What Does Sony’s Disdain For Cross-Play Mean For The PS5?

Since Minecraft became the first truly mainstream game to embrace cross-play, gamers have dreamed of a utopian future where Xbox, PlayStation, PC and Switch players can all come together and play their favourite online games against one another. It’s not hard to understand why: consoles are expensive and often players must make a choice about which one they want. This cuts you off from playing with any of your amigos that may have made a different choice. Universally adopted cross-console play would bring the video game community together in an unprecedented show of consumer-first thinking and open a whole new world of possibilities. So why on Earth are some of the biggest names in games holding out on this?

The first point to address is the difference between cross-play and cross-console play, just to clear up any confusion. Cross-play refers to allowing the same online game session to be played amongst many different devices, whereas cross-console play specifically refers to interplay on the same game session across different video game consoles. It’s a small but important distinction and I will be focusing on the latter which has been causing the most fuss recently.

It’s likely you will have seen articles and comments on Twitter about how Sony is prohibiting Cross-Console Play on Fortnite; by far the fastest growing online game in the world currently. Switch and Xbox One owners are merrily enjoying Epic Games’ free battle royale title together, so why would Sony stop PlayStation owners from joining in? I, like many, had assumed that perhaps the problem was technical. Anyone with a vague understanding of the relationship between networking, hardware and software knows that small but fundamental nuances in design can cause irrevocable conflicts. However, in Fortnite’s case, it is demonstrably not true. The feature was rendered available for a few hours after a purported ‘configuration issue’ allowed Xbox and PlayStation gamers to play the game together. This ‘issue’ offered us a brief glimpse into a possible future where console owners are able to enjoy their favourite games together instead of being arbitrarily divided. The issue was ultimately fixed but to echo the sentiments of Xbox CEO Phil Spencer: I wish they’d left it on.

At this point the presumptive causes become more cynical, that Sony are withholding support for cross-console play to encourage customers to buy the PS4 if they want to play with their friends. The Sony console is by far the most popular of the two mainstream consoles, outselling the Xbox One 2 to 1 around the world and it has the much larger online community. Perhaps the astute business person would assert that Sony is the market leader, and as such is not likely to release its grip by allowing cross-console play and tacitly discouraging sales of its flagship device.

The thing is, I’m not sure I totally agree this is the best way for Sony to proceed if they want to remain ahead of the pack. I understand Sony is a business and their responsibility to staff and shareholders is to make money, but anyone with even a shred of foresight must be able to see that consumers will flock to any option that allows them to play with their friends.

It was an all too easy marketing homerun for Microsoft to announce that Xbox One players could play Fortnite with gamers on the Nintendo Switch after it launched on the incredibly popular handheld. This behaviour doesn’t quite fit with my view of Sony. I won’t pretend the video game industry isn’t full of luddites who can’t see more than 5 inches in front of their face, but this is Sony we’re talking about. This is a company known for embracing new ideas and positioning themselves with the customers interests first. We all remember that stunt at E3 in 2013 when they trolled Microsoft’s overly complicated DRM system by claiming the way to share PlayStation games was just to hand them to one another.

So, what has happened since then? True enough, the PS4 is the most popular console on the market now, but has hubris set in that quickly? Have Sony declared themselves untouchable and has that arrogance dictated their apparent disdain for cross-console play? This would be an extremely foolish stance to take and unforgivable given that Sony have only recently recovered from the effects of their complacency during the lacklustre launch and life of the PS3.

Sony would do well to acknowledge the similarities: the PS2 was the dominant console and was producing a large number of high quality games with competitors struggling to keep up. This lack of competition meant that Sony became complacent, and they failed to innovate sufficiently heading into the next generation. In particular, they failed to anticipate the potential popularity of online gaming, with the PS Network proving an inferior service compared to Xbox Live. This miscalculation was by the far the most significant factor that held back the PS3 for an entire console cycle and failing to embrace cross-console play in the future could prove just as costly.

Rejecting cross-console play and claiming that the PS4 is the ‘best place to play’ Fortnite are completely contradictory. The game is primarily a social experience and while I don’t expect Fortnite will continue to completely dominate the gaming landscape for too much longer, but it will certainly leave a significant legacy that game designers and publishers will be aching to replicate going forwards.

A de facto cross-console play ‘relationship’ between Microsoft and Nintendo could spell disaster for Sony and the PS5. In recent memory, players have made it clear that they will reject overtly greedy moves made by developers and publishers who have tried to shoe-horn in loot boxes and paid DLC where they don’t belong by amassing huge negative response online. Fundamentally, this is about being on the right side of history and if Sony continue to shun cross-console play, they risk incurring the wrath of the video game community and being left out in the cold.