Crackdown 3 multiplayer may be hindered by your ISP

Crackdown 3’s headlining act at gamescom 2015 was its cloud-based, fully destructible multiplayer environments. The technology behind this is not without its risk. Speaking to GameInformer, Microsoft Studios Global Publishing GM Shannon Loftis explained that how individual ISPs handle data transmission may affect latency in the game’s multiplayer.

“We can ensure that what leaves the data center is in a particular state, but not what happens between then and when it gets to people’s houses,” she said. “There’s code on the client that ensures all the instances stay synced and that you’re seeing what I see and that it all runs smoothly.”

The problem is less a matter of download or upload speed-induced lag and more a matter of handling. Even with identical connection speeds, it’s possible one player may experience slight delays due to the way their ISP treats the final stage of data transmission. Fortunately, as Game Director David Jones clarified in an update, this will only apply to multiplayer content.

Lag is a problem in any multiplayer game, but Crackdown 3’s emphasis on destruction makes a second’s delay a much larger problem. A bit of clipping in another game may be a building landing on your head here. With any luck, the game will play well on all connections. Even so, the potential issues speak to the risks of content requiring a constant Internet connection.

Source [GameInformer]