Following shortly after the announcement of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Valve revealed that there would be cross-platform play between the PC/Mac and PS3 versions. Now, that feature has been dropped.
Much like the PS3 version of Portal 2, the ability to play with PC users was a major selling point for Counter- Strike: Global Offensive on Sony's console. However, Valve says that they have removed the feature due to the way it impeded updates for the PC/Mac versions.
Valve discovered that updates would be a problem during the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive beta, which you can see footage of here.
"The beta has proved we want to update not just the beta, but the game itself post-launch frequently on the PC, to do that we need to separate the platforms so one doesn't hamstring the other. So for that, we have removed the idea of cross-platform play -- essentially make all platforms stronger by not mixing them."
While many PS3 players are probably going to be upset by this move, it unfortunately does make a lot of sense. When it comes to patches, developers have to go through an approval process before they can release an update on a console - a process which can take a long time. If Valve were to implement cross platform play, that means PC/Mac owners would have to wait as long as their console brethren in order to receive any updates.
This sounds as though it only affects cross-platform play, meaning other PS3 exclusive features such as Move support will probably still be available come the game's launch. It'll be interesting to see if the game still has Steamworks support even though there's no way to play with PC users. There's also no word yet on whether or not PS3 copies of Global Offensive will include a code for the PC version, a la Portal 2.
If axing cross-platform play it the bad news, the good news is that four new Counter-Strike: Global Offensive screenshots have been released. Check them out below.
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What do you think of Valve's decision to remove cross platform play?
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is out this summer for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC/Mac.
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Source: Joystiq