Gamespy tech + Unreal Engine 3 = crossplatform PS3 and PC online play

by Ross Miller { Aug 15th 2007 at 11:15PM }

Epic and IGN today announced that Gamespy's online technology will be licensed with Unreal Engine 3. The best part of this deal is that it will enable cross-platform play against PC and PlayStation 3 owners, according to the press release.

Gamespy technologies that will be made immediately available to license include matchmaking services, in-game chat services, online data storage (e.g. statistics), leaderboard and tournament services.

While it's not guaranteed that every developer who uses Unreal Engine 3 for PC and PS3 titles will utilize Gamespy's tools, we feel confident that this is the final piece of evidence we need to safely say that Unreal Tournament 3 will sport PC and PS3 cross-play. Questions about keyboard-mouse vs. gamepad play and user-generated maps / mods have already been addressed by developer Epic Games' Vice President Mark Rein.

[Via press release]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

cc123 @ Aug 15th 2007 11:26PM

UT3 keeps getting better and better. I'm looking forward to this game so much. =)

Smoke_Dawg_187 @ Aug 15th 2007 11:27PM

Although I'm a 360 Fanboy, score one for PS3. Good for you guys.

phattie @ Aug 15th 2007 11:29PM

The funny thing is, MS is pushing their Games for Windows and the PC-side xbl client for this purpose.. and still cant get it done.

Patrick @ Aug 15th 2007 11:32PM

its gotten done, ala shadowrun, but they chose a bad game to start it off with^ i would love to see it be more fleshed out

Exo @ Aug 15th 2007 11:39PM

Shadow run is published by MS, of course they are gunna use it, it will only be a big deal if third parties start useing it

Zeus the God @ Aug 15th 2007 11:45PM

Go back under your bridge troll.

This is only bad news for the PS3 gamers who will get owned repeatedly due to the terrible design of the PS controller. And I doubt many will go and buy the SplitFishFX or whatever... Even then, thats a compromised version of the KB and M.

Us 360 gamers will be having more fun with our superior online play.

cc123 @ Aug 15th 2007 11:48PM

@Zeus

OR we could just use a regular kb/m like the PS3 version will support...

Exo @ Aug 15th 2007 11:50PM

uh, who was the directed too, cause none of us said anything bad about 360.

jesus are you so much of a fanboy that you will flame aneyone, even if they dont make fun of your system?

Zeus the God @ Aug 16th 2007 12:02AM

No, its that hes a tard and doesn't realize what hes talking about. Its not impossible for the same sort of agreement to be worked out. XBL can easily be opened up for cross platform play (PC-360, even 360-PS3 if you were so inclined...)

Its the internet, and anything can be done to make things compatible.

Exo @ Aug 16th 2007 1:45AM

And you still dont get the fact that UT3 is running on gamespy for pc, which means its not possible for it to work on 360 cause 360 uses live.

Does your fanboy mind not understand this? the 360 version wont be on the same servers as the pc one, which is why they cant cross platform. ps3 doesnt have a set service so the game is able to go cross platform cause they can use gamespy too.

Colin @ Aug 15th 2007 11:35PM

Hmm...Is 360 going to be added to the cross-platform online for UT3 when the 360 version comes out?

phattie @ Aug 15th 2007 11:42PM

Nope, not gonna happen... unless MS wants to license the Gamespy tech, which they wont because of their xbl push on both pc and 360.

Epic wont use MS' xbl cause they already have Gamespy for pc-pc and pc-ps3. Using xbl would have added licensing costs and major programming to add pc-360 support... the pc-pc is already paid for with gamespy.

Zeus the God @ Aug 15th 2007 11:46PM

BE GONE, TROLL!

Exo @ Aug 15th 2007 11:51PM

zeus, you are the only one being a troll you idiot

phattie @ Aug 15th 2007 11:54PM

Further to my point, this is an issue with ALL game not published by MS.

If publishers want PC-360 online... they MUST use xbl. This is fine on a closed, proprietary platform like the 36t... but, it makes no sense on the PC where there are competing, cheaper, and better technologies like Gamespy.

Why would ANY third party dev confine themselves with the expense of xbl? They wont.. and Epic proves this.

MS fails.

Zeus the God @ Aug 15th 2007 11:56PM

Not at all, Exo. Nice one, I almost laughed.

Patrick @ Aug 15th 2007 11:58PM

they only confine themselves with 360vspc, pcvspc can be any service they see fit

Zeus the God @ Aug 15th 2007 11:59PM

MS fails for providing a superior gaming network and the tools to support a thriving community?

Wow, never saw Sony go this far to support its online fanbase.

Really, though, its not like XBL can't be opened up for cross platform play.

Exo @ Aug 16th 2007 12:02AM

Its not about the service you fool, why would developers pay Microsoft money to license it, when stuff like gamespy is way cheaper for them to use?

If microsoft didn't try and take money for the developers at every tern then more companies would probably use it.

cc123 @ Aug 16th 2007 12:05AM

XBL could be opened up for cross-platform play. Personally I would love to see 360 vs PS3 matches going on in this game but I don't think MS would ever allow it.

Two reasons:
1. MS wants to push the live thing on PCs so allowing play against a none "Live" service is not good for them.
2. Having Live players paying $50 a year to play against PC/PS3 players that play for free would cause a serious backlash. No way MS would go for that.

Mal F4cti0n @ Aug 16th 2007 12:14AM

What are you talking about, EVO?

"If MS didn't try to make money at every turn then maybe more companies would probably use it."

Are you talking about Windows Live? Cuz if your not, every company that makes a game for the 360 uses xbl in some way, be it thru leader boards or multiplayer. I don't know how you would expect more than 100% of the games on the 360 to utilize xbl.

The only thing that MS does for cross-online play is to make the PC version use the Windows Live for multiplayer and that just costs the players $50 a year to utilize. I don't think MS is forcing the developers to pay them money AND then force the users to pay too. Not only that, but if players don't want to pay for cross platform play on the PC, they still get PC vs PC for free. So come to think of it, I really have no idea what you and phattie are talking about.

Zeus the God @ Aug 16th 2007 12:18AM

Exo, please shut up- you're not needed, and your post didn't really do much.

Yes, it is about the service. The Xbox 360, when connected to the internet naturally connects to Xbox LIVE. Nothing else. This could be opened up, to allow for cross platform play.

I think the whole Games for Windows LIVE bit is retarded. Leave PC gaming the way it was... It works great for the Xbox though, and you could retain a lot of the features even with the cross platform play.

The thing is, there could possibly be an agreement reached which would allow this.

CC, the Games for Windows LIVE thing isn't working out too well anyway, I think they might eventually give up on it...

I can see where you're coming with with that last bit though...

Exo @ Aug 16th 2007 1:58AM

@ mal
1. congrats at spelling my 3 letter name wrong. AMAZING.

2. companies have to license with MS to be apart of live, even on console. Do you really think MS lets developers use all their servers to run games on for FREE? cause you are special in the head if you do. Its obvious that gamespy is cheaper to use, and it works with ps3, because ps3 ids biggest priority for UT3 especially since it allows or them to have user generated content, which xbox doesn't have, which would even if 360 was crossplatform with ut3, you wouldn't get to join all the servers cause you wouldn't have all the extra content

@ Zeus
Like I said if you read the article, you read UT3 is runing on gamespy for online on pc, which means it isn't compatible with live, cause live is a different service. how is that hard to get, no one is saying tis impossible for 360 to cross platform, but what 360 can't do is crossplatform if the other platforms are not using the same online service.

and don't tell me im not adding anything to the discussion, because Im not the one yelling at people without understanding what the situation is.

DustoMan @ Aug 16th 2007 12:34AM

Is everyone forgetting that Microsoft said during their E3 press brief that UE3 will have Xbox Live built-in as well? Unless this is a new development.

James @ Aug 16th 2007 12:52AM

Zeus, please shut up. Until Microsoft actually does what you are saying, you're just talking out your ass in a blatant display of fanboy defensivenes. Even the 360 fans are ashamed of you.

mike_p @ Aug 16th 2007 1:06AM

I am right there with James. Zeus, you don't exactly know what Microsoft is going to do because you're not their spokesperson. You read the news like we all do. Be a little considerate of other fanboys opinions. Or you can just stay over at X3F, a site made for fans just like you. ;)

Word of the street. @ Aug 16th 2007 1:10AM

Pretty much.
As a x360 fanboy you are giving us a bad image,like the DS fanboys I mean I'm a Ds fanboy and I think the PSP is freaking awesome in fact I'm also a PSP/Nintendo DSL owner and I have to say both are awesome but some fanboys give us the bad rep that every Ds fanboy is a ignorant hater.

Now as a x360 owner I dont need that same rep as well,I dont want people to bash my post with "oh is a x360 fanboy he must a Ps3 hater".

Word of the street. @ Aug 16th 2007 1:07AM

Cross platform is good for:
A)Achievements,Admit it getting "my console is better than yours" achievement in shadowrun is badass.BTW whatever happened to the Trophy system the PS3 suppose to have,I mean they already copy the gamer card,why not the achievements as well?.

B)More people to play with and this is good for the PS3 for some reason some servers are way too lonely these days.

severian00 @ Aug 16th 2007 1:40AM

So I've got a question. Didn't MS say a while back that the unreal engine was going to be incorporated into XNA? And if unreal engine is going to incoporate gamespy, doesn't that now mean that XNA will have gamespy built into it?

Marty @ Aug 16th 2007 2:42AM

Most PS3 owners are not going to be playing this game with a mouse / keyboard combo... and that means that when they take their game online, they will get slaughtered by PC players. Deny it all you want, this is the truth.

Cross platform play is always a tricky thing also because it gimps the more powerful platform... AKA PC gets the shaft, because anything that won't run on the PS3 won't be able to be incorporated into the game, to ensure compatibility.

I never thought Unreal Championship went over too well on PS2 or Xbox, and even though the hype for UT3 is high, I don't see it mattering too much in the end for console owners.

Tyler @ Aug 16th 2007 3:17AM

Well then, as a PS3 player who will be using Mouse and Keyboard i look forward to pwning other players much easier

Stellarpimp @ Aug 16th 2007 5:58AM

What Tyler said! My keyboard/mouse setup has been waiting to rapeface. This announcement of being able to get in on some PC lovin' is simply awesome.

The only downside to this is my computer won't need to be upgraded for awhile now... UT series is my all time favorite FPS series. Love it or hate it but this is the series that really kicked team fighting to another level for FPS.

Dahk @ Aug 16th 2007 9:23AM

Heh, with Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and a sick coffee table? Who's to say that my kb/m combination won't be getting used.

I think LOTS of PS3 owners are REALLY looking forward to this. Before, it wasn't too popular because keyboard cords were a problem. But everyone uses RF or Bluetooth keyboards and mice and they're not very cheap to get. So drag a damn coffee table into the room, and you're all set.

In fact, most of friends who don't have consoles (and who love FPS's on PC) are looking for a kb/m. I always get the "wouldn't it be cool to use keyboard and mouse" question lol. UT3 will be amazing for the PS3 community.

bl13 @ Aug 16th 2007 9:55AM

As has been already explained in a previous post, PS3 users will have the option of filtering out KB+M games if they're not using KB+M.

kmo @ Aug 16th 2007 3:12AM

Why will PS3 players get slaughtered, just like PC gamers have mastered a kb/m combo, console gamers have mastered the gamepad, i know ill be owning up some pc gamers when i get this on my ps3.

Stellarpimp @ Aug 16th 2007 6:02AM

If you played Unreal on computer you'll understand that the mouse aiming system is just so fast. You need to be able to aim in a split second. It is just hard to imagine being able to aim that fast with an analog stick even with the sensitivity turned up to maximum.

josh @ Aug 16th 2007 6:52AM

Some PC gamers will ruin for PS3 gamers when they cheat.
Have fun :)

GoonieGooGoo @ Aug 16th 2007 7:09AM

Well...given the track record of PS online gaming with GAMESPY....(See PS2 online games for examples).....

I'll pass and get it on PC or 360......

Rask @ Aug 16th 2007 7:23AM

What does UT3 using Gamespy mean for gamers?

If means that the fancy PSN gamertag and friendlist you built up on your PS3 will be pointless when it comes to cross-plaform play for UT3 It also means that this will be a game that you won't be able to launch into multi-player from PS Home.

You'll have to load the game up, sign up for Gamespy(and all it's subsidiaries) log into gamespy and restart a new friends list from scratch...

I'll take features like a unified friends list and everyone having mikes over cross-platform play any day of the week.