The Changing Face of the Multiplatform Experience

Much like literature or cinema, video games are great at bringing people together. Enjoyable gameplay, worthy challenges, and memorable stories can all create situations where we can instantly relate to others who have undergone similar trials and experiences. One of the ways in which publishers allow this is through what is known as the multiplatform release. Simply put, this refers to games which are released over a variety of different devices, from PCs to mobiles to consoles and handhelds and everything in between. This not only allows a greater range of people to participate in a game, it allows the creators to maintain interest and an active marketplace which is great for their overall business.

As with any longtime component of gaming, the multiplatform release has seen significant changes over the years, from occasional entry from the rare few who can afford it to a major component of any who can manage. How far has this gone over the years, how does the experience typically differ between platforms, and what can we expect from multiplatform releases in the future? In this article, we take a look.

Early Efforts

The first efforts in creating multiplatform games came in a technological age very different from today, in the ’70s and early ’80s. Dedicated devices for both computing and gaming were downright primitive by today’s standards, with very little to offer in the way of power. In some ways, though, this actually proved a help towards early attempts at multiplatform releases.

A small pool of resources to draw from meant that the games had to be simple, both in design and in play. This simplicity meant that they tended to be easy to port to other systems with similar specifications. Even going from personal computers to console worked well, as these early games had only to rely on a few buttons – so even early joysticks could often keep up.

There was, as there is today, the issue of exclusives. There are some games which were tied to the console or PC itself, and these were obviously not legally allowed to be ported to other systems. We might see these crossover in later years, through the changing of rights or the pursuit of diversification, but otherwise, these were to be locked to just one platform. Some of the most visible challenges to this status quo came about with the third generation of video game consoles, which included 1985’s Nintendo Entertainment System, which Nintendo has stated sold a total of 61.91 million units.

At the time, the disparity between computer and console power was still a big issue, and the new console from the likes of Nintendo had proven more capable, in many ways, than the affordable computers of the time. This meant that anything multiplatform had become an issue of translation, of interpretation rather than a direct copy. Some multiplatform games had started to become very different from each other, through sheer necessity.

Mainstream Feasibility and Mutation

As the generations passed, the idea of the multiplatform would continue to expand, usually through the console and PC section of the gaming industry. Gaming was becoming increasingly popular and visible on the world stage, and big name games like Mortal Kombat and Doom offered experiences which everyone wanted to get in on, regardless of their hardware. This is where the multiplatform experience really kicked into high gear, with popular third-party releases coming out on any system which could conceivably receive a version.

Prince of Persia, originally released in 1989, was a prime example of this, being officially released for 17 systems up until 1993, including MS-DOS, Game Boy, Super NES, and the Amiga. With so many versions on offer, it would be only natural that some would differ more than others, and many fans had their own personal favorite versions. This was especially the case for games like Mortal Kombat, which had to tone the violence on consoles like the SNES in order to reach release.

The New Standard

For a while, these sort of releases remained fairly predictable and stable. It wasn’t until the 7th generation of consoles (PS4, Xbox 360) that the industry leaped into the level of adoption which we see today. As gamers had matured and more people than ever owned both consoles and computer systems, it made sense for the ports and multiplatform games to mature alongside them. While we could see this as an entirely natural evolution, it is important to note the contributions by other industries and fans.

There are some industries which already offered experiences over multiple avenues, which sought a cohesive and transferable experience because it would benefit their customer base. We saw this with message boards like the early BBS and social media platforms such as MySpace, all of which gained an advantage of efficiency by mirroring their designs as much as possible. Another big multiplatform player were providers of online casino games, which branched out to mobile offerings early on, in an attempt to expand their audience to casual players as well as give existing players more options to play on the go. This also proved beneficial to the developers, as it ensured a greater ease of operation by their users and thus more sources of revenue.

Major releases attempted to follow a certain pattern, as they always have, though their adherence to this pattern depends on the games and the power of the host devices. Lower resolution for the less powerful, and lower frame rates are expected. Different input options are now often necessary, though third-party controllers and adaptors are reducing this issue. Attempted simultaneous releases are also popular, although technical difficulties and the new early-access market often reduce the feasibility of the simultaneous release.

Fans of various games had helped here as they had done a lot of legwork in convincing publishers and developers that games on different systems would still have a huge appeal. Games like the original Dooms have become famous because people have managed to install them on a ridiculous amount of devices, including toasters and pianos, and it made sense for the major industries to understand this, and to capitalize for their own benefit.

For the Future

While there are some obvious limitations when it comes to multiplatform games, more often than ever this is usually a case of input. Games like RTS, or their more popular recent replacements, MOBAs, require an enormous amount of hotkeys and actions per minute, which is not realistically possible on anything other than a keyboard. When it comes to other genres, though, almost anything is fair game.

Let’s use 2016’s Doom as an example. This is a game which is best suited for mid to high-end PCs and consoles, yet even this received a popular port to Nintendo’s latest console, Nintendo Switch. The Switch itself is a lesson in cross-platform potential, considering it can transform from a TV console to a handheld. Other games like the immensely popular PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds have received ports to mobile devices like phones and tablets, as this new marketplace has shown to be immensely profitable. This is especially important as the costs for many major releases have ballooned to levels which might otherwise prove unsustainable.

This sets us up for a future which is more open to the multiplatform experience than ever before. Better base tech, more experienced programmers and designers, and a larger overall marketplace mean more attention and a greater variety of overall games. As the gap between many consoles and PCs shrinks, in terms of use, power, and capabilities, we have to imagine the multiplatform market only growing stronger in the future. While there will always be a market for enormous exclusives like the recent God of War, in the future these looks to be far closer to the exception than the rule.