Phoenix Labs CEO Jesse Houston believes that Sony is unfairly criticized because of its stance on cross-platform gaming.
Sony Interactive Entertainment has received quite a bit of criticism in recent years due to its stance on cross-platform multiplayer. While Microsoft and Nintendo opened their console spaces to cross-platform play, Sony kept the gate closed for a long time. Last September, it was announced that the PlayStation would finally have crossplay. However, several developers, including Hi-Rez Studios and Chucklefish Games, , because only the creators of Fortnite and .
But Jesse Huston doesn't seem to blame Sony for its stance, as getting things to work properly is far more difficult than most people realize. “Sony has a vision for the player experience, and how it guarantees an optimal experience is achieved through a set of strict certification rules,” said developer Dauntless. “Many of these cross-platform systems, in fact, violate these rules. It's entirely justifiable that Sony is procrastinating and trying to figure out what works and what doesn't, rather than just opening the floodgates."
“I think Sony has received an unjustified backlash because there is a lot of interest in crossplay… Because most people haven't gone down the path of crossplay and they don't understand all the nuances and challenges of doing it. They just see it like this: “Well, it's just a rejection. Give it to us." Well, no,” Houston added. How do you organize payment processing? What happens if a player buys something on one platform and goes to use it on another? How do you reconcile income? There are tax issues. There are a lot of issues and [Sony] is trying to assess them, I think."
The free-to-play action RPG Dauntless is available on PC and coming soon to Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
Source: 3dnews.ru