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EA reveals Single Identity plan for cross-platform friends lists

EA has engineered a cross-platform identity system which it hopes will allow users to communicate and play together even when they access games from competing platforms.

Currently referred to as Single Identity, and is part of EA's push to become a virtual platform in and of itself.

VentureBeat reports the system should allow users to find each other, communicate and even initiate multiplayer sessions across platforms, where developers have allowed such a function, all in real-time.

The system utilises a single backend system which services all platforms - consoles, PC, mobile devices and social websites. It will allow players to transport their progress and saves between platforms, and took 1,500 engineers more than 18 months to build.

It's a simple idea but EA claims nobody else has ever achieved it before, and it should be particularly useful in the coming years, when we have multiple generations in circulation at the same time.

The benefit to EA is that it can track a player's habits more easily, allowing it to tailor its marketing, and to save about 50% on data storage costs.

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About the Author
Brenna Hillier avatar

Brenna Hillier

Contributor

Based in Australia and having come from a lengthy career in the Aussie games media, Brenna worked as VG247's remote Deputy Editor for several years, covering news and events from the other side of the planet to the rest of the team. After leaving VG247, Brenna retired from games media and crossed over to development, working as a writer on several video games.

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