Full cross-platform play consolidating the user bases of PlayStation, Nintendo, Xbox, and PC finally seems to be a thing, with Sony, the last holdout, beginning to allow it for games such as Fortnite and Rocket League. You would think that would be the end of the whole cross-platform play controversy. But sadly, it is not.
It turns out that Sony is being pretty selective about what games are allowed to be fully cross-platform play compatible on their system, and don’t allow it for every game, as Microsoft and Nintendo do. One such game that isn’t being allowed to do so, in spite of being built for that from the get go, is War Thunder. Speaking to Wccftech, the developers of the game stated that in spite of asking Sony for permission to allow complete cross-play multiple times, they have been turned down.
“From its initial release on PlayStation 4 as a launch title, War Thunder was a cross-platform game,” they said. “One of the first on the console’s new generation. After the release on Xbox One, it still is. PC users can play together with their PlayStation 4 or Xbox One friends, and the only cross-play which is not available is between the two consoles. We asked Sony for it multiple times, before the Xbox One version launch and when the PlayStation Cross-Play Beta was announced, but we haven’t received clearance yet. Technically War Thunder is ready to become a fully cross-platform title, as it was designed to be from the very beginning.”
It’s a shame that Sony is still being a stick in the mud about this cross-platform play thing, because as has now been incontrovertibly shown, they stand to lose nothing, and gain a lot of goodwill and PR, by just going along with it. Hopefully, they just concede the point entirely soon enough.