#SCAVENGERS XBOX ONE SOFTWARE#

#SCAVENGERS XBOX ONE SOFTWARE#

Chris Giroir - Senior Software Engineer, Improbable The game data API makes inventory and cross-platform progression seamless Nowadays these things are live-running – they require live ops, they require platforms to stay up, they require operations engineers all the time. On top of this, they added in all the custom features Scavengers needed, including integration with the progression and login systems. Existing Unreal Engine plugins also made integration straightforward for Midwinter Entertainment. You can find clients for it anywhere,” he explains. “t’s a protocol that’s – again – open, standard. What that work looks like depends on the game: Scavengers is unique in that it requires the ability to create squads of three players other games might need something else entirely.įor Scavengers, it was important to create a solution that was easy to integrate with – hence Chris and the IMS team creating a custom solution built off XMPP. But since friends lists are platform-specific, extra work is needed. A custom solution enables cross-platform and cross-store socialĬross-platform social means gamers can send invites to players across all platforms and stores.

Plus, its extensible system means they can add on additional third-party support when they need them. To make it happen, “login with the platform that you’re already using, send us some of the details, and we’ll tell you what user account you’re actually dealing with so you can have cross-progression, crossplay, and all of those things really, really easily,” explains Chris. However, the service can still accommodate the strict requirements imposed by Sony and Xbox, such as Playstation players having the option to play only with other Playstation players, or the need to display a platform-specific identity.īecause it’s based on open standards, integrating with it was easy for the Midwinter Entertainment devs. It also makes for quicker, more effective matchmaking because there’s now a single, far bigger pool of players (say goodbye to imbalanced matches or long queue times). Not only is this a core component for cross-platform social and real-money transactions. And, if they’re playing on multiple platforms, they’ll be recognised as the same player. This allows players to register with any account across any store, platform, or social account (including Steam, Google, EGS, PSN, Xbox and Twitch). The IMS-provided player identity service Scavengers uses is built on an industry-standard OAuth 2.0 server, which is the most used and validated authentication protocol available on the market today. A cross-platform identity service lets players log in with their preferred account “They can focus on their game – focus on making it fun – and we can provide these multiplayer, multiplatform aspects,” says Chris. So, how is Midwinter Entertainment – a lean new studio founded by former Halo devs – enabling crossplay for their latest game? By drafting in Chris and the team, backend services like social, presence, chat, lobby, matchmaking, progression are all in hand. But very soon it’ll be publicly available on Playstation and Xbox with crossplay. Right now, Scavengers is in Early Access, available exclusively on PC. Chris Giroir - Senior Software Engineer, Improbable Midwinter Entertainment is partnering up to enable crossplay You should be launching on every platform that makes sense for your game.

“And that’s not something normally teams can pull out of a hat.” They all come with a different set of rules that you have to accomplish in order to release on their platform.” He estimates you’d need two people working in-house full-time for three months for every new platform or store you want to launch on. They all come with different certification requirements.

Now, he’s a lead in the Improbable online services department with the mission to empower smaller game studios to reach similar heights.Ĭhris knows all too well the challenges of launching on multiple platforms and stores: “They all come with their quirks. Having spent eight and a half years at Blizzard Entertainment working on titles like Overwatch and World of Warcraft, it’s fair to say Chris knows a thing or two about game development. “If your game plays well on a platform and it’s fun on a platform, there shouldn’t be a technical reason you don’t launch on that platform.” “You should be launching on every platform that makes sense for your game,” says Chris Giroir, Senior Software Engineer at Improbable.

Launching with crossplay takes a huge amount of resource Integrating a cross-platform player identity system.

Scavengers xbox one