There’s some new rumors on what Microsoft is planning to do next to push forward on their initiative to bring their games on every platform possible.
As reported by Windows Central, the company is working on a cross platform menu that will literally bring Xbox’s interface to multiple devices.
To quote Windows Central’s Jez Corden:
“Sources tell us that Microsoft is also working on a set of in-game APIs and user interface features, called Project Rainway, which is some form of cross-platform Xbox guide menu. Microsoft has been inspired by the in-game Battle.net social features seen in Hearthstone, Diablo IV, and World of Warcraft, which lets you share and communicate cross-platform.
This means that for games running on other platforms from Xbox, they will still have an Xbox flavor and in-game Xbox systems, maybe even cloud saves.”
As social features come and go, Battle.net is not quite as fully integrated as Fortnite, but it’s very close. Using the examples Jez used, World of Warcraft may not be available on consoles, but you can play it across Windows and Mac. With a single unified account, you can carry your account data, including all your save, to any Windows or Mac device that can run the game.
Hearthstone is probably the most powerful example of this, as this card game is available on both PC and mobile platforms. Hearthstone offers cross save, cross platform multiplayer, voice chat, etc. You can even make deck codes to share your decks with other players.
Jez speculates that Project Rainway could offer cross save and cross progression, in the same way that Indiana Jones and The Great Circle has that feature, if you own the game on Steam and under your Xbox account. But we have to focus on this rumor over Jez’ other claims and speculation, to scrutinize how far it goes.
We pointed out that Blizzard.net is a few steps behind Fortnite. Just a few days ago, Epic integrated text chat to the game so that players can send DMs to their friends list, and send messages in party channels or public channels while they are in the game. It may be one game, but it’s already miles ahead of what Blizzard.net has.
As much as we speak about how groundbreaking Microsoft’s ideas are in becoming a major third party publisher and a game console company, they already have competition when it comes to building a cross platform strategy.
Of course, Microsoft has to worry about more things than Epic, but when it comes to executing their plans, they definitely see what Epic has accomplished as a lead. And we shouldn’t forget that Microsoft isn’t able to execute on all their cross platform plans as it is.
Of course, this rumor adds to the FUD surrounding Microsoft’s commitment to Xbox as a console hardware platform. But seeing the bigger picture around it, even if Project Rainway was real, Microsoft is far away from being able to make their lofty plans a reality. And we’re willing to bet that they’ll roll back those plans immediately when the winds of gaming trends start blowing in a different direction once again.
