A couple of weeks ago, Sony surprisingly reversed its controversial anti-cross-play policy when it announced a beta program for Epic’s Fortnite.
Many fans had been waiting for this news and, after months of pressure, Sony finally agreed to give them what they wanted. They weren’t the only ones to be happy, anyway, as several game developers had publicly spoken in favor of breaking down the barriers between platforms. This is particularly important for more niche titles, as being able to unify the player base would instantly translate into a bigger community while also ensuring there’s always someone to play with in a multiplayer game.
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As part of our larger interview with Gaijin CEO Anton Yudintsev, we also asked him to comment on this news and what it could mean for the Russian studio. Gaijin features PC to PlayStation 4 and PC to Xbox One cross-play in War Thunder. If Sony expanded the cross-play program to include the game, the two currently separate matchmaking pools could be merged.
Yudintsev was hopeful, but at the same time cautious in his statement.
As for now, Sony isn’t ‘opening’ anything, except for one game. Although even that one case kinda contradicts their previous statements that cross-console cross-play somehow can spoil the experience for PS4 gamers, and so we can hope it will become a common practice. But as for now, it is still not.
We would be very happy if, after all these years after PS4 launch, Sony would finally remove the limitations on PS4 players, including cross-console gameplay, and keeping players accounts bound to one store. So let’s hope it won’t be a single-time exception.
Gaijin also publishes Crossout (developed by Targem Games) and is developing Enlisted (a World War II-themed MMO shooter currently in Alpha on PC and due to launch on Xbox One Game Preview later this year) alongside Darkflow Software. We’ll publish our full interview with Yudintsev tomorrow, focused on Enlisted and its support of NVIDIA RTX technology.
