Treasure Stack Coming to Xbox One and Cross-Playable March 1

This post has been republished via RSS; it originally appeared at: Xbox Wire.

Hey everyone!

Some games are developed with the intent of being online multiplayer experiences from day one. Others reveal themselves as the perfect candidates more gradually. When we began working on Treasure Stack (our first commercial release) 3+ years ago, we intended for it to be a local multiplayer experience similar to games with short, action packed matches like Tetris, Dr. Mario, and Towerfall.

Once we realized Treasure Stack was well-suited for quick, ultra competitive online matches, we wanted to push the envelope a bit. That’s when the decision was made to implement cross-play, giving us a better chance of cultivating a vibrant community of long-term players. Online games live or die based on the support of their community, so we wanted to make sure the matchmaking process was as accessible as possible, right off the jump.

Our version of cross-play is aimed at increasing the size of the overall player pool in order to offer fair match-ups to a wider range of players at varying skill levels. With its high skill ceiling, we want competitive players to feel they’re being challenged, but never at the expense of fostering interest and growth from anyone dipping their toes into the genre for the first time. Another happy coincidence of having a more inclusive matchmaking scenario is that players will spend less time waiting and more time stacking!

So how does it all work? Private matches allow players to challenge friends on the same platform as they compete head-to-head, whereas casual matches add players from all platforms into the same pool and randomly select the opponents they play against. Ranked matches also implement cross-play, but the matchmaking process is streamlined to find players who are of a similar skill level in order to make things as competitive as possible! Did we mention Treasure Stack features rotating, 30-day ranked seasons that give everyone a chance to earn free exclusive character skins just by playing?

Here’s the bottom line; we believe adding cross-play enables a much more diverse player base to easily jump into and enjoy Treasure Stack, regardless of skill level. Party games don’t just have to cater to the hardcore or casual, and we’re excited to open the stacking floodgates to all when Treasure Stack launches on March 1 for Xbox One.

Treasure Stack is available for pre-order today on the Microsoft Store for Xbox One. Click here for pre-order and purchase details.