The Elder Scrolls Legends Won’t Release On PS4 If Sony Doesn’t Change Its Stance On Cross-Play

It was always Bethesda’s goal to get The Elder Scrolls Legends to as many platforms as possible. However, it looks like they don’t intend to release the game for a platform that does not support cross-platform play, which basically means they won’t release the game on the PS4- unless Sony changes their stance regarding this issue, that is.

Bethesda’s Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communication Pete Hines spoke with Game Informer at QuakeCon 2018 about this issue, and he pointed out that since it’s a card game, there is no reason why all platforms cannot support cross-play.  He stated, “It is our intention in order for the game to come out, it has to be those things on any system. We cannot have a game that works one way across everywhere else except for on this one thing. The way the game works right now on Apple, Google, Steam, and Bethesda.net, it doesn’t matter where you buy your stuff, if you play it on another platform that stuff is there. It doesn’t matter what platform you play on, you play against everyone else who is playing at that moment. There’s no ‘Oh, it’s easier to control, or it has a better frame-rate on this system.’ It’s a strategy card game. It doesn’t matter.”

As of now, it looks like Bethesda is firm in their stance that they will not release the game for any console that doesn’t support cross-play. Bethesda Game Studios’ Todd Howard himself has also spoken in the recent past about how Sony’s problematic attitude is affecting the upcoming Fallout 76. Unless Sony loosens up their stance on the issue, it’s likely that The Elder Scrolls Legends game won’t  release for the PS4.

Hines stated, “We continue to talk to all of our platform partners. But those [terms] are essentially non-negotiable.  We can’t be talking about one version of Legends, where you take your progress with you, and another version where you stay within that ecosystem or its walled off from everything else. That is counter to what the game has been about.” We’ll just have to wait and see if this pressure leads Sony to change their stance on the issue, and whether this will cause them to rethink their stance for other games (looking at you, Fortnite). 

Hopefully, we’ll get to hear more about this in the coming days.