Cross-play functionality is now available for all developers on PlayStation 4 as the feature exits its beta test. A limited number of games already adopted cross-play during the beta phase, but the official rollout makes the feature an option for any developer that wants to use it.
Sony’s adoption of cross-play may seem like a natural step, but the company spent a long time resisting the feature. It was the last of the major consoles to add cross-play, finally caving to the popularity of Sony was “playing favorites,” granting access to cross-play to only its biggest games. Sony denied that, saying developers only needed to ask permission to enable the feature, a claim developers refuted.
Now it seems like Sony is putting its hesitation behind. There was no official announcement from the company, but PlayStation Now’s recent major price drop.
Though it’s getting near the end of the PlayStation 4’s life cycle, the console still has enabled cross-play on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in its 4.3 update.
Sony’s long-delayed acceptance of cross-play on PlayStation 4 is undoubtedly a good thing for players, who won’t be limited to their chosen console’s player base in multiplayer games. It’s also a good move for Sony to avoid seeming stuck in the past with the next console generation fast approaching, but it may prove difficult for the company to shed its image as the last stubborn roadblock that stood in the way of cross-play. It may not do any good for those developers that felt shut out of cross-play during its beta period, but smaller multiplayer games may stand to benefit the most from turning several fragmented player pools into one larger one.
Source: Wired
