Windows 10: New Tools for Cross-Play Now Available in Family Settings on Xbox

Brink · Dec 6, 2018

Here at Xbox, we see technology as an advantage for families today. It can be a positive force in the home and classroom, in personal growth, and in helping families and friends spend quality time together. We also know that it’s important that children learn how to build a healthy relationship with technology. We’re committed to making gaming a positive and inclusive form of entertainment, and with that goal in mind, family settings on Xbox ensures that gaming can be a rewarding experience for every member of the family. Over the years, we have continued to innovate family settings on Xbox to be as unique as families are today and support their needs.

So how can parents take advantage of everything family settings on Xbox has to offer? First off, parents will need to set up a child account at account.microsoft.com and link it to their Microsoft account. Once that’s done, parents have access to more than 15 comprehensive and customizable tools to manage their child’s account across four key categories: screen time management, purchase limits, content filters, and privacy. Let’s take a closer look:

Screen time management: Parents can set time limits and view activity reports to keep on top of their children’s activity. Limits can be set for each day of the week, meaning parents can restrict gaming on school nights or allow more time over the weekend.

Purchase limits: Parents can choose to approve children’s purchases before they are made, to receive alerts after each purchase, or to set up an allowance to limit purchases children can make on their own.

Content filters: Parents can filter or allow games, apps and websites based on the age of their children to ensure they are interacting with age-appropriate content. Children can also request access to content which parents can then approve or decline.

Privacy: Parents can set what people see about their child’s online profile, status and gaming history and who they can communicate with online. This is especially valuable with the increasing popularity of multiplayer games where users can interact with other players around the world. These settings can be managed via the parent’s Microsoft account at xbox.com/Settings.

We’ve also heard feedback and questions from parents whose kids enjoy playing cross-network enabled games. Available today, Fortnite is the first game to feature our new cross-play settings, which provides parents and caregivers with more choice in managing cross-network scenarios for their children who play on Xbox. This includes two new settings parents can turn on or off, which empowers them to allow or block both cross-network play and cross-network communication, on their child’s account. As with the rest of the family settings, these can be changed in the parent’s Microsoft account. We expect other cross-network enabled games will be updated in the future to include these settings and offer more choice for parents.

Of course, ensuring families have fun isn’t solely the domain of parents. To that end, we also empower kids to play an active role in learning healthy digital habits. Our family settings features include an activity report that kids can view so they are aware of their own gaming habits and, with screen time limits, kids can request extensions to their time on the console or PC, which parents can approve or decline. Kids can also use the Ask a parent feature to request permission to make app or game purchases in the Microsoft and Xbox stores, as well as request access to websites, apps or games. We feel that when kids are a part of this process, it provides a collaborative and fun gaming experience for everyone.

At the end of the day, communication is the most important tool parents can employ to ensure their family has a fun and positive gaming experience. We encourage parents to have an ongoing dialogue with their children about healthy technology habits and customize their family settings to fit their unique passion for gaming. If you’d like to learn more about our industry-leading Microsoft family settings and features, visit Xbox.com/family.
Click to expand...

Source: Family Settings on Xbox Provide Fun, Positive Gaming; New Tools for Cross-Play Now Available - Xbox Wire

Tweet

— Twitter API (@User) View on Twiiter

:)

Loraine Mon · Dec 6, 2018

Cross platform play

Hi,

There are Xbox multiplayer games that offer cross-play. It enables people on Xbox One to play with people on PCs and vice versa.
A related feature is Xbox Play Anywhere. This feature will allow you to play games on both the Xbox console and a Windows 10 PC. However, not all Play Anywhere games offer cross-play.
A game’s editions might be specific to either Xbox or PC, even when that game lets you play with people using the other version.

To check the list of Xbox Play Anywhere games, you may visit this
link. To check if a game is cross play enabled, you may visit the game's product detail page.

If you have comments and suggestions regarding this feature, you may also share your feature requests and ideas for improving Xbox products and services on our

Xbox Feedback page. The feature teams working on Xbox One, Xbox on Windows, Xbox mobile apps, and Xbox Live regularly review the ideas you submit, incorporating them into their work to make your Xbox experience even better.

Should you have any other queries, you can contact us anytime.

If you think this was helpful, you may "mark it as answer" to help those who are facing the same problem.

H8 Mile Fisher · Dec 6, 2018

Cross-Platform Play for Gears of War 4 (PC/Xbox)

Hello,

I wanted to post my thoughts on an issue that is becoming more and more prevalent throughout the Gears of War Community. This issue is the cross play between Xbox and PC. Currently, PC and Xbox players can only play Campaign, Horde, and Coop multiplayer
against bots or private matches, but cannot play cross platform on Social and Ranked Playlists. (Competitive Matchmaking Multiplayer.) I feel that this may be the wrong move. The matchmaking multiplayer of Gears of war has always been the biggest part of this
great series. That being said, many people have friends and family who play on different platforms, and while there is a potential for certain inconsistency, I feel that opening up the Social Playlist to cross play between PC and Xbox would be beneficial for
players and Microsoft. The social playlist is unranked and considered casual. While the ranked playlist is, well, ranked and very competitive. I feel like the Ranked playlist should be platform specific, but the social should let everyone play together, like
the name implies. This is just a suggestion. I feel it will extend the life of the game and increase player base, which in turn, increases sales of micro-transactions. It would be of mutual benefit to at least consider allowing PC and Xbox players play in
the same player vs player environment. There are other ways to go about doing this other than my suggestions. You could follow Rocket Leagues steps and make cross-play an option to opt-in for in the menu, choose whether you'd like to be apart of cross-play
interactions or not. There are also other ways, I would encourage anyone interested to visit the Gears of War forums and look for a post about the cross-play possibilities.

Anyways, those are my 2 cents. I really hope someone who can make a difference can read this. It's time to unite the community, not keep us apart. .Please consider letting the players choose whether they want to participate in cross-play or not. I appreciate
your time.

Brink · Dec 6, 2018

Gears of War 4: Social Cross-play Between Xbox One and Windows 10

Today, we are excited to announce a major step in the future of Gears of War 4 Versus Multiplayer with the introduction of cross-play between Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs in Social Quickplay!

Late last year, we conducted a cross-play Test Weekend to bring our Windows 10 and Xbox One fans together in public Versus Multiplayer, combining fan feedback and extensive data gathering to help us decide the next steps to take to deliver a matchmaking cross-play Versus experience.

Here’s a look at some of the top stats from our cross-play Test Weekend:

Over 750,000 Matches Played

Over 115,000 Unique Participants – 91/9 split from Xbox to Windows 10

Average of 6.2 matches played by Xbox users, with 11.2 for Windows 10 users

Over 90% of all matches during the weekend included a mix of Windows 10 and Xbox One players

Windows 10 and Xbox players had closely-matched results when comparing Average KD, Score and Kills per match based on skill ratings

The quality of matches improved for both Xbox and Windows 10 users – social lobbies had a higher average user count, and players completed 95% of all social matches entered vs 90% prior to Cross-play Weekend

When we looked at the extensive data we received thanks to the incredible participation from our community, there was a clear message – it works. And after reading the hundreds of pages of discussion and feedback from the cross-play Test Weekend, our fans said the same – it works.

As such, beginning today, Social Quickplay will now be a Cross-play playlist! This step is planned to be a permanent move for the future of Social Quickplay, with the first few months being a ‘trial period’ in order to monitor player feedback alongside data to ensure the Test Weekend was representative.

Core and Competitive will remain platform independent, only matching Xbox players with each other and Windows 10 players with each other. Despite the closely matched performance between users on both platforms seen in our cross-play Test Weekend, we always want to ensure our Ranked experiences are as closely matched and competitive as possible. Due to the major popularity of Social Quickplay on Windows 10, we will be looking at introducing new Core and Competitive solutions for Windows 10 players in the future to provide more focused offerings to experience the more competitive ranked play of Gears of War 4.

We are incredibly excited to bring our Xbox One and Windows 10 PC communities closer together in Public Versus multiplayer through the power of Xbox Live. Thank you for your participation, feedback and passion – without our incredible fans, this decision would not have been possible. Whichever platform you play Gears of War 4 on, we’ll see you online in Social Quickplay!
Click to expand...

Source: Gears of War 4 Introduces Versus Social Cross-play Between Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs! - Xbox Wire

Windows 10: New Tools for Cross-Play Now Available in Family Settings on Xbox

New Tools for Cross-Play Now Available in Family Settings on Xbox

New Tools for Cross-Play Now Available in Family Settings on Xbox

New Tools for Cross-Play Now Available in Family Settings on Xbox

New Tools for Cross-Play Now Available in Family Settings on Xbox - Similar Threads - Tools Cross Play

New Xbox Family Settings features available to help manage gaming

Xbox Family Settings app now generally available on Android and iOS

New Microsoft Store on Xbox now available for everyone

Windows 10 Cross-Play Xbox One

Ark update pc/Xbox cross play

Vigor is available now as free-to-play for Xbox One Xbox

Vigor is available now as a free-to-play tile for Xbox One Xbox

Xbox one and PC Minecraft cross play

War Thunder now available to play for free on Xbox One