Much has been said about cross-platform play among the current generation of consoles. The success of Epic Games’ Fortnite: Battle Royale or Phoenix Labs’ Dauntless, the latter having 60 percent of its parties formed through cross-play, does mean there’s room for it. With the current generation winding down and next gen consoles to be revealed in the coming year, could cross-play become a major feature for the PS5 or next Xbox?
GamingBolt spoke to Jos Hoebe of Blackmill Games, the studio behind realistic World War 1 shooter Tannenberg, about the same. We first asked about Sony’s reluctance for cross-play with the Xbox brand. Hoebe’s take is as follows: “While we don’t think cross-platform between PC and consoles would necessarily work for our game, it would be great to support cross-platform between different consoles if it were possible.”
As for whether cross-play will become a defining features of next gen consoles, he answered, “Predicting the future is a risky business! To be honest, it doesn’t feel like there are the right conditions or the right mood among the big studios for cross-platform to be a major feature of next-gen consoles right now, but things can always change! If it does happen, it’ll probably be one of those things where it feels so natural that you wonder how people ever lived without it.”
With services like Google Stadia coming up and offering cross-play across phones, tablets, PCs, and whatnot, the boundaries between Microsoft and Sony could lower sooner rather than later. After all, Sony is collaborating with Microsoft on cloud-based gaming and AI for the future. Who knows where that partnership could lead?
