While Sony has been backing off from its stubborn anti-cross platform play stance lately, what with having enabled cross-play functionalities for both Rocket League and Fortnite on the PS4, Microsoft, for now, remain its biggest proponent in the industry. At GDC 2019, they will be taking that one step further.
They will be doing that by unveiling a new standard development kit for the Xbox One that will be aimed specifically at allowing developers to enable cross-platform play in their games, across all systems that do not currently block the functionality. So all of them other than the PS4, but to be more specific, these systems include the Nintendo Switch, PC, iOS and Android devices, and, of course, the Xbox One.
“This will break down barriers for developers that want their communities to mingle more freely across platforms,” Microsoft’s schedule for the keynote reads. “Combined with PlayFab gaming services, this means less work for game developers and more time to focus on making games fun.”
Microsoft’s support for cross-play functionalities across all games and platforms has been admirable, and this next step forward is one that is worth all the praise it can receive. Recently, Epic Games also made a similar move when they released their cross-platform play API for all developers for absolutely no cost. Read more on that through here.
