When Fortnite became the first game to break free of the shackles of PlayStation’s walled garden by allowing for cross-platform multiplayer, it made big headlines – and for good reason. For such a long time, Sony was so closed off to the idea of letting people play games together. Allowing Fortnite – and then games like Rocket League – to cross the platform divide showed a company that wouldn’t just bask in the glory of being the leading platform. When cross play launched on Fortnite though, it was in beta, as Sony ironed out whatever kinks may exist in letting platforms play together.
Now, without explicitly saying as much, PS4 cross platform play is out of beta. According to Wired, in an extensive interview about PlayStation Now with Sony Interactive Entertainment boss Jim Ryan, Cross play is now out of beta and any developer who wishes to use the functionality may do so.
“While it’s not announcing the news explicitly, the PS4’s cross-play efforts have officially moved out of the beta stage, meaning that the console can support cross-play on any titles that studios provide the functionality for,” says the publication.
The first game to be released under these new rules is this month’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which is to my mind the first game to be released with cross-play or PC, Ps4 and Xbox One out of the gate. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has also recently been patched to allow for cross play between PS4 and Xbox One players. Hopefully, this means that soon, Minecraft on Ps4 will get the “better together” stuff, and hopefully that promised cross-play comes to Borderlands 3.
One other interesting takeaway from the interview is that Jim Ryan realises that the platform that “wins” the generation tends to not do as well in the next – which means that he has to step up to prevent that from happening.
“The track record of the incumbent platform winning the next time around is not a great one,” Jim Ryan says. “So the major thrust of my executive energy is to avoid complacency.”
Last Updated: October 2, 2019
Allykhat
October 2, 2019 at 14:17
Just switch it on for Destiny already so I can play in 60+FPS with my console buddies….
G8crasha
October 2, 2019 at 13:36
I am still curious to see what comes from this. The argument still prevails: can console players outplay PC players with FPS games without heavy aim assist, and if they can’t, and they still need aim assist for FPS games at least, how severe will the aim assist be? Will console players be able to get a headshot on a PC player when their crosshair is miles off target?
Likewise, RTS games and turn-based strategy games have a plethora of shortcuts, and suits the more numerous keys of a keyboard rather than the limited number of buttons and sticks on a console controller (and their limited variations).
I can see cross platform working very well for co-op games (more people per server), but competitive titles are going to require a lot of tweaking to make everything fair!
Yahtzee
October 2, 2019 at 13:54
The COD beta last weekend we played with all the platforms. Was pretty balanced, it’s just here and there you can spot a console using the aim assist while 10 to 1 using a kb and mouse setup himself. The killcam just does a weird snap with the red dot not pointing at the middle.
But apart from that it was pretty fun having the whole gaming gang together.