I am proud to say that we are currently living in a time where cross-platform play is more than possible. Many of the biggest titles currently take advantage of cross-play to unite their community and promote further game time. Everyone wants to be able to play with their friends, regardless of platform, which has been an age-old issue that we have grown to accept. Thankfully, that era has since passed and we can rightfully say that current-gen games can implement this feature. It's now up to the developers and publishers to implement this feature in their new and past titles. Unfortunately, this is taking longer to become a standard in the industry and games will start to feel dated if it's not included.
Fortnite, Warzone, and Apex Legends are great examples of cross-play implementation. Players from any platform can not only face off against one another but can also party up and play with each other. This is due to the in-game account system that Epic, Activision, and EA have created for these titles and future titles to come. Players create these publisher-specific accounts and are then able to invite friends from any platform to join them. It is a fantastic way to keep the game’s community alive for as long as possible and further encourages players to play these titles over others that do not offer the same seamless experience.
Now, this is easier said than done. Granted, I am not a game developer and have little to no knowledge of the logistics of implementing cross-platform play into new or existing titles. However, I do know that this feature is beginning to flood the market and when a game does not offer cross-play, it feels dated and unfortunately will become less played as time goes on. Why play Rainbow Six: Siege when only one of your friends has it on the same platform as you when all of your friends can play Warzone together?
Rainbow Six: Siege
Now, Ubisoft has already announced plans to add cross-play features to R6: Siege in the near future, but it is not confirmed whether it will be full cross-platform or not. It is possible that it may be restricted to consoles only and PC players will still be separated. This is not official but there are plenty of “cross-play” games that follow this path. Hunt: Showdown allows console players to compete against each other but excludes PC. One would logically argue that it is mostly due to the advantage that PC players will have against the controller players. But this should still be an optional feature.
Not only that, but Hunt does not allow cross-platform parties. Very similar to the newly released Vampire: The Masquerade - Blood Hunt, players can only party up with friends on the same system. Although the server and player base for the games will seem more densely populated, this discourages players from even logging into the game, when they could use their time to play with their friends on another title, which happens to be easily accessible due to many of these titles being free-to-play.
At this point, there really isn't a good excuse to not implement full cross-platform play in any title. Yes, it will mean more time and resources will have to be dedicated to implementing this feature but it is essential in order to keep the game’s life span stable and grow the community. Previous multiplayer titles dropped their community within a few years, but with full cross-platform play, this could possibly double or triple those figures. Only time will tell, but we all know Fortnite and Warzone are not going away anytime soon.
Hunt: Showdown
For those wondering why cross-platform play is not already implemented into many current games, it usually comes down to resources and platform-specific integrations. PlayStation and Xbox have their own online community setups. Friends lists, blocklists, and other safety measures have to be considered when you open cross-platform play for a game. Usually, games that have their own internal friend list system and block system, will have full cross-platform support. But this doesn't mean it's impossible to add this feature to existing titles. It just takes time and money. But it is money well spent if it means the game’s life span and player base will increase.
Another hurdle that needs to be addressed is the platform-specific policies. Back when Fortnite first won over PlayStation with its cross-platform play offer, there was a lot of pushback from Sony. It took quite a bit of money from Epic Games to convince Sony to allow cross-play on their system. Clearly, this decision was not for the sake of the consumer and rather for the flow of profits.
It is very likely that Sony is implementing these same terms depending on the type of cross-play that the publisher is requesting, but it is a very shady tactic and very anti-consumer. Have confidence in your product and don't let greed blind you from something that is clearly beneficial for everyone involved. Gamers get to play with their friends, thus spending more money on the said game via microtransactions, developers get to increase the life span and profitability of their game, and the console companies get a piece of all of that pie and don't end up looking like the bad guy in the end. After all, if all the other platforms allow cross-play except for yours, that definitely doesn't leave a good impression on gamers.
That being said, we do not know exactly what happens behind closed doors of Sony and Microsoft in regards to cross-platform play. With the increased number of games that are supporting this crucial feature, including the soon-to-be-released Sniper Elite 5 and the newly launched Evil Dead: The Game, let's hope this trend continues.
