Cross platform play has become more and more of a trend in multiplayer games of late, with most of the biggest and most popular games on the market, such as Rocket League, Paladins, Minecraft, and Fortnite all supporting the ability for their players to all play with each other, regardless of what platform they own the game on.
However, so far, major AAA games have not jumped on board the cross platform multiplayer train, even, if you think about it, it really is only a matter of time. Now, EA and DICE may be preparing to be the first to broach that long standing barrier this year with Battlefield 5. Speaking to GamesIndustry.Biz, EA’s Vice President of Investor Relations Chris Evenden talked about how cross platform play might fit the company’s long term strategy, especially given EA’s plans to start pushing cloud gaming.
“We’re looking at key franchises in terms of how we can deliver cross-platform play in a similar way that Fortnite has, especially some of our titles that have a broad and diverse player base,” he said. “The ability to bring PC to mobile or mobile to console can bring family and friends together, and we think that’s an important part of our future development profile. Expect more from us on that front in the future.”
Evenden goes on to mention that “the success of Fortnite‘s cross-platform playability [will make EA look at it] for games such as Battlefield 5″– although, of course, if it happens, we can’t expect Sony to really play nice, given their aversion to allowing their players to play with Xbox or Nintendo players. I imagine it will be PC and Xbox players, or PS4 and PC players. Which is still better than nothing, I guess.
