The matter of cross-play is something that has been trailing Sony in some form or another for some time now, and was most recently kicked up into a frenzy when several devs called them out on their practices- practices they would go on to deny indulging in. Sony remains adamant that following the success Fortnite has seen with cross-play enabled on the PS4 with all platforms, they are now more open to doing it for other games as well.
But is that something that will carry over into the next console generation? Recently, we interviewed Luiz Aguena, CEO of Void Studios and lead developer on their recently released RPG Eternity: The Last Unicorn, and we asked him about his thoughts on whether he thinks cross-platform play will be a defining feature of the upcoming console generation. His answer? He definitely hopes so.
“As a developer I can’t say for sure, we need to see first something official and do a few tests on it, for now we can only speculate what the next gen consoles will offer to the players and developers,” said Aguena. “Speaking as a player though, I would love to play with my friends independently of our platform choice.”
Sony’s stubborn stance on cross-play and their recent reluctance to fully bring down the walls is, according to Aguena, a choice of their own making, and he feels that they’ll need to come up with alternative solutions to placate fans if it’s not a temporary choice. “It’s a choice and if it is not something temporary they must bring something to supply this request of the players,” he said. “In any case we think cross-play is a great idea for all the players.”
Sony has stated that it’s willing to enable cross-play on its platforms, and though there’s been plenty of evidence to suggest that that may not be the case, we can always hope that they eventually hold true to their word.
Our full interview with Aguena will be going live soon, so stay tuned.