XR-067: Maintaining Multiplayer Session State *

  • Article

Version 1.1, 5/1/2020

On Xbox consoles, titles with online multiplayer functionality must maintain session-state information on Xbox Live. Titles do this through the Xbox Multiplayer Session Directory (MPSD) or if a title has their own multiplayer session state functionality, they may choose to instead record player interactions using the Multiplayer Activity Recent Player feature.

On devices other than Xbox consoles, titles which offer cross platform multiplayer with Xbox consoles must maintain session-state information in the Xbox Multiplayer Session Directory (MPSD). If they have their own session state functionality, they may choose to instead record player interactions using the Multiplayer Activity Recent Player feature.

More Information

When multiple users are playing together in a networked experience, that grouping of players must have at least one session in the MPSD containing all the players. When a session is in interactive multiplayer gameplay, the gameplay capability in the multiplayer session must be set to True. As players join and leave the experience, they must be added to and removed from the MPSD session, respectively.

Intent: Ensure that the Xbox system is aware of the users who are playing together online. This information is used to support the recent players list, player feedback, usage reporting, and other platform features.

If a title does not require MPSD to function and instead uses the Multiplayer Activity Recent Players feature, it is assumed that the title will record all meaningful interactions that occur in gameplay. Those interactions may include all players in a gameplay session, or a subset of players if the gameplay session is large and players interactions are limited to a smaller set of the total players.

For information on MPSD using the GDK, read the Multiplayer Session Directory overview

Implementation Guidance and Best Practices

Additional Resources

"Multiplayer in Xbox One," a topic in the XDK documentation Net Rumble Cross Play, a code sample available from Samples on GDN

Certification Test Cases

Test Steps

  1. Sign into an Xbox Live profile and launch the title on multiple devices.
  2. Complete an Xbox Live game session with all players.
  3. Return Home and view the Recent Players list to verify that all players from the game session are included.
  4. Repeat steps [1] - [3] several more times but this time using new accounts each time.
  5. Repeat steps [1] - [4] but this time have one or more player(s) leave during gameplay and ensure their profile(s) still appear in the Recent Players list during step [2].

Expected Result
Users must be able to review all players from each and every recently played game session.

Pass Examples

  1. All profiles are included in the device's Recent Players list.

Fail Examples

  1. Not all the profiles are included in the device's Recent Players list.
  2. Users who quit during multiplayer gameplay do not appear in the Recent Players list.

Change history

Date Document version Change description
May 1, 2020 7.1 Updated to require integration on non console devices when cross play is enabled with Xbox Consoles