It seems that Sony is adapting to the times and joining others in expanding Cross-Play.
In a recent statement, Sony actually indicated that it wants PlayStation to have more Cross-Play in the future. The statement was made to Axios in an interview that they “support and encourage cross-play”. The feature is also compatible with a number of popular games, including Fortnite, Rocket League, Call of Duty, and Minecraft, according to the statement. Apparently, “that number will continue to grow”, according to Jim Ryan.
PlayStation has recently been accused of “dragging their feet” by refusing to allow multiplayer games to connect PlayStation fans with gamers on other platforms.
In 2018 PlayStation was the last to support cross-play with other consoles and only relented a year later.
We recently learned from the “Epic-Apple” trial that Sony allowed Fortnite cross-play in exchange for a cut of the revenue from gamers who primarily play on PlayStation but purchase in-game items on other platforms.
In a recent article, we discussed Gearbox’s Randy Pitchford’s statement regarding Borderlands 3’s lack of cross-play support for PlayStation systems. He tweeted that “An update for Borderlands 3 has been prepared for release that includes full cross-play support across all platforms. Bad News: For certification, we have been required by the publisher to remove cross-play support for PlayStation consoles.”
Regarding this Ryan told Axios that he wasn’t willing to talk about a “live business issue with a long-standing partner,” but noted, “our policies are consistent across all of the publishers.”
It seems that Sony is attempting to defend their honour by releasing this statement via Axios.
If Sony required developers to pay for cross-play functionality, it could easily exclude smaller studios from using the feature, but given what we’ve seen in the fighting game industry, that doesn’t appear to be the case.
Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid and Fantasy Strike both offer complete cross-play support, though the superhero fighter was added to the PS4 roster after being released on PC, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
It didn’t go unnoticed of course that Sony didn’t take part in the recent E3 event at all and that they insist they will have their own, separate event soon. This “event” may shed light on a number of issues that have recently surfaced with Sony, and hopefully, for die-hard PlayStation fans, it will reveal many more games that will be able to cross-play with other consoles, as well as new policies that will put Sony in a better light than in recent times.