Linking Your Arc Account for Fun and Profit Star Trek Online

Issues related to the different control schemes remain a limiting factor; Microsoft’s head of publishing Shannon Loftis said that some games, like racing games, do not readily translate well to cross-platform titles due to control system differences. One such title is the Killer Instinct, originally released for Xbox One in 2013, and with a Windows 10 version released in 2016 that supports cross-platform play. At the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016, Microsoft announced the Xbox Play Anywhere program for upcoming games that allow users to purchase the title for either Xbox One or Windows 10 and be able to play it on the other platform without having to repurchase the title for that system. This also further enhances the integration of Xbox Live services on Windows 10, allowing for more titles to support cross-platform play. The introduction of Internet-ready game consoles, such as Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox, brought online services that aid in securely managing the player’s credentials, digital store purchases, friend lists, messaging and other social features, and online matchmaking for multiplayer games.

With the Nintendo Switch console released in March 2017, Nintendo has adopted a more open route for developers using existing toolsets and game engines, making it easier for them to support cross-platform play. During the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2017 in June of that year, Nintendo announced that it would support cross-platform play between PC and Xbox One versions of both Rocket League and Minecraft on the Switch. According to Nintendo of America’s corporate communications director Charlie Scibetta, the company is “trying to be more flexible and bring more people in” by allowing for cross-platform play, particularly in cases where the developer wants to pursue it. In May 2020, Epic Games released a free SDK, its Epic Online Services, that allow developers to take advantage of its prior work in cross-platform play to support matchmaking, friends list, achievements, and other features in their games, supporting personal computers, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS and Android systems. In March 2016, Microsoft announced a new initiative to open up the Xbox One to cross-platform play to Windows users without the use of Xbox Live services.

Star Trek Online: Agents of Yesterday – Official Console Launch Trailer

As a result, while PC players may use Full Impulse at any throttle setting, console players may only use Full Impulse while at full throttle. That sounds all well and good, though it could be discouraging for PC players looking to dip their toe into PS4 play, since they may not be able to access some of the considerable progress and investment they’ve already made into the PC version.

• Sony had rejected this as they stated in reply to Epic, “many companies are exploring this idea and not a single one can explain how cross-console play improves the PlayStation business”.
• Journalists took Sony’s reaction as a message from Sony that providing cross-platform play on other consoles would be a threat to the market dominance of the PlayStation 4, which, at the time, has the current largest number of users compared to Xbox One or Nintendo Switch.
• PWE representatives told me that they plan for the game to follow existing access models for free-to-play games on the console platforms.
• Though initially games on both the Epic Games and Steam were not compatible, Epic developed and released a free API for supporting cross-platform play for games released on both storefronts in June 2022, with plans to expand this for mobile and console games.
• The forementioned Epic Online Services SDK allows developers to easily integrate cross-platform play into mobile clients using Epic’s established backend technology.

Once you’ve finished, you will be able to claim your Kahn Uniform from the Appearance tab in the in-game C-store. Simiarly, on PC, players may toggle the appearance of the subsystem power UI element and set the power levels granually, while on console, the subsystem power UI element only has one appearance and may only be toggled between four different presets. While it’s a bummer that Cryptic have opted not to help pioneer the frontier of cross-play, it’s understandable, at least.

PlayStation 4 MacintoshPCXbox 360Xbox One

Many multiplayer games for mobile devices are asynchronous, where players individually complete turns or actions, these actions sent to central services and pushed out to the other players that may be impacted by those actions. With the availability of the Internet, games have included online multiplayer components, allowing two or more users to play simultaneously on different computer systems. Games released for a platform may be able to take advantage of platform-specific networking libraries to accomplish this, such as the Winsock layer for Microsoft Windows. These games would not be able to be played cross-platform with other versions released on other systems. Instead, most games with online components and developed for multiple platforms generally use standard TCP/IP-type functions for communication between players’ clients, or between a client and a game server, nullifying the intrinsic differences between hardware platforms. In April 2011, Valve worked with Sony to create a version of Steam to operate on the PlayStation 3 that enabled cross-platform play for its games, including Portal 2, with computer users.

PlayStation global marketing head Jim Ryan said that while they are “open to conversations with any developer or publisher who wants to talk about it”, their decision to not participate for these games was “a commercial discussion between ourselves and other stakeholders”. Ryan cited one is being that Sony needed to “be mindful of our responsibility to our install base”, consider the number of younger players using their services, and the inability to control content that might come from other platforms that do not have content restrictions. Microsoft has said that it has been in discussions with Sony to help bring them into cross-platform play compatibility, though disagreed with Sony’s safety concerns as Microsoft says it has taken similar measures as Sony to assure features like strong parental controls were present on its Xbox Live service. Microsoft’s Phil Spencer said in an October 2017 interview that Microsoft and Sony have been in frequent talks for allowing cross-platform play, but Sony remains very cautious; he did not consider it a “lost cause” but did state of Sony, “I think some of the fundamental reasons and certain scenarios, they’re not really going away”.

Tools

Sony’s stocks fell approximately 2% in the days after this event, largely due to outrage from the large Fortnite player base. Generally, cross-platform play between personal computers of different operating systems is readily enabled using standard communication protocols, and only requires the game to be appropriately ported to these other systems; the computer platform is considered to be very open due to this. Though digital online services that operate on the computer have become popular since around 2010, these systems typically remain open, providing the developer with tools to take advantage of cross-platform play. For example, Valve’s online game service, Steam was initially built for Windows computers, but in 2010 expanded to OS X systems, and in 2013 to Linux (including Valve’s customized SteamOS). The Steamworks API offered to developers through the service enables cross-platform play to uses on these different operating systems while taking advantage of the friends, communication, and matchmaking features offered by Steam. With the introduction of the Epic Games Store, Epic Games released its own set of backend tools to support networking for games released on the store. Though initially games on both the Epic Games and Steam were not compatible, Epic developed and released a free API for supporting cross-platform play for games released on both storefronts in June 2022, with plans to expand this for mobile and console games.

The forementioned Epic Online Services SDK allows developers to easily integrate cross-platform play into mobile clients using Epic’s established backend technology. According to Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan in an interview with Wired, Sony has moved out of its beta stage for cross-platform play, and has opened it up to any developer that can support it starting in October 2019. In a 2021 interview with Axios, Ryan stated that for Sony, “We support and encourage cross-play”. Providing cross-platform play is seen as a means to keep a game’s player base large even several months out after a game’s release. Linking to an Arc account will also enable you to receive customer and tech support from our dedicated and helpful CS team! Once you’ve registered your account and signed in, select the option to link to your Arc Account to your Xbox Live Gamertag or PSN user name.

Service und Richtlinien

Cross-platform play is also a distinct concept from the ability to allow a player to play a game on different hardware platforms, often only having to purchase the title for one single system to have access to it on other systems, and retaining their progress in the game through the use of cloud storage or similar techniques. For decades, console manufacturers have worked proactively to protect the exclusivity of a game on their system from other console competitors, to which cross-platform play can be seen as a threat. Some journalists have postulated that cross-platform play had been restricted by console makers as to assure players remain with their platform for future games.

Square Enix would introduce online play between PlayStation 2 and Windows users for Final Fantasy XI in 2002. Cross-platform play, while technically feasible with today’s computer hardware, generally is impeded by two factors. One factor is the difference in control schemes between personal computers and consoles, with the keyboard-and-mouse controls typically giving computer players an advantage that cannot be easily remedied. The second factor relates to the closed online services used on consoles that are designed to provide a safe and consistent environment for its players that require the businesses’ cooperation to open up for cross-platform play. Up through September 2018, Sony Interactive Entertainment had restricted PlayStation 4 cross-platform play with other consoles, creating a rift between players of popular games like Rocket League and Fortnite Battle Royale. In September 2018, Sony changed their stance, and had opened up beta-testing for Fortnite cross-platform play.

Star Trek Day!

Star Trek Onlineon PC has a fully matured economy and player strata, which would make managing some of its systems a pretty hairy prospect if new PS4 players were exposed to it from the off. “「CAPCOM VS. SNK 2」でPS2とDCの異機種間通信対戦を実現” [Crossplatform versus multiplayer between PS2 and Dreamcast now possible in Capcom vs. SNK 2]. This will take you to a page where you can either sign in and link to an existing Arc Account, or create a new Arc Account to link to.