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        August 19, 2011 2:51 PM

        I don't think Sony or MS cares one bit if anyone on their platform plays with someone on a PC. I think both care quite a lot if they can play with someone on the other brand of console.

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      August 19, 2011 2:19 PM

      That doesn't sound good. They'd have to change alot about CS to make cross-platform play work, there is NO way it would be fair currently.

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        August 19, 2011 2:38 PM

        Well I mean, you can play CSS with a controller right now. I'm not saying you should or it would be fair, just saying it could be relatively unchanged just for basic functionality to be there.

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          August 19, 2011 2:55 PM

          They'd have to balance it somehow.

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        August 19, 2011 2:39 PM

        it wouldnt be fair to play against people on consoles but for people who like to watch competitive matches, it would be pretty sweet to watch them on your HDTV while sitting on the couch

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        August 20, 2011 5:06 AM

        CS seems to be the most likely to transition to console of the more usual FPS games.

        It plays pretty much like CoD with very high damage hitscan weapons so your main problem is just having your crosshair in the right spot instead of aiming though pure aim skill is certainly valuable.

        Put some aim assist and it would probably be fine, though it would certainly be interesting to see what happens.

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      August 19, 2011 2:30 PM

      This game is sounding worse every day =/

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      August 19, 2011 2:37 PM

      Hello Shack, let's talk about BF3 not having in-game server browser.

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        August 19, 2011 4:02 PM

        No, because it's not an issue. Read comments from people who have tried the alpha.

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        August 19, 2011 4:38 PM

        So you didn't play the Alpha then? That's cool.

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      August 19, 2011 2:53 PM

      I think it would be awesome if they could do it for the two console systems, moreso then PC vs console

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      August 19, 2011 3:00 PM

      Is there any confirmation that this game is even a FPS? I hope this doesn't turn out to be some sort of RTS game.

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        August 19, 2011 3:02 PM

        it's going to be very, very similar to CS

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        August 19, 2011 3:12 PM

        It's like DotA, but with Terrorists.

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      August 19, 2011 3:08 PM

      PC Players Vs. PS3 and 360?

      Throw the Wii in there and you have an official ClusterFuck.

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      August 19, 2011 3:32 PM

      Combine this with John Carmack's "I wish that Sony and Microsoft would allow mouse and keyboard" comment.

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      August 19, 2011 3:52 PM

      oh please yes so I can prove to my friends that mice+keyboard is the only way to go

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        August 19, 2011 4:05 PM

        I've had that argument before. Gears of War is a good point to bring up. Epic deliberately makes the game harder and the weapons less accurate the moment you use a mouse. You can shift between mouse+kb and controller and the game changes these settings on the fly.

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          August 19, 2011 5:06 PM

          on the console or on the PC ?

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      August 20, 2011 4:26 AM

      PC/Mac/Wii U/PS3... Microsoft won't allow that on their second, weaker platform, the 360.

      Controllers will be destroyed, but the Wii remote and Move might do ok. At least in theory, I've never really used either...

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