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Scathing CNET article on crossplay: "PlayStation seems intent on remaining an island"

C

Cerium

Member
Edit: The article's writer has posted in the thread

More at link

As Xbox and Switch enter a new era of cross-platform gameplay, PlayStation seems intent on remaining an island.

It's an open secret: for well over a year, Sony has been the only roadblock to multiplayer games that work across Xbox and PlayStation. You could have been playing Destiny, Overwatch, Titanfall or Grand Theft Auto without leaving any of your friends behind.

Sure, playing games across different living room consoles has never been the norm. But things change -- and last July, zany explosive racing football game Rocket League made it crystal-clear that Sony's selfish business decision is the only thing standing in the way.

"We're literally at the point where all we need is the go-ahead on the Sony side and we can, in less than a business day, turn it on and have it up and working no problem. It'd literally take a few hours to propagate throughout the whole world, so really we're just waiting on the permission to do so," Rocket League VP Jeremy Dunham told IGN.

That permission never came. (And Sony didn't respond to CNET's request for comment on this story).

But at E3 2017, the stakes have just been raised. Microsoft announced that Minecraft will soon support cross-platform multiplayer between every single platform, including VR headsets and the Nintendo Switch.

Every single platform except PlayStation, of course.

And when it launches on the Nintendo Switch this holiday season, Rocket League will also allow Switch, Xbox and PC players to all play together. Only PlayStation is left out.

Last year, Sony said it'd be happy to chat with developers about cross-platform play, but that seems to have been lip service.
Click to expand...
This isn't going to just fade away with time. As more games begin to support crossplay, and Minecraft and Rocket League blaze the path forward, there will only be more attention drawn to the issue.

If you'd like to help then here are some ways you can make your voice heard.
 
S

SolidSnakex

Member
Cerium said:
https://www.cnet.com/news/sony-still-blocks-cross-platform-multiplayer-xbox-nintendo-e3-2017/




This isn't going to just fade away with time. As more games begin to support crossplay, and Minecraft and Rocket League blaze the path forward, there will only be more attention drawn to the issue.

If you'd like to help then here are some ways you can make your voice heard.
Click to expand...

It may not fade away, but Son'ys not going to change their stance on this. They aren't going to give MS access to their significantly bigger userbase.
 
dugdug

dugdug

Banned
You could have been playing Destiny, Overwatch, Titanfall or Grand Theft Auto without leaving any of your friends behind.
Click to expand...

Um. Are they saying Activision, EA, and Take Two are all ready to go? And that the Switch will have versions of all those games? Because otherwise, that's disingenuous AF.
 
C

CambriaRising

Member
It's so weird that people have latched onto this so hard. It's like they were just waiting for something juicy to happen and they are gunna ride the story all the way home.

Especially when Sony has had cross play before with PC.
 
O

OSHAN

Member
It's an open secret: for well over a year, Sony has been the only roadblock to multiplayer games that work across Xbox and PlayStation. You could have been playing Destiny, Overwatch, Titanfall or Grand Theft Auto without leaving any of your friends behind.
Click to expand...

Is this true? If you're on X1, are you playing Destiny with PC players? Titanfall with PC players? I really have no idea either way, just curious.
 
B

baxter2231

Member
Where was such outrage last gen? Plus prior to E3 i dont recal this being talked about much at all besides in passing. Or maybe i dont browse enough.
 
B

Balphon

Member
OSHAN said:
Is this true? If you're on X1, are you playing Destiny with PC players? Titanfall with PC players? I really have no idea either way, just curious.
Click to expand...

Those are all shooters so why would you want to? PC would be at a competitive advantage.
 
M

Mushroomer25

Member
Xer0 said:
Um. Are they saying Activision, EA, and Take Two are all ready to go? And that the Switch will have versions of all those games? Because otherwise, that's disingenuous AF.
Click to expand...
More people playing their games, and thus buying their DLC? I get the feeling they'll be keen.
 
G

Gleethor

Member
baxter2231 said:
Where was such outrage last gen? Plus prior to E3 i dont recal this being talked about much at all besides in passing. Or maybe i dont browse enough.
Click to expand...

I think it was kind of a pipedream until Nintendo allowed it, and that really opened people's eyes to the possibility and raised questions about why Sony wouldn't allow it.
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
OSHAN said:
Is this true? If you're on X1, are you playing Destiny with PC players? Titanfall with PC players? I really have no idea either way, just curious.
Click to expand...

Some developers like Cliffy B have come out incredibly strongly against crossplay for genres like FPS games because the PC community would have a huge advantage with a keyboard and mouse control scheme.
 
M

makingmusic476

Member
I'd much rather people make a huge stink about the lack of PS1/2 BC than this.

But I guess the handful of games I play with friends are exclusive to their respective platforms (Age of Empires, Mario Kart), so maybe that's why cross platform play doesn't seem like a big deal to me.
 
F

FirmBizBws

Becomes baffled, curling up into a ball when confronted with three controller options.
Who really cares? Are people buying PlayStations so that they can game with friends on other consoles?

I mean I get it, it would have been nice to be able to play with other gamers, but who cares? Do half of you even notice when someone plays rocketleague with you on PS4 using a PC?

Be angry about something real, like Sony's first party games not coming out until 2018 at best. Not something like this, because you don't actually care.
 
Tal Shiar Agent

Tal Shiar Agent

Member
Khalifa Jayy said:
I swear people are dying on both sides of this hill with crazy anger and vitriol, to boot.

It's amusing to watch.
Click to expand...
Yeah, as a PlayStation gamer with all of my friends being PlayStation gamers I don't have a horse in this race. Crossplay comes or doesn't, I don't care.


Now I imagine if the install base was as small as the Xbox's I could see wanting crossplay just to have more people to play with.
 
S

Sanador

Member
I cross-play on PS4 with PC players all the time - FFXIV, Star Trek Bridge Crew to name a couple. In fact, MS refused cross-play on FFXIV, and that's why it never was on the Xbox 360..

/shrug
 
P

PrivateWHudson

Member
CambriaRising said:
It's so weird that people have latched onto this so hard. It's like they were just waiting for something juicy to happen and they are gunna ride the story all the way home.

Especially when Sony has had cross play before with PC.
Click to expand...

Why is it surprising that some people have friends with different consoles and they want to play with them without buying a second or third console? I don't get why anyone would roll over on the subject.
 
C

Cerium

Member
baxter2231 said:
Where was such outrage last gen? Plus prior to E3 i dont recal this being talked about much at all besides in passing. Or maybe i dont browse enough.
Click to expand...

Last gen companies could muddy the issue because there was no actual crossplay between consoles.

With Microsoft and Nintendo now cooperating, it's no longer theory. It's happening.
 
T

Todesritter74

Member
Thought I was reading a cut and paste job from one of the other 15 threads on this topic that had been turned into an article.
Then realized that was written by the "Senior Editor / Reviews" for the site.
Might have been both...
 
P

PBY

Banned
FirmBizBws said:
Who really cares? Are people buying PlayStations so that they can game with friends on other consoles?

I mean I get it, it would have been nice to be able to play with other gamers, but who cares? Do half of you even notice when someone plays rocketleague with you on PS4 using a PC?

Be angry about something real, like Sony's first party games not coming out until 2018 at best. Not something like this, because you don't actually care.
Click to expand...

Uhhh, why do you get to tell people what they care about?
 
AmuroChan

AmuroChan

Member
The point is correct, but the examples used are poor at best. Full cross-platform play in FPS isn't happening any time soon, with or without Sony involved. There's no cross-platform play now in Overwatch or Titanfall between XBox and PC. And that has nothing to do with Sony.
 
N

Nightbird

Member
Gleethor said:
I think it was kind of a pipedream until Nintendo allowed it, and that really opened people's eyes to the possibility and raised questions about why Sony wouldn't allow it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, since Nintendo has allowed cross play industry-wide cross multiplayer has become a very real possibility.

It's the fact that Sony, not Grandpa Nintendo, is blocking this that surprises so many people.
 
B

benicillin

Banned
You could have been playing Destiny, Overwatch, Titanfall or Grand Theft Auto without leaving any of your friends behind.
Click to expand...

Come on, this is a blatant lie. Most developers are never going to create the infrastructure necessary to bother implementing cross play.
 
F

fritzo

Member
How does it this play out? Like, if a lot of people just voice their anger will Sony budge? Or will it take something bigger like boycotting of Sony products to make them change? I always think corporations respond more often when consumers vote with their wallets.
 
K

Kthulhu

Member
FirmBizBws said:
Who really cares? Are people buying PlayStations so that they can game with friends on other consoles?

I mean I get it, it would have been nice to be able to play with other gamers, but who cares? Do half of you even notice when someone plays rocketleague with you on PS4 using a PC?

Be angry about something real, like Sony's first party games not coming out until 2018 at best. Not something like this, because you don't actually care.
Click to expand...

I care way more about this then Sony's 1st party games. Esspecially after this E3.
 
D

DopeyFish

Not bitter, just unsweetened
GodofWine said:
Its good that there is pressure on this, but to be fair, it HAS to be noted that MS wants to use Xbox Live as the conduit for this. Expecting Sony to encourage their userbase to create XBL accounts is nuts.


There NEEDS to be a third party in the middle.
Click to expand...

The third party is Microsoft

Unless, of course, you don't trust Microsoft to handle login authentications and servers... which MS is a worldwide leader in both.

No. Let's trust Sony who think storing passwords in plaintext is a great idea.
 
O

OSHAN

Member
HStallion said:
Some developers like Cliffy B have come out incredibly strongly against crossplay for genres like FPS games because the PC community would have a huge advantage with a keyboard and mouse control scheme.
Click to expand...

Balphon said:
Those are all shooters so why would you want to? PC would be at a competitive advantage.
Click to expand...



OK, that makes sense. I guess I never even read anything along the lines of Destiny having cross-play from Activision, but Sony said "no way" and MS was all about it. The only games I've heard about are Rocket League and Minecraft.

What's the author talking about with Destiny, GTA, Titanfall, etc? Are those titles Sony really said no to, but MS was on board with cross-play?
 
C

Complicated

Banned
GodofWine said:
Its good that there is pressure on this, but to be fair, it HAS to be noted that MS wants to use Xbox Live as the conduit for this. Expecting Sony to encourage their userbase to create XBL accounts is nuts.


There NEEDS to be a third party in the middle.
Click to expand...

Nah. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo should be free to use any cross platform system allowed with any other publisher just like Valve did on PlayStation.
 
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