Cross platform play has become a big deal ever since even Nintendo, traditionally averse to most things online and the internet, joined the party- and games like Wargroove, Rocket League, and Minecraft now all enjoy PC-Xbox One-Nintendo Switch cross platform play, leaving the PS4 as the lone outlier from the group.
Sony has been proven to be the bottleneck involved here- this has been proven by Psyonix, Bandai Namco, CD Projekt RED, and multiple other developers over the last year or so (and Sony themselves have only attempted to disguise their being the problem with clumsy PR). However, Tim Sweeney of Epic Games, while championing cross platform play on Twitter and congratulating Nintendo and Psyonix for implementing it, also said he believes there is ‘more to the story’ than just Sony saying no to the entire proposition.
“I bet there’s more to this story. Sony has been super cool in supporting our successful PC+PS4 Paragon cross-play efforts,” he said. Sweeney also discussed the possibility of cross platform party chat. “With a bunch of engineering work, I think an engine (or individual game) could implement that functionality on its own,” he said.
Of course, for most developers, that will probably be too much work for most developers, so that is unlikely to happen any time soon- there is also the fact that, before we get to such considerations, cross platform play, to begin with, needs to be a thing. As long as Sony continues to oppose it, we are unlikely to make much headway there.
Excellent news from @PsyonixStudios and Nintendo! All platforms should embrace cross-play; it benefits everyone. https://t.co/Dfmi7WYHgd
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) June 21, 2017
I bet there's more to this story. Sony has been super cool in supporting our successful PC+PS4 Paragon cross-play efforts.
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) June 21, 2017
With a bunch of engineering work, I think an engine (or individual game) could implement that functionality on its own.
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) June 21, 2017
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