Sony’s cross-play policies have been a thorn in everyone’s sides for some time now, and we’re not just talking about developers and publishers. Consumers have been pretty upset about the entire deal, too. Games like Fortnite and Minecraft have supported cross-play across all systems except PS4, and this has led even to something as outlandish as Microsoft and Nintendo joining hands to have a go at Sony.
However, it looks like that is going to continue for some time now, and Sony aren’t budging in their policies any time soon. The upcoming Fallout 76, which is supposed to be an online-focused game, will not be able to feature complete cross-play support across all the platforms it will be launching on (PS4, Xbox One, and PC). Bethesda Game Studios’ Todd Howard says while speaking with Gamestar that that’s because Sony has been “not as helpful as everyone would like it” when it comes to supporting cross-play, which Howard describes as “a big trend in the games industry.”
“We would love to do that, but right now that’s not possible,” is basically Howard’s final position on all this. Which is a real shame. People from all corners of the industry have been coming together on this issue to try and get Sony to see reason. Microsoft’s Phil Spencer and Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime recently spoke out on this, while a former-Sony exec stated that Sony’s decision to block cross-play is for financial reasons. However, none of it seems to be doing any good. After responding to the Microsoft and Nintendo ad about “surviving together”, Sony issued yet another response which was, unfortunately, quite laughable.
