Microsoft wants Halo's matchmaking in all Xbox 360 games

13th February 2007
Source: 1up.com

Microsoft's Head of Game Development for Microsoft Game Studios, Phil Spencer, wants to see Halo 2's matchmaking code in all 360 games, and wonders why no-one has equalled it yet.

Spencer, in an interview exclusively with 1UP.com at the DICE Summit last week in Las Vegas, said: "As a publisher, that's our job, to take code, encapsulate it up and ship it off to other people, not because they can't figure it out but because there are other things on the schedule and if we can help other people by handing out pieces of code, pieces of technology, we should. I think what we really do is create a baseline for what to expect from first party games".

Bungie's Halo 2's matchmaking code hasn't been shared amongst developers. Why not?

Spencer: "Bungie spent a lot of time working out their matchmaking system. Forget about what platform you're playing on, when you play Halo 2, you understand how that matchmaking system works; you're playing with your friends, ranked with the playlist. It's a very innovative system and it should be across all 360 games...definitely all [applicable] first party 360 games,"

So what about Gears of War then? It could have been the perfect game for a matchmaking system.

"The Epic scenario and why we don't have that code in Gears of War is really more of a scheduling issue than the will to share the code with them, or help them add that feature to the game, because it's clearly a great feature in online shooting play. For us, it was just a matter of getting this game done in time in order to get the game to come out when it needed to come out."

Thanks to 1up.com for allowing the use of this interview. Transcript copyright 2002-2007 Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc. All Rights Reserved

Richard Meerman