New Counter-Strike to Include PS3-PC/Mac Cross-Platform Play
by Craig Getting on August 25, 2011 9:31 PM EST
Valve’s doubling down on the PlayStation 3. In a preview published late Thursday, Kotaku’s Stephen Totilo reported that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the newest iteration of the popular Counter-Strike franchise, will feature cross-platform play between PS3 and PC/Mac players.
Though players can create endless loops of de_dust on their own private servers, Valve will be running official servers for skill-based matchmaking. PC, Mac, and PS3 users will be matched up regardless of platform. Xbox 360 players will be confined to matches with other 360 owners. How Valve will balance play between users on keyboard and mouse versus players using a gamepad or PlayStation Move (which the PS3 version will support) remains to be seen.
Despite CEO Gabe Newell’s previous dismissal of the PS3, Valve is showing strong support for Sony’s platform, citing the openness of its publication model with respect to Microsoft’s. Portal 2, released this April, allowed for cross-platform play between PS3 and PC/Mac, and the PS3 version came with a code for Portal 2 on Steam.
Counter-Strike: GO, announced two weeks ago, looks to be a marriage of beloved shooting tradition with the newest Source engine tech. Those attending PAX this weekend can see what Kotaku saw for themselves, and Counter-Strike veterans looking for in-depth coverage would do well to read Craig Torbull’s comparision of CS: GO to its predecessors over at ESEA News.
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lightsire - Thursday, August 25, 2011 - link
Well, PS3 does support keyboard and mouse I believe. Also yeah, controller people would need some kind of adjusted aiming system, like the cursor slows down immensely when directly over an enemy. It could work!jordanclock - Thursday, August 25, 2011 - link
Shadowrun was the only PC/360 cross-compatible game I know of and that was fairly lame. Microsoft is REALLY missing the boat here.curtisfong - Friday, August 26, 2011 - link
http://www.rahulsood.com/2010/07/console-gamers-ge...No clue how truthful this rumor is, but it sounds plausible. Keyboard + mouse > controllers, as many others in this thread have stated.
Proxy711 - Friday, August 26, 2011 - link
They did explore cross platform play see my above post.z0mb13n3d - Friday, August 26, 2011 - link
What you said might be true for certain genres (FPS being the most prominent), but I don't see why they couldn't continue working on cross-platform development for other genres that don't benefit from the key+mouse combination.B3an - Friday, August 26, 2011 - link
So no DX11 even DX10 then? I take it there will be no enhanced looking PC version if they're trying to make this as equal as possible and are also putting it on the vastly inferior OSX and it's out dated version of OpenGL that doesn't begin to compare to DX11.MonkeyPaw - Friday, August 26, 2011 - link
Yes, but when will we see Half-Life 3?! We've been left on a cliff-hanger for what seems like 10 years now. By the time we see what happens, Gordon's grandson will have to be the hero.WhamBham - Monday, August 29, 2011 - link
Yeah but how many people actually use the keyboard and mouse for a PS3? If they've never had they're probably never going to want to, learning curve and all.WhamBham - Monday, August 29, 2011 - link
One thing is for certain, the best players on the consoles are never going to be matched with the best players on the PC. Matchmaking won't allow it, the best players on the PC are going to be far higher up the list. Maybe the decent players on the PC will be matched with the best on the consoles.It's a good thing there's matchmaking, otherwise it's going to be a massacre. Have you ever watched console gamers play on YouTube? The analog makes it a nightmare to do anything accurately or fast. They get away with so much BS that would have had them shot in seconds on a PC. The turning speed is atrocious and they run around like they're geriatric.
MrSpadge - Monday, August 29, 2011 - link
Totally agree!Sometimes I watch a video of a new game. First I wonder how bad it looks. Second I wonder why the hell the player doesn't just shoot the enemy. It's then that I realize he's playing on a console and is probably actually trying his best to point his shooting device at the enemy.. hilarious.