The most famous basketball game franchise, NBA 2K24adds a feature that should delight console players and let them know who really is the best on the court.

The next NBA 2K sera a game says cross-play » or cross-platform in good French, which means you’ll be able to play online with people who aren’t on the same console as you. This novelty for the basketball license has already been tried elsewhere: the opportunity to weigh the pros and cons of such a matchmaking system.

The controller’s excuse: it’s over.

More consoles, more players

The main advantage of cross-play is that it allowsexpand the community of players of a video game. By allowing owners of different consoles to play together, the number of players increases and this translates – among other things – into shorter waiting times to find opponents.

On the fact, who says more players, also says more difficulties, because the best opponents are not necessarily on the same medium and could very well – before cross-play – download the game for their Mac, their PC or their PS5, without ever having the opportunity to compete…

NBA 2K24 will therefore bring together some of the orange ball fans in the same place and will allow owners of Xbox Series X to crush those of PlayStation 5 like the Monstars did with Michael Jordan…

2 out of 5 for now, we will have to wait to see the full Dream Team

My friends, my consoles, my ems…

You may have had that heartbreaking moment when all your friends are on XBOX and play together on weekends at Call of Duty while you Sony lover roam around with strangers on your PlayStation…

Well, those days are over, because with cross-play, you can join your friends’ game even if you don’t have the same console. Unfortunately for you, that also means there’s no longer any valid excuse not to compete and determine who’s the best at NBA 2K.

However, the multiplatform side of the next basketball game must be put into perspective because, for the moment, PCs, Nintendo Switch and older consoles are not planned the appointment.

We don’t have the same console, but we have the same passion

The limits of cross-play

Although cross-play allows players from different backgrounds to compete against each other, this multiverse of consoles still has some limitations that hinder its development.

One of the first constraints is the consistency of the media and their performance. If to develop a good multiverse, it is not enough to gather a skewer of characters known to the general public and to exhibit them aimlessly in front of the camera (any resemblance with Marvel or DC films is purely coincidental), it is the same for cross play.

All games do not necessarily have the same characteristics depending on the media on which you read them and the compatibility of the same game between a Nintendo Switch and a PS can be more complex than it seems.

Developers should also ensure that the game operates in a fair and balanced manner on all platforms, in order to avoid inequalities between players. For example, PC gamers of Call of Duty : Modern Warfare II orApex Legends are much more precise with their mouse than console players with a controller: which skews the competition…

“He was an XBOX player…so I took it personally”

Cross-platform: much more than just a selling point

Cross-platform games therefore have advantages and disadvantages for multiplayer, but also for single-player games thanks to the ” cross-progression (or cross-platform progression). This functionality (which will not be present on NBA 2K24) allows you to keep your backups on any medium. Small clarification for the basketball game: only VC (game currency) and MyTEAM progress can be transferred from a PS4 to a PS5 or from an XBOX One to an XBOX Series X/S.

When you are not cross-progression, the best is to stay with your family

As you will have understood, cross-play and cross-platform progression could well become real selection criteria for players whose gaming experience tends to become ever more dematerialized and with more diversified media (as evidenced by the success of Xbox Game Pass and cloud gaming).