Playstation says they want more cross-play, despite roadblocks

For years, we’ve wanted Playstation to embrace cross-play. Despite how long fans have been clamoring for it, Playstation, for years, has stood firm. Meanwhile, other consoles like the Xbox have long embraced it. Jim Ryan, President of SIe confirmed that this is a major goal for Playstation. But what took so long? How did Nintendo and Xbox come together before Playstation? Maybe it’s that they charge for the cross-play privilege. This could be a very big part of the problem.

How do we know this? During the Epic-Apple trial, it was revealed that Sony only allowed cross-play on Fortnite in exchange for reduced income for players who primarily play on the Playstation, but purchase in-game items on them. other platforms. They’re basically making money for Fortnite to be cross play.

While Sony has dug its heels on the cross-play theme, Microsoft has been doing it for years, and even the Nintendo Switch has PC cross-play, while Playstation rarely accepts it. However, Jim Ryan pointed out that cross-play exists on several of the major titles on his platform:

Jim Ryan pointed out in a recent interview that Sony “supports and encourages cross play” and has listed a variety of games that currently have it on Playstation. Rocket League, Fortnite, CoD, Minecraft and soon Destiny 2. This number will increase over the years, which can only be a net positive for Playstation consoles, with more cross play.

All is not good, however. Borderlands 3 had cross play for all platforms, except Playstation. Randy Pitchford noted that “For certification, the publisher has asked us to remove cross-play support for PlayStation consoles.” This is not something Jim Ryan discussed, as it is a “real business issue with a long-time partner”.

It is not very clear where the problem lies in this case however. It could be 2K, or it could be Playstation. All we know is that this is not happening “at the moment”. The switch to cross-play on Playstation certainly takes a long time, but at least it’s getting better, and that’s a good thing for people who want to play online games on their PS4 and PS5.

At least we know Sony supports and encourages cross-play in its ecosystem, even if it just takes time to make it a reality for more games. While the Playstation 5 can be a fantastic console inside and out, it has nothing to do with Microsoft’s moves to ensure that as many of its games as possible have access to cross-platform play.