E3 2011: Activision's terrifying-sounding Portal of Power could actually have huge potential

Activision has announced that Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure will feature a cross-platform game file system, which will let gamers load their game save on anyand every platform they have access to. Their action figure's profile data will be storedvia a cloud-based server, downloadable to any platform the game runs on. It may not be the cross-platform multiplayer gaming announcement our excitable minds immediately took 'cross-platform gaming' to mean, but it's still a very intriguing prospect with a ton of potential.

"Imagine a kid taking his Skylanders toy and bringing it to life on his Xbox 360 one day, then bringing it to life on his friend's PS3 the next day, then bringing it to life inside his 3DS and playing it in the back of his parents' car the next day, then bringing it to life on the web the day after that, all the while, building his character's strength and powers across all of those platforms," said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. "It brings the physical and virtual worlds of play together in a whole new way."

It does. But we're more interested in the potential applications for our favourite games. Wouldn't it be great if you could port your Xbox 360-saved 10th Prestige CoD character over to PS3 so you could play against your Sony fanboy mate? Or if you could load up your PS3 save file of DiRT 3 on your 360 to continue your career with a newly-purchased Wireless Racing Wheel?

Above: Seeing this little fella on various gaming platforms is actually a breakthrough concept

If we were 8-years-old again, we'd probably love the idea of 'interaction figues', combining action figures with console games, so younger gamers will surely be pestering their parents for it this autumn. And being able to run on 360, PS3, Wii, 3DS, PC and mobile platforms is a pretty major selling point. Just because it's not something we'd necessarily get into now, doesn't mean the technology can't be used in more hardcore-friendly applications.

And after this, cross-platform multiplayer, right Acti?

06 Jun, 2011