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I've found pages and forum posts that come close to answering this question but that don't answer it squarely. Various people...

  • feel it's obvious that BF3 won't support cross-platform multiplayer.
  • insist they've seen it.
  • say it'll be console-to-console, but not PC-to-console.
  • speculate that cross-platform support will be added.

Does BF3 allow people from different platforms to play together? (And if it doesn't, does anyone know of an authoritative statement from EA or DICE about future support?)

I'm specifically interested in PC-to-Xbox, but would appreciate any cross-platform information.

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This will likely get closed because it's speculative, and I voted to close it myself, but I went ahead and posted an answer. – Doozer Blake Oct 19 '11 at 19:09
@DoozerBlake, I'm curious: why is it speculative? My intent is actually to be anti-speculative: I've seen a lot of speculation and I'm asking whether someone can provide authoritative facts (or strongly supported non-authoritative facts) to reduce up the opinion haze. – Feral Chimp Oct 20 '11 at 0:17
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Pseudo-random 8-ball says: answer muddy & unclear. See: gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/31786/… – CyberSkull Oct 20 '11 at 0:20
It's just my opinion, don't mean to offend. I just don't find it to be a helpful type of question the way I read the FAQ (but hey, others don't seem to agree). I've seen similar questions on here and from what i've seen, there has yet to be a single definitive answer backed up with press releases, links, and absolute facts. Developers never will specifically state it, because at this point and time in the console world, they aren't sharing and opening up their systems. I'd love to see it, but don't think it'll happen soon. – Doozer Blake Oct 20 '11 at 0:34
@DoozerBlake Why'd you write that in the comment area? If you're right that looks very much like the correct answer for now :) In five days we'll get a better answer, obviously, but it seems overkill to close now when the release date is so close. – badp♦ Oct 20 '11 at 1:02
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4 Answers

up vote 10 down vote accepted
+50

Currently, Battlefield 3 does not support cross-platform multiplayer.

According to this article, which quotes the studio head, Robert Bach, there are numerous differences between the PC and Console versions of Battlefield 3:

Limitations caused by hardware requirements causes the maximum number of players in a game to vary between versions:

The biggest difference between the PC and console version of Battlefield 3 is that we have 64 players on the PC and 24 players maximum on console...We tried to get more players in [to the console version] but then you need to scale down all the graphics, scale down all the destructibility, and sometimes you need to scale down all the map sizes

Alterations were also done on the maps themselves to make them work better for smaller numbers of players:

When we say they are smaller, it's not that we have cut them in half. But we tried to compact them slightly to keep the action up.

Judging by these differences, and the licensing/requirements mentioned by Stof, it is extremely unlikely that there will be support for such a feature.

On a side note, having such a feature would be a huge win for this game franchise, which is in constant competition with the folks over at Call of Duty, and I'd hope that any game promoter/marketer would have immediately jumped on it as a major selling point if it was a plausible future enhancement.

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Not the answer I was hoping for, but I'll take it. Thanks for the citation. The fact that the maps are somewhat different between PC and console, while not a certain deal killer, suggests they're really thinking of them as separate animals. I suppose DICE could port the console maps to PC, but I'll stop holding my breath. – Feral Chimp Oct 28 '11 at 3:46
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@andy this has been tried and the mouse/keyboard folks clobber the controller folks every time. It would be extremely unfair, even if the maps were identical, because mouse offers a much higher level of aiming precision than is possible with a thumbstick. – Jeff Atwood♦ Nov 2 '11 at 0:26
@JeffAtwood Yep, I've seen discussions of that. Along, of course, with angry rebuttals from console users. :-) But it makes sense to me, not only because of mouse precision but also the ability to "chord" so many keys on the keyboard. Without moving your hands much at all you can easily reach upwards of 30 keys with your left hand. – Feral Chimp Nov 2 '11 at 18:23
up vote 4 down vote

It's impossible there'll be a XBox 360 <-> PS3 cross gaming because both platforms forbid it in their certification requirements.

It's possible there'll be a PC <-> XBox 360 because it's technically possible but I doubt it'll happen because if I remember well, it requires the PC version to use GFWL among other things and BF3 doesn't use that.

No info on PC <-> PS3 crossgaming but at this point, I doubt it'll happen. I don't think a game did that already at least, not like the PC <-> XBox which shows prior examples.

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Portal 2 allowed PC (via Steam I think) <--> PS3 for co-op play. – Doozer Blake Oct 26 '11 at 15:54
up vote 4 down vote

It's unlikely there will ever be any of these, due to mods and the like on the PC side, the fact that the console guys have to pay, the fact the console guys would get slaughtered by mouse users and probably more.

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up vote 1 down vote

I don't know a definitive answer of statement.

I don't think one has to be made as far as consoles go. There has yet to ever be a console to console multiplayer (PS3 to Xbox 360) game. I'm going to go out on a limb, and say Battlefield 3 will follow those same rules. There have been PC to console ones, but I can't speak to that.

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IIRC, there is a PS3-Xbox360 cross-platform game in existence, I don't remember which though. Though it probably wasn't a FPS so... yeah. – Jeff Mercado Oct 19 '11 at 19:11
I'd be interested to hear what it is. Never heard of it, and don't think it's even possible, but I've been wrong before. – Doozer Blake Oct 19 '11 at 19:32
Wait a minute... Portal 2. Though it has been said that it is for Win/Mac-PS3 only though but I have yet to see it in action myself. Shadow Run supposedly has Windows-Xbox 360 support. The new Counter Strike game apparently will be cross-platform too (Win/Mac-PS3). – Jeff Mercado Oct 19 '11 at 19:45
Portal 2 is PS3 to Steam (PC/Mac). Yes, Shadowrun was a 360 to PC. Haven't heard news about Counter Strike, but I just don't see Microsoft letting people behind their Xbox Live wall when they won't let people with free accounts play online. – Doozer Blake Oct 19 '11 at 19:54
I missed the point of your answer. All I heard was that there is cross-platform available, I just didn't know that there is no PS3-Xbox360 support until I looked in to it. – Jeff Mercado Oct 19 '11 at 20:20

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