David Braben interview on Edge - hints at PS4 release

[Darren Grey]

Saw an interview with our favourite gaming CEO on Edge Online this morning:

http://www.edge-online.com/news/fro...ringing-elite-dangerous-to-next-gen-consoles/

It's fairly short, but the biggie for many is the mention of the Playstation 4:

“There’s a very broad field and of course Sony’s PS4 looks like it’s an important machine. We’d be mad not to consider that.”

Also confirmation again that the game will work offline, but that it would then be missing many of the aggregated universe features that make the game so special.

 

[SnowGhost]

It stands to reason that if they bring it out for the PS4 then the Xbox One is highly likely as well. They have very similar hardware specifications, with the PS4 being slightly faster. But they both have 64 bit x86 CPUs, mid range AMD graphics chips, 8GB RAM.

 

[Darren Grey]

Yup, and they can play the two against each other to get better deals. In particular for multiplayer games an early console exclusivity deal can be very valuable.

 

[Listeri69]

the only thing that i have any problem with is what universe do we all play in one big one or seperate.... i dont really mind either way but boy if you did a single universe for everyone there really would be some griefing as the xbox vs ps3 crowd fight it out for supremacy...

it would be a crime really not to port the game to the next gen consoles though but i frown on the fact that you'll have to pay xbox live fees if it was online which is money that microsoft would make out of this project.

 

[Darren Grey]

From what I've heard from other developers it's simply impossible to have online content shared between different consoles and PC. The consoles makers themselves have built in restrictions and requirements that all but prevent that. I think that's a shame personally, as it means you can't play the same commander on both your PC and your PS4.

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

From what I've heard from other developers it's simply impossible to have online content shared between different consoles and PC.

Really ? It's the ultimate form of DRM

Any idea as to why ? All you need is an IP address on a device and you can communicate with the world - You can even ping your fridge from work if you set things up correctly (and your fridge has a LAN port of course )

I think that's a shame personally, as it means you can't play the same commander on both your PC and your PS4.

Don't give up - there may be a way of transferring your commander (offline of course) between hardware if they share a common file structure. (As in the PC and PS4 save the file in the same order so that they can be read on either - presume a USB stick would also be required)

 

[Fromhell]

the only thing that i have any problem with is what universe do we all play in one big one or seperate.... ...

the universe is already scattered and split up by design, doesn´t matter if you add PS4 players to the mix.

BTW I think they´d have an entirely different multiplayer environment because Sony likes to handle everything over the PSN Network to prevent hacking.

From what I've heard from other developers it's simply impossible to have online content shared between different consoles and PC. The consoles makers themselves have built in restrictions and requirements that all but prevent that.

correct

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

From what I've heard from other developers it's simply impossible to have online content shared between different consoles and PC. The consoles makers themselves have built in restrictions and requirements that all but prevent that. I think that's a shame personally, as it means you can't play the same commander on both your PC and your PS4.

As far as I have heard that this is subject to change, as lot of XBox One games already claim they will be playable trough network with other platforms (t.i. in one big universe). This has been probably related with console's developers obsessions with advertising their own networks. But it seems to be thing of the past, as Netflix will be available on both platforms, and it seems rather pointless and counterproductive to push your unique network, as we will have multiple platforms - be it XBox One, PS4 or PC - in future.

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

As far as I have heard that this is subject to change, as lot of XBox One games already claim they will be playable trough network with other platforms (t.i. in one big universe). This has been probably related with console's developers obsessions with advertising their own networks. But it seems to be thing of the past, as Netflix will be available on both platforms, and it seems rather pointless and counterproductive to push your unique network, as we will have multiple platforms - be it XBox One, PS4 or PC - in future.

If what Darren said was true then Netflix and co would be proxied by the respective networks and streamed at you rather than connecting directly. It would be a shame if they didn't break out and allow direct connections to other networks but I can see why (from a business sense - think AOL and their intranet) that they wouldn't.

I just can't find any evidence online that it's the case. (I don't own a console otherwise I would sniff the traffic to check) Most searches come back with how to fix errors and not explain the differences. :S

 

[Mazhurg]

From what I've heard from other developers it's simply impossible to have online content shared between different consoles and PC. The consoles makers themselves have built in restrictions and requirements that all but prevent that. I think that's a shame personally, as it means you can't play the same commander on both your PC and your PS4.

The other developers you heard from should maybe get an update. it is perfectly possible to cross pollinate. For example see http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/ where, if one procures the clients for both the PS3 and PC the same characters can be played in either system (just not a the same time).

I think the limitations are more akin to the need to segregate due to input control methods, not from tech/licence limitation. For example, on an FPS type game a mouse and keyboard are much more responsive than a game pad and will usually trump in a twitch contest.

 

[Slawkenbergius]

As Mazhurg says, a big part of the problem is the fact that in most games, players using keyboard and mouse absolutely massacre players using gamepads. That's why Microsoft killed their idea of letting Windows and Xbox players compete. It makes the Xbox players look stupid, even though it's the control method that's to blame.

I know that (like the cockpit-view only thing) this is probably going to rile a few people, but I hope that if mouse control turns out to be overpowered in E, it's purposefully handicapped to bring it into line with gamepad/stick control. I've always found flying games are more fun with a stick, but if mouse is the optimal control method, I'll probably have to choose between stick and PVP. Probably PVP would lose. Also, it would make console players mixing with PC players a much more likely proposal.

 

[Patrick_68000]

More there will be to platforms different of game and more there will be of licenses purchased. This financial windfall will make a great game with lots of updates. A large international game with millions of players and years of enjoyment. Yes guys, this is the destiny of Elite: Dangerous.

 

[W4rSkuLL]

A nice read. Good to see plans for releasing the game on Consoles to. The bigger the number of gameconsoles supported, the better the community and fanbase. And more support all over. Can Frontier make E.D as popular as the WOW franchise or Diablo genre?

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

I know that (like the cockpit-view only thing) this is probably going to rile a few people, but I hope that if mouse control turns out to be overpowered in E, it's purposefully handicapped to bring it into line with gamepad/stick control. I've always found flying games are more fun with a stick, but if mouse is the optimal control method, I'll probably have to choose between stick and PVP. Probably PVP would lose. Also, it would make console players mixing with PC players a much more likely proposal.

Why would you want that ? Deliberately handicapping someone for the personal choice of control method ?

Next we will be capping playtime as people who can be online 24/7 will advance far quicker than those that can't.

*shakes head*

 

[Slawkenbergius]

Why would you want that ? Deliberately handicapping someone for the personal choice of control method ?

Next we will be capping playtime as people who can be online 24/7 will advance far quicker than those that can't.

*shakes head*

Handicapped to make it roughly equal...

Certainly in traditional FPS games, it's not sustainable to have some playing with gamepads, and some with mouse and keyboard. It's been tried and doesn't work. A while back I had been playing Crysis 2 with a gamepad, thoughtlessly went into multiplayer with it, and died over and over again without a single kill. When I twigged, I switched to mouse and keyboard, still died a lot, but got several kills to my name and actually felt like I could vaguely compete.

Unless the two control systems are roughly balanced, there'll more than likely be one dominant control system in the 'all' group. Given how many people are excited about playing this game with a stick, it would be sad if they went online, got sniped by a precision mouser from 2km, and had to put their X52 pro in the cupboard to collect dust, while we all point-and-click from a distance.

Edit: I wonder if it would have gone down better if I had said, "I hope the different input devices are well-balanced"...

 

[DarkWalker]

From what I've heard from other developers it's simply impossible to have online content shared between different consoles and PC. The consoles makers themselves have built in restrictions and requirements that all but prevent that. I think that's a shame personally, as it means you can't play the same commander on both your PC and your PS4.

Tell this to Valve. You can play Portal 2 cross-platform multiplayer between PS3 and PC.

And to CCP. They have a PS3 shooter that interacts with a PC MMO, and are planning to increase that interaction.

AFAIK, the biggest problem in making cross-platform multiplayer games is the hurdles in patching console games. CS:GO, for example, dropped the cross platform multiplayer because it would have required Valve to greatly slow down patching on the PC to sync with the PS3 patches.

 

[Beachlight7]

It would be nice to have some more official information about Elite and PS4 development. It might even be the case that the millions of private investment money were given on the condition that Elite must be a console game too. As the potential customer base becomes added too by over a hundred million.

 

[Karl]

Yeah, well, I'm just worried that the game will be "consolified", meaning GUI meant for consoles ported to PC, ending up not working very well. Skyrim is a classic example, and not even after all those patches could they make keyboard and mouse interaction even work properly And yeah, they kept feeding us lies about having separate GUI for PC. The cake was a lie.

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

Edit: I wonder if it would have gone down better if I had said, "I hope the different input devices are well-balanced"...

I think that would have been a better way of phrasing it

It should be noted that unless your weapons can move independently of your ships then using a mouse will offer you no benefit than a controller pad. Your turning circle (and thus time to bring into crosshairs) is limited to the type of craft you fly which in turn evens out the pad/mouse argument.

However, we shall see ...

If they do deliberately hinder mouse usage then I will counter argue that playtime should be capped to 4 hours a week being as that's all I can play and obviously playing more is an advantage and we can't have that can we ? I will also argue that the input rate be changed to 1 movement arc per second regardless of ships as people half my age will have far faster reaction times and again, we can't have them having an advantage can we ? (You get my point now - it's impossible to balance - some people are going to kill you regardless of what you do so get over it now before it matters)

 

[Cathy]

Will the test not be whether the player finds NPC combat a sufficient yet surmountable challenge with the controller of their choice? I assume FD would get that right as a priority.

And if that works, would not PvP balance follow up to the point developers have control?