Sony finally considering cross-platform play

[Monocle]

Sony reported through their blog that they will be opening up games to cross-platform online play, specifically starting with Fortnite. They are calling it an open beta and are using it to test the viability on both technical and social experiences.

Soooource



I mean i don't play online but what are your thoughts on this? have any of you actually played anything with cross-platform online play? how was that experience?

[Metallix]

I see a lot of misleading titles about this. They should be saying they are allowing cross play with direct competitors. Fortnight already had crossplay on PS4 with PC and mobile like iOS and Android.

I personally don’t care. It’s good for those who do though. I think Share Play is a much better feature for friends anyway because they can play with you without even owning the game.

[Moonface]

Glad to see Sony backing down on preventing cross play with other consoles. It was utter bullshit and their reasons for it were too.

[Dragon Lord]

They should have stuck to their guns. They are currently the kings of the console market, don't let players go elsewhere. Especially all of the whiny Nintendo fanboys who were crying that they couldn't use their PS4 Fortnite accounts on the Switch. Tell them too bad and get over it.

Hopefully this doesn't affect future games. If a PS4 game has to be limited to 30 FPS because the Switch can't run anything for shit, then that's going to hurt the game more than help it.

[Monocle]

Actually I think the opposite might have happened. This really only applies to online multiplayer but being king doesn't mean you can do whatever you want. Publishers will see that you're not playing nice and they take notice. Sony is leading the competition because of their exclusives. What happens when third party publishers notice your actions and selfishness? You lose their support and exclusives for you become multiplatform games and then exclusives for others. Then those consumers that you're worried about losing because of online cross-platform play become their consumers anyway because what you have that makes you better than them is now gone.

[Metallix]

Actually I think the opposite might have happened. This really only applies to online multiplayer but being king doesn't mean you can do whatever you want. Publishers will see that you're not playing nice and they take notice. Sony is leading the competition because of their exclusives. What happens when third party publishers notice your actions and selfishness? You lose their support and exclusives for you become multiplatform games and then exclusives for others. Then those consumers that you're worried about losing because of online cross-platform play become their consumers anyway because what you have that makes you better than them is now gone.

While I’m glad they’re offering it to Xbox and Nintendo finally, the whole thing was blown out of proportion imo. It really isn’t a big deal. I also didn’t care when Microsoft turned down the idea during the 360 era.

[Maniakkid25]

Hopefully this doesn't affect future games. If a PS4 game has to be limited to 30 FPS because the Switch can't run anything for shit, then that's going to hurt the game more than help it.

That's...not how online play works. One client's loading of the game can't affect the performance of another client's outside of their response registry (i.e. lag). If cross-platform play could do that, then NO ONE would play on PC, because someone running the game on a potato would ruin the game's performance for everyone else.

Edit: AND before you say "Consoles are different", I can still tell you that you're wrong, because World of Tanks exists. Currently, the game allows cross-platform play between Xbox 360 and Xbox One players. The Xbox 360 version runs at 30 FPS and on a weaker graphics engine, while the Xbone version has a much stronger graphics engine and plays at 60 FPS with no hiccups whatsoever. I've played both versions; they are perfectly compatible. The fact of the matter is that that is just not how online play works, DL.

[WR91]

Correct me if I'm wrong but besides a few games I really don't think they went any further with this cross-platforming right?

[Moonface]

So apparently Sony has companies pay them royalties for having cross-play enabled on their games on PlayStation, where if less than 85% of revenue is generated via PSN then the publisher owes Sony a fee for lost revenue:

I get that business is business, but this feels like Sony just flexing their muscle and is the sort of cocky thing they would do back at the start of the PS3 era when they were coming off the success of the PS2. I doubt it would happen, but if Sony had another iffy release like the PS3 that knocks them off the pedestal I can see publishers being difficult to them if Sony became more willing to do cross-play to make up their set backs.

[ShiraNoMai]

I'm actually curious what the other companies' "royalty" system looks like in comparison to this, if it exists at all. It really doesn't cost them anything to just allow crossplay to just happen, and then they go and paywall it to really discourage developer's from bringing it over at all.

[Moonface]

Given how Sony seems to be the only publisher that acts difficult about cross play, I expect other platforms don't even have a charge for cross play and just apply the revenue cut from sales via their online stores. It would make no sense for Microsoft to have a charge when they would benefit from cross play between Xbox and PC.

[ShiraNoMai]

Microsoft in particular would rather take losses than limit their accessibility of their ecosystem, so yeah I also can't seem them doing that. Nintendo seems a little more likely but I'd bet crossplay challenges would come more with the internet infrastructure issues Nintendo has than them paywalling anything

[Moonface]

Microsoft in particular would rather take losses than limit their accessibility of their ecosystem, so yeah I also can't seem them doing that. Nintendo seems a little more likely but I'd bet crossplay challenges would come more with the internet infrastructure issues Nintendo has than them paywalling anything

I wonder if games that have voice or text chat aren't received well by Nintendo too for cross play, since they basically limit that to their app. But I can't remember if that's applied to every online game on Nintendo platforms or just their first party stuff.

[Karo]

I mean most companies would act like this if they were in the lead but I think this behavior is slowly becoming outdated if you limit who your players can play with why should they bother with your console? I honestly cant really think of many Playstation exclusives that never come to another console at some point so if sony decide to gatekeep why wouldn't I just go PC?

[Moonface]

I honestly cant really think of many Playstation exclusives that never come to another console at some point so if sony decide to gatekeep why wouldn't I just go PC?

I can only think of one Sony exclusive that came to other systems and that's Horizon. I don't think anything else first party has ever gone anywhere else.