A lot of information was shared out of the Game Developers Conference that happened just last week. From the announcement of new titles, to some details about CD Projekt Red’s highly anticipated new RPG Cyberpunk 2077. However, another interesting bit came from Tim Sweeney, the head of Fortnite developer Epic Games.
Sweeney said that players from both Xbox and PlayStation being able to play together is “the next logical step.” He stated that it would be in the gaming industry’s best interest to allow players on competing consoles to be able to play with one another and, even went on to describe this development as “inevitable.”
“I think it’s inevitable now. Games have become social experiences in the same way that Facebook or Twitter have, and these experiences only really make sense if gamers can communicate with all of their friends.” Sweeney also claims that if Microsoft and Sony do not eventually warm up to the idea of cross play, then this will in turn “break up real world social groups” which will be bad for the industry as a whole.
He explained, “For Sony and Microsoft to support their customers well they have to be open to all their customer’s friends–their real world friends–otherwise they’re breaking up real-world social groups. Like kids in school have their friends, and do you expect this platform schism to divide them into two separate groups that can’t play together? No. It’s got to come together now. That one remaining barrier will inevitably come down.”
Sweeney seems to be pretty adamant about cross play between the two consoles, and while it is possible on a technical level, it’s ultimately up to both the companies political and business sides on whether or not it will happen.