The recent ongoing trial between Epic Games and Apple has proven to be a treasure trove for those seeking information about the behind-the-scenes of the secretive video games industry. Much of this information has revolved around the Epic Games Store itself but we have also seen some information regarding other video game companies. One of the more interesting discoveries was with regards to Sony and their attitude towards crossplay. This has suddenly shone the spotlight back on crossplay and made the discussion relevant again.
First, I should probably explain what crossplay is to those unfamiliar with the term. Short for “Cross-Platform Play”, it refers to when a game supports players playing together across different gaming platforms. This concept is relatively new within the games industry with the first console games with crossplay support only first appearing around 2000 when several Sega Dreamcast games allowed for players playing on the Dreamcast, Windows PC or PlayStation 2 to play multiplayer together.
Since then, it has steadily become easier for developers to implement crossplay into their games as technology has evolved and various platforms become more similar. However, Sony has historically been more resilient to the idea of crossplay while Microsoft and Nintendo have been more accepting. This came to a head when Sony refused to allow either Fortnite or Rocket League to have crossplay with other platforms. However, some months later, Sony seemed to cave in due to fan pressure when they enabled crossplay for both Fortnite and Rocket League.
However, one of the most interesting pieces of information to come from the Epic Vs. Apple trial has been the revelation that Sony charges developers for crossplay. The formula for how much developers have to pay Sony is contained in the slide below but, understandably, this news shocked the gaming world, particularly when it turned out that Sony was the only platform holder to charge for crossplay and made the discussion suddenly relevant again.
This is quite upsetting to see as there are numerous advantages of crossplay that go beyond revenue. For one, crossplay can help maintain a multiplayer title’s player population. As games become older, many players will move on to newer games, leaving only those devoted to a particular multiplayer game to continue to play it. This can cause difficulty as a player population may grow so low that it becomes difficult to find matches, either generally or against those of a similar skill level. By combining players from across multiple platforms, it helps to keep the population large enough to have a healthy multiplayer experience and increases the longevity of the game.
However, that is not to say that crossplay is appropriate across every platform and game. This issue is most commonly seen when attempting to provide crossplay between consoles and PC in first person shooters. In contrast to console gamers who are stuck with a controller, the mouse and keyboard setup of PC provides an enormous advantage to PC gamers due to the greater precision. An excellent example occurred when “extremely talented console gamers were pitted against “mediocre” PC gamers” in an early test of crossplay by Microsoft, which saw the console gamers defeated every time. Apparently it was quite embarrassing to Microsoft and their initiative at the time, around 2010, was quickly shelved. While the concept of crossplay has become much more popular, FPS games, particularly competitive ones, typically don’t see console gamers and PC gamers playing together as the experience would be particularly one-sided.
Crossplay is a fascinating area when it comes to the future of the video game industry and just because crossplay isn’t suitable in every instance doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be looking to see how it can improve the experience of gamers in general. The revelations about Sony have made the topic of crossplay suddenly relevant again and I’d love to hear what you think of crossplay, whether you think games should have crossplay, shouldn’t have crossplay or should have crossplay in certain instances, your thoughts on Sony charging developers for crossplay and any additional information you might have on the topic.
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