GTA & Red Dead Publisher Shares Thoughts On Cross-Play

The idea of playing from two different platforms has been experimented through the past two generations of consoles. Especially during this lifespan of hardware, some publishers have been eager to push for players from either platform to play the same game together seamlessly. Rockstar’s parent company Take-Two Interactive CEO spoke on the topic stating that the industry is heading in the direction for universal cross-play support.

Strauss Zelnick pointed at Microsoft that the company is “basically already there”. Clearly referencing to Xbox Play Anywhere, when purchasing through either the Xbox Store or on Windows 10 players will be able to play on either platform at their disposal. Giving the ability for progress and achievements to carry over from PC to Xbox or vice versa.

“Eventually I think we will be in a cross-platform world, for a lot of titles. Certainly, between console and PC.”, Zelnick told during the presentation. Which we can already see with not only titles from Microsoft like Minecraft, but also Rocket League and most recently with Fortnite. Cross-play even expanding to mobile with smart phones that support certain games.

Supporting his prediction, Zelnick made a statement saying:

The closed system walls are coming down, and they have to, streaming is going to accelerate those walls coming down. We’re all here for the consumers. If you’re going to create rules that don’t benefit the consumers but somehow you think benefit your enterprise, you’re mistaken. Consumers will go elsewhere. You have to pay attention to what the consumer wants.

For when we reach that point is unknown. Looking at the current future for cross platform play is inevitable, but how or when it happens is what we’re unsure about. Looking at Sony on the situation, the company has been hesitant on joining in on what Microsoft has been handing out for the past two years. Though Sony has stated to already be looking into cross-play, fans then wanted a more direct response at the time.

As streaming services become more constant through the gaming landscape, we hope to see platforms adopt cross-play entirely eventually. With AAA titles continuously releasing for consoles, they might be what kicks off support for the already present feature.

Source: GameSpot