Call of Duty dev rejects Live Anywhere
by Ross Miller 
{ Jun 15th 2007 at 6:55PM }
Infinity Ward's studio head Grant Collier, who we reported yesterday was unhappy with the overuse of sandbox gameplay and destructible environments, told IGN in an interview that there was no interest in using Live Anywhere for PC and Xbox 360 cross-play.The Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare developer put it bluntly: "We said no and they didn't call back." Clarifying, Collier said "[it's cool] if you're playing online poker, but who wants to be playing an RTS on a console and have some guy on a PC clicking and dragging all his troops, attacking your base while you're sitting there with your thumb sticks." The keyboard/mouse vs. gamepad argument is a long-standing battle, and clearly Collier feels that they cannot be equals for fast-paced strategy or first-person shooter titles.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mitochondria @ Jun 15th 2007 7:17PM
No thats because they are not creative enough to figure out how to properly combined these two worlds. It can be done and has been in the past. This coming from the same people who's last sequels were MOH wannabes and practically the same. Oooh modern warfare, cause that's so different from all the other war games out there. How EA
Mitochondria @ Jun 15th 2007 7:18PM
Never mind, this isn't EA, they still need to step up their game though
kinshadow @ Jun 15th 2007 7:24PM
I'm more interested in Catan cross-play.
copa @ Jun 15th 2007 7:36PM
Live Anywhere for PC is a bigger bust than PS3. How many third-party developers really want to restrict their audience to people paying for a Vista-only service with little value-add?
Bad ideas like this deserve to die.
n00bslayer @ Jun 15th 2007 7:41PM
live anywhere sucks anyway- Months of ending n00bs in halo 2 with my thumb sticks... Now I and everyone else gets smoked by the 2 random PC players in the game, thanks Microsoft.
Angelo @ Jun 15th 2007 7:54PM
Except, n00bslayer, there is no cross-platform play for Halo 2 Vista.
Borat @ Jun 15th 2007 7:56PM
Live Anywhere is a great concept, unfortunately the keyboard/mouse combination is just too good for the thumbsticks.
And besides FPSs, the only other PC games people play are MMORPGS and strategy games...and the keyboard/mouse combination again has a big advantage over thumbsticks...wouldn't the Wii be a great choice for strategy games though?
Rubang B @ Jun 15th 2007 8:02PM
Ok, you play StarCraft and I'll play StarCraft 64, and we'll race! Ready set go!
hydralisk456 @ Jun 15th 2007 8:05PM
StarCraft 64 owns!! I actually found it at my local GameStop and paid 17.99 for it. How's that for dedication Rubang!
Rubang B @ Jun 15th 2007 8:07PM
Damn, make a crack at StarCraft 64 and you can't go 3 minutes without a hydralisk popping out of some creep to tell you about it.
Personally, I've always been too scared to try SC64.
MosquitoControl @ Jun 15th 2007 8:12PM
Mitochondria - which developers have solved this?
So far Halo 2, which isn't even cross-platform, gives an enormous autoaim advantage to joypaders, Huxley slows down mousers, and Shadowrun makes every weapon incredibly inaccurate.
How are those "solutions?" All they do is kill the fun.
Yami @ Jun 15th 2007 8:16PM
UNO EXTREMEEE.
hydralisk456 @ Jun 15th 2007 8:19PM
Don't be scared Rubang, it actually controls quite nicely, except for the fact that the N64 control stick is no where near as accurate as a mouse.
The A button moves units and confirms selections (as well as selects units to move), the B button cancels selections and if you have combat units selected it tells them to attack, and the C buttons open various menus with regards to buildings (ex. right button opens up build unit while left opens tech. research and down selects a building add-on).
A great game to pick up if you don't have it.
Matt B @ Jun 15th 2007 8:52PM
9. StarCraft 64 owns!! I actually found it at my local GameStop and paid 17.99 for it. How's that for dedication Rubang!
Posted at 8:05PM on Jun 15th 2007 by hydralisk456
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Seriously, what do you care what he thinks? Are you under his wing or something. Think for yourself man.
Otis Whitaker @ Jun 15th 2007 9:06PM
I don't see what'd be the problem if offering servers for PC gamers only, servers for console gamers only, and servers for cross platform play, with a disclaimer that using a controller puts you at a disadvantage?
Who cares about competition?
Some of my friends don't have 360s.
I'd love to play games with them online, even if they'd beat me.
The fact is, competitive bafoons are going to end up ruining for the real people who want to have fun.
Patrick @ Jun 15th 2007 9:29PM
What makes people think mouse/keyboard is so much better for fps? I play BF2 and Halo CE with my friends on pc but i stick with the controller, it works. This is just a misconception that has been blown out of proportion. I don't see a problem with putting it in there, knowing Microsoft, there tool set for live probably makes it easy enough. And to those who say you have to pay for a useless feature, 1. live silver is free, just no multiplayer achievements 2. You can still play multiplayer for free, just not with Live 3. If you already have an account for your xbox, YOU DON'T NEED TO PAY FOR ANOTHER ONE 4. If at the bear minimum, it will bring up standards and unify pc games Remember online before Live on consoles? yeah Nothing Microsoft has done has taken something away from you, just given you many connective tools. I'm sure many of you have encountered modders on PC, well should you see someone cheating, simply bring up there gamertag and file a complaint, enough people complain and they will be banned from playing that game.
O_o @ Jun 15th 2007 9:32PM
@4"How many third-party developers really want to restrict their audience to people paying for a Vista-only service with little value-add?"
Say that again in 10 years when we will using windows 23.5
Point being all of us will all move on sooner or later to vista. And whats wrong with developing for a platform everyone will eventually be using?
Seroth @ Jun 15th 2007 11:41PM
They should just let you use a damn keyboard and mouse on the 360. C'mon, the thing has 3 USB ports. One of those could be a mouse, the other a keyboard...
Ken @ Jun 16th 2007 1:31AM
This proves it.
KB&M > Controller.
No arguing, because you know it's true.
SeriousKriss @ Jun 16th 2007 4:15AM
Well they're not stupid. We all saw how badly Shadownrun flopped. That should kill the idea of cross-platform FPS for quite some time.
Mitochondria @ Jun 16th 2007 5:19AM
Shadowrun never flopped, in fact it's a great game. It's just it wasn't heavily advertised. Second you can already play on PC with a controller so what's the big deal if it's on a console. I mean, it's basically a computer anyway. I just think the developers aren't willing to actually try to make things work.
Sidepocket @ Jun 17th 2007 5:41AM
@ Mitochondria
Wow, you are an idiot.
Shadowrun had major backlash from gamers as well as very low game review scores. That is not a opinion, you can look it up.
Second, comparing a game pad to a keyboard&mouse is like comparing Water to Cyanide. They are two completely different things and are incompatible period in terms of FPS and RTS.
The only way they can solve this is to allow the 360 to have keyboards, the existing game pad for PC, and then put up icons to know who has what. That way, you play with players with the same controller type and things are now good.