As the drama surrounding Sony’s stance on crossplay continues to unfold, I’m beginning to feel like we need some sort of soap opera-esque dream sequence flashback video to just recap everything that’s happened to far. Here’s the gist: Fortnite (Free), the biggest game in the universe, launched on the Switch earlier this summer, and gamers who had played the game before on their PS4 discovered an amazing “feature": Their Epic accounts were permanently locked to the Sony ecosystem. Since then, Sony basically told everyone to “Deal with it," and then were “Looking at possibilities" on allowing people to play the dang game on non-Sony platforms.
The drama fire mostly sputtered out by late June though, with only minor flare ups since from people with large Twitter followings reminding people that Sony “got away" with doing this to Fortnite players as gamers quickly accepted this was … just the way things are. Well, Bethesda’s Pete Hines isn’t having any of that with The Elder Scrolls: Legends (Free), telling Game Informer, “It doesn’t matter what platform you play on — you play against everyone else who is playing at that moment." Hines digs deeper, too:
“It is our intention in order for the game to come out, it has to be those things on any system. We cannot have a game that works one way across everywhere else except for on this one thing. The way the game works right now on Apple, Google, Steam, and Bethesda.net, it doesn’t matter where you buy your stuff, if you play it on another platform that stuff is there. It doesn’t matter what platform you play on, you play against everyone else who is playing at that moment. There’s no ‘Oh, it’s easier to control, or it has a better framerate on this system.’ It’s a strategy card game. It doesn’t matter."
Pete calls these terms “non-negotiable," which could potentially lead to The Elder Scrolls: Legends straight up not being released on Sony’s PlayStation 4. Now, TESL is a much smaller game compared to Skyrim, or the upcoming Fallout 76, so it’s hard to say how much power this ultimatum will have, but it sets a fascinating precedent which we badly need more of. If people like Pete Hines from massive publishers like Bethesda start putting their foot down on Sony locking crossplay on their platform, Sony effectively has two choices: Willfully lose out on some huge games that PS4 owners want to play, or open things up to PS4 folks can play with everyone else. The pessimist in me wants to agree with Rami Ismail though, in that by the time Sony bends on this, it’ll hardly matter anymore:
Very excited for SONY to introduce cross-platform multiplayer for PS4 in a year or two when their tremendous number lead becomes less relevant in the face of a new generation of consoles. https://t.co/RsTWPlfxQN
— Rami Ismail (@tha_rami) August 16, 2018
As someone who is super into mobile gaming, I’ve been following all the news surrounding crossplay very closely. With mobile devices getting faster and faster, there’s going to be more and more of these totally cross platform games, and it’s important that the whole gaming industry is in line with what Hines is saying: Your purchases should just be everywhere and you should be able to play with everyone. That’s the future I want to live in, not this dumb one we’re living in now.
I support Sony please Sony tell Bethesda where they can stick it. trust me Microsoft did the SAME THING when they had a big lead in console sales with 360 there is NO REASON for Sony to allow cross play anyway the best games are on PS4. No other console has God of War, Spider-Man,Uncharted,Persona 5,etc the list goes on and on
dont equal policy of exclusivity whit policy of crossplay
This is reminiscent of Apple; specifically the whole fiasco involving them not allowing Steam Link on iOS and TvOS. That reminds me, have you guys at touch arcade heard anything from Valve or Apple regarding progress since Valve removing purchases in the app back in June? Has the test flight beta been pulled/expired or are they still supporting it? It is so frustrating to not know what’s going on - I would really appreciate your input on this. Thanks
P.S. it would be great if you guys could maybe do a piece on Steam Link alternatives on iOS while we wait for Apple to get their act together
Meh, I love Bethsoft, and I love Sony, but I don't give one squirt about card games, or about cross-play.
Ultimately speaking, publishers push things because they see a money angle, i.e. a way to sell/push more IAP/DLC/crapware to a bigger combined audience. That's the bottom line, its got nothing to do with anything of benefit to the consumers. So from that perspective, Bethsoft can F off as far as I care.
Epic should have just pulled the PS4 version of Fortnite, Sony has the right to run their business how they choose and publishers need to do the same. Not having Fortnite on PS4 wouldn’t be a big deal to Epic since it’s available on pretty much every other platform but I think Sony would have course corrected instead of just saying “deal with it” to their unhappy customers, instead of losing such a huge game. I don’t think Epic REALLY cared that much, they were just deflecting the hate to Sony.
If people want to play on an open, level playing field, cross platform is NOT the answer. Issuing demands to Sony for a game that will be superseded at some point is ridiculous. Hardware will outlive the software
Agree with all these responses.
Sony has upper hand this generation, and they’re using it. Pete’s PR stunt calling out Sony is pretty bold. Bethesda refuse to release their new fallout game on steam platform, over money? Then they want to pull this...You think this isn’t over money as well?
Wondering if Pete will have the same stance for Fallout 76. Something tells me no.
Sony or Apple Microsoft or Bethesda they are all looking at there own business and interest and what is Bethesda going to do not releasing their triple A games on the PS4... I don’t think so it’s all about the cash and has nothing to do with a smooth gameplay landscape between different hardware for the gamers.
Surprised by the support for Sony I'm seeing over this. I guess if you have a PS4, cross-play is a non-issue since it has clearly already won over the majority of console players. That will change next gen, and hopefully that goes for this toxic practice of blocking out other player bases as well.