I personally think that there are plenty of answer to this question but they are extreme volatile mainly because of the rapid development of technologies. I believe that it's crucial for me as a game developer to be aware of the latest changes in the technology industry and to make necessary improvement. This awareness will be a critical step to ensure I am able to analyse current or possible trend and find a way to adapt my design.

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Here's my logical argument on 'How People Play Games':

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Premise 1: Player plays multiplayer games with friends.
Premise 2: Cross-platform game allows player to play with more friends that are on different platforms.

 

Conclusion: Player play cross-platform multiplayer games with more friends without the platform barrier. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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In order to prove my point that player plays multiplayer games with friends, I will be going through three major generation of multiplayer game - Arcade, Household Console and Online Multiplayer and identify the constant among them. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Arcade game started and bloom on the 1980's, it's one of the most common form of leisure activity by then. Student would gather at the amusement arcade after school, it was a social hub where friends and family would hangout and socialise.

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The advancement in technology ensure the price of gaming console machine are affordable for distribution for the general public. Family members and friends can now spend quality time together in comfortable and private area.

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Internet allow player to connect with friends easily as long as the connection are available and stable while mobile data allows player to play online game 'wireless-ly' anytime anywhere. All these development play their part in helping players connect to each other deftly.

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Cross platform remove the 'exclusive barrier' between all this devices and allow player to reach their friends effortlessly without the need of owning the same device.

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Minecraft (Pocket Edition) for mobile successfully capture the essential of the original game while working smoothly because of it's minimalist art style however Mojang decided to make the world and enemies in this version extremely limited to accommodate the device's bounded power.  

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Mojang did a good job on making sure player are able to navigate casually with virtual joystick without blocking a lot of the mobile device's screen but it's unclear what Mojang are going to do with the unique controller of Nintendo Switch. 

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The tag lines uses in the trailer emphasize and announce their intention and ambitions of creating an awesome cross platform gaming experience and building a game network that are able to connect their massive 74 million player pool.

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Arguably the hottest game right now - Fornite are also expanding their accessibility to reach out to more new player from different platform. Having game on mobile device might be the alternate route for games like Fornite to release their game at China because of the low popularity of console devices at the country.

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It's proven that multiple big game company are well aware of cross platform game's potential and taking proactive steps to make sure that their game can be publish on a huge variety of platform to enlarge their player coverage. In short, I strongly believe that cross-platform multiplayer games enable player to play with more friends by abolishing the platform barrier now. Hence by identify game trend by understanding how player play at the moment would actually help me as a designer to develop timely mechanic and make appropriate design and business choices.