“Whoever’s the Market Leader Will Drag Their Feet on Cross-Play,” Says Dev

Cross-play may have become a prevalent topic of late, but that doesn’t mean it was never a point of discussion before. While this generation has seen Sony having a stubbornly reluctant stance on enabling cross-platform play for games with the Xbox One and the Nintendo Switch, at the beginning of the previous generation, it was Microsoft with the Xbox 360 who held a similar stance.

As per Tony Gowland of Ant Workshop, developer of the upcoming procedurally generated co-op twin-stick shooter Dead End Job, that seems to be a bit of a pattern. Recently, while in conversation with GamingBolt, Gowland was asked about Sony’s stance on cross-play to which he pointed out that this isn’t an issue that has cropped up recently.

“I don’t really play much online multiplayer so it doesn’t really affect me at all,” said Gowland. “I think I vaguely remember Microsoft having a similar policy at the start of the Xbox 360, whereas Sony who was on the back foot a bit were allowing it. Just seems like whoever’s the market leader at the time will drag their feet on it.”

According to Gowland, however, the rise in popularity of huge multiplatform titles such as Fortnite might give cross-play the push it needs, and might see it becoming more of a permanent fixture when the next generation of consoles rolls around.

“I think it entirely comes down to games,” he said. “Fortnite surprised everyone recently with how huge it became, and it’s third party so everyone’s scrambling to try and make sure it’s attractive to play that game on their own console ecosystem.”

Ant Workshop’s Dead End Job is due out for the PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC some time this year. Our full interview will Gowland will be going live soon, so stay tuned.