Cross-play has become more of a demand amongst audiences has time has gone by, to the point where Microsoft and Nintendo seem to have completely lifted any perceived walls around their systems. And though Sony has done the same as well with a few chosen games, such as Fortnite and Rocket League, they’ve hardly been consistent with which games they allow cross-play to be enabled for on the PS4.
The common consensus is that Sony is doing so from the perspective of wanting to maintain some level of exclusivity for economic reason- and really, Sony themselves have said as much in the past a few times as well. That’s the camp that developers of VR title DownStream: VR Whitewater Kayaking fall in as well.
Recently, while speaking in an interview with GamingBolt, Rachael, one of the members of the developers Jumpstick, mentioned that though Sony’s decision is understandable from a business perspective, it is one that frustrates players, and hopefully, the steps taken with games such as Fortnite spell better things for the future.
“I think they would like to create their own walled gardens and use that to leverage players away from their competitors,” said Rachael. “I can understand why, from a business point of view, they would make that decision, but I think it ultimately just frustrates players. Recently we have seen some movement on this with Fortnite and some other big games, so hopefully things are changing.”
Recently, Google announced that their upcoming streaming-based platform, Stadia, will also be supporting full cross-platform play– pending reciprocation from the likes of Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony, presumably. Does Sony see Stadia as a direct competitor as well, or will cross-play be enabled with the streaming platform the way it often is across the PS4 and PC? We can only hope that it’s the latter- but you can never tell with Sony.
Our full interview on DownStream: VR Whitewater Kayaking will be going live soon as well, so stay tuned.