Unreal 3 engine to use gamespy for Pc/PS3 crossplay

[msmalls74]

IGN's GameSpy provides multiplayer gaming technologies such as matchmaking, in-game and out-of-game messaging, persistent player communities, and competition systems. Its services are used by the world's top ten publishers and are currently featured in over 500 games. Today GameSpy and Epic Games announced a partnership to incorporate GameSpy's technology suite into Epic's Unreal Engine 3. The tech will immediately be available to any publishers or developers that license the engine.

The partnership pertains only to the PlayStation 3 and PC platforms, and will enable cross-platform play between the two.

"Over the past months we have fully integrated a broad suite of GameSpy online technology in Unreal Engine 3 and have built a fantastic working relationship with Epic," said Jamie Berger, senior VP of consumer products and technology for IGN Entertainment. "We look forward to extending that relationship with a number of new technologies customized for Unreal Engine 3 to be introduced over the next 12 months."

GameSpy technologies available to license immediately include:



Matchmaking

"Comrade" is in-game middleware and desktop technology that enables seamless in-game to out-of-game community features, such as instant messaging, in-game voice communication, and friend rosters

"Sake" will allow developers to store data securely online, enabling gamers to build extensive player profiles and maintain game statistics

"ATLAS" is an advanced statistical system for dynamic leaderboards and tournaments within the game and on the web

Future feature sets developed by GameSpy will all be incorporated into the Epic Partnership. Unreal Engine 3 games that have already licensed GameSpy's tech include Codemasters' Turning Point: Fall of Liberty and Ubisoft's Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway

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Intersting news I think, this opens up any game using the UE3 for PS3/PC cross platform play if the game makers want it. Still no info of it being in UT3, but I think this pretty much confirms it.

Stands back and waits for "We dont want to play against PC's" brigade to storm in

 

[msmalls74]

PC players will have all kinds of advantages like aimbots and wall hacks, not to mention keyboard and mouse.

I rekon UT3 on PS3 will be mediocre.

Same old PS3 owners dreaming about games that will never be.

Well on the PS3 version the keyboard and mouse argument goes out of the window as the PS3 version supports it. If a PC user is cheating then wont he be cheating against other PC users as well? Or do all PC gamers cheat at every game they play? Im not sure how PS3 owners are dreaming about this game that will never be? Its out in November, about 6 months before the 360 version is out, according to Epic it looks the same as the PC version but of course it wont run at 100FPS like the high end PCs will, also the PS3 version of UE3 runs better than Gears did on the 360 at the same point in time, doubt it ill be mediocre one little bit!

 

[msmalls74]

I'm not angry, I'm just saying Epic don't seem to know what to say anymore.

I couldn't care less if it's about the PS3, and this is barely good news, Gamespy is crap.

To be honest i think that Epic is bigging up the new version of UE3 rather than the PS3 itself, the better the job of it they do the more firms will want to use it.

 

[msmalls74]

Ok so the PC version will be better on a PC costing over 2x the price of a PS3 and a PC at the same price as the PS3 probably wont be as good. This thread isn't about which version of the UT3 is better as no one here knows! It was about Epic letting game developers using the UE3 engine to incorporate cross platform gaming, without charging you £50 and the price of Vista for the privilege of playing non PC gamers. Surely the more people you have playing a game it is better for you as you have a much bigger pool of gamers to play against?

 

[msmalls74]

Seems like even if some on here dont like the idea its not stopping game developers liking the idea off cross play between PC and PS3

Brothers in Arms gets cross-platform multiplayer
Gearbox Software is one of a number of developers to already take advantage of a new PC-PS3 cross-platform online play solution that's been integrated into Unreal Engine 3.

In a nutshell, Epic has licensed GameSpy online tech and squeezed it into its hugely popular UE3 technology, "enabling seamless PlayStation 3 and PC online functionality. Functionality available to Unreal Engine 3 licensees via GameSpy will include cross-platform gameplay, communication tools and competition applications."

Codemasters' alternate-reality WWII game Turning Point: Fall of Liberty is another title to make use of these new features of Unreal Engine 3, which in addition to cross-platform play between PC and PS3 include the likes of GameSpy's online matchmaking service, stat crunching solutions for leaderboards and tournaments and community features.

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