2. Crossplay
One could argue Microsoft is actually holding back innovation. Microsoft apparently demands publishers release games with at least the same content "on-disc" across all (competitive systems i.e PS3) platforms or they may refuse to publish them. A stance according to Eurogamer, European Xbox Head, Chris Lewis defended. Does their deal carry over to feature sets as well? In Sonys MLB 12 The Show you are able to start a season and continue it on the road with Crossplay. Madden 13 for the Vita unfortunately does not have that feature added. First party versus third party but one has to wonder if there are regulations behind the scene. Sports and Role Playing Games (RPG) are games that could benefit the most from having Crossplay features becoming industry standard. Seasons are long in baseball, basketball, and hockey. If most people are like myself they may finish maybe one or two seasons of their sports career because of the time sink as well as all the other games available to play. Playing during a commute, vacation, etc allows for progression. The days of twenty plus hour RPG epics may be a dying, but the ability to continue on the road would keep everything fresh. An Xbox Handheld can be a game changer. You could grind or farm areas to get stronger anywhere. Who wouldn't want that? Randy Pitchford from Gearbox Studio has been vocal about his love for the Vita calling it "a really neat piece of hardware. The revolutionary designer already has visions of his masterpiece working together with the Vita hardware: "Imagine you could be playing the game on your PS3 and then, OK, I need to go on a road trip or I have to go to work or something. When I take my Vita with me, I have access to the same cloud save and can continue my character. Can you imagine how amazing that would be?" I know I can imagine it. And the thought of traveling Pandora (or SPOILER ALERT.one of the other potential vaults shown after your defeat of Handsome Jack. /END SPOILER ALERT) is so very tempting. Persistent Character building with Borderlands on the go would be a Godsend. In my perfect world the cloud save would be homecrossplatform (I need to trademark that!), so I could theoretically maintain my character across any platform whether it be the PS4 or the Xbox Infinity. I dont want to spend too much time on the greatness of Borderlands 2, but Im not convinced other industry giants havent had the same brilliant idea that Pitchford had. There must be a reason this isn't happening and Im leaning towards the lack of a proper handheld from Microsoft, and No Surface doesn't count.