Xbox One Hooks Up To PS4, Allows Cross-platform Games On The Same Screen | TechTree.com

Xbox One Hooks Up To PS4, Allows Cross-platform Games On The Same Screen

Microsoft clarifies that the feature is meant for streaming external video content; isn't ideal for games.

 

Microsoft's executive Albert Penello has been busy making announcements and controversial statements at the Tokyo Game Show. Yesterday, it was revealed that Xbox One will be able to connect to rival Sony's PS4, thereby allowing Xbox One users to play two platform-exclusive games such as, say, Killzone and Ryse on the same screen. This feature is enabled by Xbox One's HDMI input that can take a separate feed from the PS4, which will then be displayed alongside an existing game running on Microsoft's console. Penello's exact words being, "...any application can be snapped to a game…this could be the live TV feed, so if you wanted to be playing Ryse and Killzone at the same time, you could snap that".

This functionality is courtesy of both Sony and Microsoft relaxing their DRM restrictions on the video stream outputted from the HDMI ports. This will also make life easier for using external capture cards for recording gameplay videos. Mind you, this feature was originally meant as a part of the Xbox One's gaming + TV convergence design, wherein the screen could be used to display videogame content in addition to a TV feed from the HDMI input. Playing two games simultaneously wasn't the original objective, but Penello's comments allegedly had been taken out of context by GameSpot, as it didn't publish the Microsoft rep's quote in its entirety.

Penello later took recourse to NeoGAF message boards for clarification. According to his post, the feature actually isn't ideal for playing gaming content from two consoles simultaneously. He maintained that PS4 and Xbox One games shouldn't be mixed. Penello did have a valid technical point, which he made through the forum post: “I'll get back with a more detailed story, but long story short it won't be a great experience, and I indicated as much in the interview which wasn't included. HDMI latency is fine for video feeds, but not great interactive”.

This does make sense, because the video feed feature has been optimised for non-interactive video content. The inherent latency of the interface is sufficient for such video streams, but it isn't remotely ideal for gaming. Any amount of latency tends to make the experience significantly slow and frustrating. To put it in a nutshell, it looks like we will have to wait another generation or two for a cross-platform, split-screen console gaming experience.


TAGS: Gaming, Microsoft, Xbox

 
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