After years of public pressure and negative headlines, last year Sony began to budge on console cross-play. Kind of. To date, only a few games on PS4 -- Fortnite, Rocket League, etc. -- support console cross-play. And while Sony insists it's up to the developers to implement the feature, multiple developers have refuted this as simply not true, saying that it's Sony making things difficult. Whatever the case, one thing is for certain: Sony has been dragging its feet on console cross-play, and many have been slamming them for it. However, from a business perspective it makes sense, and you can't really blame Sony for not wanting to share the court with any other players, at least this is what one developer suggests.

Dave Bars, founder of BARS Studios, recently said that while he understands why players are frustrated -- they have a right to be -- it's also understandable that market leaders Sony aren't excited about this whole console cross-play stuff.

“There are several reasons why you choose one console over the other," said Bars while speaking to Gaming Bolt. “Exclusive games, brand sympathy etc. But there is also a very strong reason, which is one of the most important ones. ‘All my friends are playing on console xy.' Once you decide to buy the other console, you decide not being able to play with your friends.”

The developer continued:

“‘I am buying a PlayStation because all my friends are playing on a PlayStation’ is one key argument that has a great impact on sales. It makes no sense for Sony to renounce that, since they have significantly higher sales figures than Xbox. So from a gamer’s perspective this is really disappointing, because everyone wants to choose his/her favorite console and be able to play with friends across platforms. But from a business point of view it is comprehensible.”

What will be interesting to see is whether a new console generation will be enough to force Sony to finally start playing cross-play ball. It won't be the market leaders anymore, so it might have to.

Posted: Apr 29, 2019 7:03 pm
Related Forum: PlayStation Forum

Source: https://comicbook.com/gaming/2019/04/29/ps4-cross-play-playstation-sony/