Finally, gamers will be able to play together no matter what console they’re on. Sony has not yet announced the news, but the PlayStation 4 is reportedly now open for business, allowing developers to include cross-play on all games. Microsoft (Xbox) and Nintendo had been pushing for cross-play for some time now, but it was on Sony to push it over the finish line.
For consumers, this should be seen as nothing but universally positive news. There might be a group of diehard fans from each respective console that don’t want to play with people from other consoles, but the vast majority of gamers are fully behind this.
This is also great because it makes things easier on parents. Many parents are likely unaware of which console to buy their kids, but this welcome addition of cross-play should help make things more inclusive for everyone with at least one of the major consoles—and just buying one console is expensive enough, so this should save parents and other console buyers a few hundred dollars.
However, one thing that must be worked out is the ability for cross-platform parties, allowing friends to join up and talk and join games together no matter what console they’re playing on.
Of course, it’ll be up to developers to get cross-play to work between the consoles now, but that should be a formality for some of the bigger titles—such as Call of Duty Modern Warfare, which will be released later this month. The popular game Fortnite already allows for cross-play, and it apparently tested well for Sony to allow things to move forward with all games.
Other popular titles that could most use cross-play include Madden, NBA 2K, and Red Dead Redemption 2.
The hope is that this continues with the next-generation consoles including the PlayStation 5 and the unnamed next Xbox console, but the next console war could turn icy depending on how things go, so keep your fingers crossed that the good relationship continues into next year and beyond.
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