Cross platform play has become a hot topic of late. I have said all I want to about that– however, it looks like the developers who most champion the feature are adamant on pushing Sony, the last holdout against the feature, into conceding and allowing for cross platform, cross network functionality on the PS4.
Speaking to Engadget about cross platform play, and Sony’s stance on it, Psyonix’s Jeremy Dunham said, “There have been slight variations on how it’s been presented to us [by Sony], but essentially it’s the same answer: it’s ‘not right now” or ‘It’s something we’ll consider.’ That’s paraphrasing, but there hasn’t been any movement.”
On the other hand, Dunham said, Nintendo responded by acquiescing to cross platform play within the same day that Psyonix approached them. Microsoft responded within the month.
“I think it was only about a month after our release, maybe less, that [Microsoft] said, ‘Okay we’re gonna go ahead and do it. You guys are gonna be the first [to have cross-network play].'”
Speaking about Sony’s reasons (on the record) for not allowing cross platform play, Dunham said, “We have all these protections in place to ensure your experience isn’t terrible,” he said. “There’s always gonna be trolls that can find a way to do anything, but that’s not platform agnostic — that’s universal.”
He concluded by saying that not allowing cross platform play would ultimately be a competitive disadvantage to Sony, rather than the contrary. “I don’t view it as a competitive loss to allow cross-network play,” he said. “I view it as a competitive disadvantage not to have it. Especially if you’re the only one [holding out].
As I said before, I agree. And we can all only hope that Sony eventually comes around to allowing the functionality.