Fallout 76 - Looking Into Crossplay, but "Sony is not as helpful as everyone would like them to be"

Does PC, PS4 and Xbox One crossplay support? No! This is confirmed by the Game Director of Bethesda Game Studios, Todd Howard, in the GameStar interview. The designer legend has also identified a culprit: Sony ! The PlayStation group was "not as helpful as everyone would like it." Bethesda said she wanted the first multiplayer offshoot in the Fallout series with the number 76 crossplay, because cross-platform gaming is "a big trend in the games industry," as Todd Howard explains in an interview.

[slavish0]

This is really a anti-developer move. That why so many talk about this. It wont hurt big business like this but small studios don't want to split the community. Old games and small game communities benefit from this. I hope people can look at the game not the plastic box. 80million people don't by every game. Fanboys make it company vs company and scream nobody cares yet comment about it constantly.

[Jinger]

Agreed. Also nice to see a rational comment that isn't trolling or trying to throw someone under the bus.

Just a hypothetical of course, but a great game like Titanfall 2 would have benefited greatly from crossplay if EA/Respawn actually did it. And with how poorly it sold on all platforms a 100% crossplay feature would have benefited greatly.

[BiggerBoss]

I agree that crossplay with PS4 would be great, but at the same time, I was actually around in the 360-PS3 gen.

Microsoft denied crossplay with Sony for YEARS, and I honestly can't blame Sony for fighting back now that they're in the lead.

They're probably going to give in and allow crossplay, just for PR's sake, but it's hilarious how the tides have turned.

[Jinger]

@biggerboss

I was around also. 360 allowed cross play with PS2 for FFXI.

It wasn't until mid 360/PS3 gen the issue came up, Microsoft said this when questioned "we can't guarantee this level of quality, or control the player experience on other consoles or gaming networks, we currently do not open our network to games that allow this cross-over capability."

Sony never made a statement or tried for the crossplay or anything... then they got hacked and PSN was down for a while. So was MS really wrong in saying they can't guarantee quality connecting to a service for which that happened to?

This gen is different, all platforms now have more secure networks and MS and Nintendo AND devs are all asking and approaching Sony to accept it. Something that never happened last gen because not many games even supported it.

Things evolve and grow, networks get better, online is becoming more prevelant and it's great for developers to have crossplay because they get larger communities for longer. Sony will eventually cave and allow it, but until they do they will PSN will just keep looking inferior like the hack, not being able to change user names, denying subscription services and the like...

And before you even say it, yes I wish Xbox would remove the Gold requirement to play F2P games. That should really be the next campaign gamers go on to change these companies to offer consumer friendly services.

[The 10th Rider]

You know, I see the claim about the last-gen crossplay situation thrown around a lot. However I can't find a single source stating the Sony wanted to implement crossplay between consoles. We do know that, at the time, Microsoft said no, but I can't find a single source stating that Sony asked for it or was promoting it between consoles.

[Jinger]

@The10thRider

Because there never was anything from Sony. The only reason we have the statement I quoted above was because news outlets reached out to MS after hearing from a dev MS denied crossplay.

Kotaku reached out to Sony about the issue and they got no response.

https://www.google.com/amp/...

[NewMonday]

PS4 is still the biggest market and still makes Tod the most money.

[Skull521]

All games and gamers benefit from crossplay. Sony doesn't care about either apparently. If they don't turn this around it will hurt them next generation, where it will be a bullet point that PSN users are exiled from the gaming community to play amongst themselves.

Maybe not this generation but I bet Sony comes around, they're taking an anti-consumer stance much akin to Xbox Ones original always online functionality. It won't fly with consumers next gen.

[DiRtY]

I am so tired of this last gen argument.

1st: Sony never said that they wanted crossplay.

2nd: This is nine years ago! The market, cloud architecture and the whole ecosystem for games totally changed. The number of games that did cross play was sooo tiny and there were lots of reasons for it. The security aspect was legit after PSN was down for over a month and credit card details of millions of users were stolen.

Now we actually have a chance to unite all gamers, but one company is blocking it. That is not good for us gamers.

[Aceman18]

Where's the fake outrage over FF14 not being on xbox? I mean SE has no issues putting the game on PS4 and crossplaying it with people on PC 🤔

[badz149]

@uRaDecepticon

technical issues? what technical issues? it was their policy back then to have the 360 players play on their own server, not joined servers with the others.

" http://www.ign.com/articles...

[milohighclub]

@uRadecepticon the money issue can't be true, just cos people can play against their ps4 mates on an x1 doesn't mean everyones gonna abandon ps4 for a x1. The x1 still has the weakest line up. Crossplay won't change that.

[inveni0]

Sony doesn't do it because of Microsoft's requirements. Microsoft just wants a piece of the Sony pie this gen. When MS is in the lead, you can bet the story will be a different one.

[UnHoly_One]

Xbox denied doing crossplay last gen because PSN was garbage and they didn't want to try to link up with that hunk of crap.

Sorry if my choice of words offends your delicate sensibilities, but that is what happened in a nutshell.

And they were RIGHT to deny it. PSN was a horrible mess.

Now Sony has their act together and things are a bit more level in that regard.

I understand they want to lock their stuff down and try to force everyone to buy their console, but they need to realize that is going to piss off a lot of people.

The ball is in their court.

[No Way]

NewMonday - there is no guaranteed truth to that - not a concrete fact, I mean. Just because there are more gamers (more consoles sold) doesn't mean that's the game they will choose to buy.

inveni0 - "Microsoft just wants a piece of the Sony pie this gen." Please explain this to me. Please. I keep seeing everyone say that. Explain it. How exactly is this going to benefit Microsoft? I'll wait. Cause the truth is, it won't - unless Sony keeps denying it and the other 3 big platforms open it up. And then it will hurt Sony. If they all allow cross play, it won't hurt or benefit any of the console makers. It will only benefit gamers. So, please, explain your comment?

[Goldby]

@skull

"All games and gamers benefit from crossplay."
Maybe let MS know about that for Final Fantasy 14

[Skull521]

@No Way

For some reason Sony fanboys think that there is an anemic number of players in games on Xbox and we need cross play so we can find games or something. They don’t understand people just want to play together regardless of hardware choice. Cross play benefits both camps equally.

[starchild]

@BiggerBoss

I think that is a gross misrepresentation of things. I was around last generation too and things were not as you portray them. You make it sound like Sony had all these crossplay games and kept repeatedly begging Microsoft to do crossplay with them. But that's simply false. There's no evidence that Sony was generally pushing for crossplay or that they ever asked Microsoft to do a crossplay title with them.

Crossplay wasn't on a lot of gamers' minds last generation because almost no games offered it. Both Sony and Microsoft had a couple crossplay titles. Microsoft, for example, had Shadowrun which offered cross-platform play between PC and Xbox 360. But for the most part it wasn't something gamers really thought we could expect in most games. Whenever the subject came up though I always argued in favor of it.

Now things are much different. It seems that many more developers are interested in supporting cross-platform play in their games, network infrastructure also appears much better suited to it, and even the majority of platform holders seem to be on board this time.

[OG_TK_Cole]

Agreed!!

[Kribwalker]

@goldby

the final fantasy 14 director stated he wants ff14 on switch and xbox one, but it has to be crossplay across all platforms. And there’s one party that has been stopping it

https://www.gamespot.com/ar...

Keep spewing that crap tho, it’s like the 6th time i’ve seen you say something about in the last day, but it does nothing but add to the bad light sony has been in regarding crossplay

[mkis007]

Me being a single player guy, As much as I don't care about crossplay, at this point Sony has to be careful.

If they make it so a dev has to have a server dedicated to one platform while everyone else can mix, the cost-benefit ratio could hamper playstation 3rd party development and relations.

Honestly, I really don't care about multiplayer online (couch coop is still good in my book). But sony should be careful with its image on this topic. It can't afford to just pretend it's not there going into a new console reveal.

Im more tired of people using this as ammo than the actual lack of crossplay.

[inveni0]

@No Way

Okay, I'll explain it. People buy the consoles their friends have because of multiplayer. If multiplayer isn't an issue, then people open their buying options. If people open their buying options, then Microsoft benefits. They'll also benefit by getting more Live accounts (because they'll require PS4 owners to have one for crossplay), which means they'll have new leads that they didn't have before. They can directly reach out and compete in a way they can't right now.

It's really not that hard to understand.

[rainslacker]

If Sony is looking into it, that's about the best that developers can expect for the time being. Dunno if they really are, or if they're just paying lip service to the criticism, but if they are, then they'll either make it happen, or they'll decide that they don't want to let it happen. They'll likely never issue a statement about it if they don't want it to happen, and probably won't give any meaningful answer why.

I think given that developers can't keep their mouths shut about it, I wouldn't expect Sony to really confer with these developers about it. Todd Howard isn't a nobody in the business, but Sony will know what is required, and what they expect to happen to protect themselves, and provide for their customers.

Some time ago, I heard rumors in the dev community that they were looking for a solution, then didn't hear anything for a while. When I heard about the XBL requirement for Minecraft, I thought talks may have fallen apart, or not gone very far. This kind of thing requires the agreement of both parties involved, and one party saying they're for it doesn't mean it'll just happen. MS may even have demands that they want before they'll allow it, and Sony can't accept them, so MS may be just as culpable.

In the mean time though, so long as the policies don't exist to allow it with other consoles, it just won't happen. There could be any number of reasons why Sony can't or won't adopt new policies, but I know that if they plan on adopting them, they could take a while.

[The 10th Rider]

"MS may even have demands that they want before they'll allow it, and Sony can't accept them, so MS may be just as culpable. "

Lol, really? There's absolutely nothing indicating that. Plenty of developers that have mentioned crossplay have said that it's Sony that is holding it up. There's absolutely nothing out there indicating that Microsoft is a holdup at this point in time.

[Kribwalker]

you and ziggurcat have been trying to spin this around. Developers have said its sony. Sony has said it’s sony. It’s sony

[Jinger]

I don't think they ever mentioned anything about crossplay specifically in that statement. Pretty sure they were addressing the whole "locking a 3rd party account to PSN" issue.

[MuddyWaters]

rainslacker
"If Sony is looking into it, that's about the best that developers can expect for the time being. Dunno if they really are, or if they're just paying lip service to the criticism, but if they are, then they'll either make it happen, or they'll decide that they don't want to let it happen. They'll likely never issue a statement about it if they don't want it to happen, and probably won't give any meaningful answer why.
I think given that developers can't keep their mouths shut about it, I wouldn't expect Sony to really confer with these developers about it. Todd Howard isn't a nobody in the business, but Sony will know what is required, and what they expect to happen to protect themselves, and provide for their customers.
Some time ago, I heard rumors in the dev community that they were looking for a solution, then didn't hear anything for a while. When I heard about the XBL requirement for Minecraft, I thought talks may have fallen apart, or not gone very far. This kind of thing requires the agreement of both parties involved, and one party saying they're for it doesn't mean it'll just happen. MS may even have demands that they want before they'll allow it, and Sony can't accept them, so MS may be just as culpable.
In the mean time though, so long as the policies don't exist to allow it with other consoles, it just won't happen. There could be any number of reasons why Sony can't or won't adopt new policies, but I know that if they plan on adopting them, they could take a while."

This is a pure garbage post sorry. You don't come up with what ifs. Not when you have no proof at all. It's all conjecture in order to confuse the situation. Todd Howard knows exactly how to get it done so for him to name Sony means he's frustrated with them, just like everyone else whose tried to get crossplay done.

What purpose does it serve anyone to be apologetic on their behalf, because they make great games like God of War? It is getting ridiculous the mental gymnastics some of you want to go through because saying Sony is to blame somehow means you don't like Sony?

The mods should warn anyone for trying to spin this without proof, it's not substantial evidence and just guess work to deflect. It's like me saying Crackdown 3 is canceled with no proof.

Could be a number of reasons? Why of course there could be because you just made them up.

[rainslacker]

@10th and krib

just stop. The start of this comment section started with nice discourse. Stop derailing the topic.

@Jinger

The question posed to Sony

"But there seems to be an issue at the moment, that Sony isn't listening to its players - or doesn't seem to be - and that's CROSS-PLAY , Fortnite particularly. And I wondered if there were any plans to open it up? It seems to be Sony's not listening."

Sony's response

""We're hearing it. We're looking at a lot of the possibilities. You can imagine that the circumstances around that affect a lot more than just one game. I'm confident we'll get to a solution which will be understood and accepted by our gaming community, while at the same time supporting our business."

That seems like it's about cross play, and he does imply that they are working towards a solution. Whether that's true or not remains to be seen, but a lot of people seem to want to ignore that and continue to berate Sony over it.

@Muddy

And everyone else's comments on this isn't the same conjecture?

What purpose does it serve to treat them like a villain without knowing all the details? That's what everyone has done since day one when the Rocket League guy said something, and that was before MS said they were open to it or even had a single cross play game on their system.

Given that, it's it easy to understand why the defense arguments have become more than they would have otherwise? If no one wants to consider anything else, expect people to keep being apologetic.

[Jinger]

I stand corrected. Thank you

[ILostMyMind]

Sony should accept nothing from Microsoft.

[gamer7804]

I don't think they even said they are looking into it did they? I just heard that they are "hearing" it, which doesn't mean they are really listening or doing anything about it. Ms is pretty open about it now, in the past they were pretty restrictive which is why only a couple games got crossplay last gen like FFXI w/ ps3/ps2/360/pc.

[The 10th Rider]

@rainslacker,

Soo . . . you're the one that mentioned that in the first place and then you say I'm derailing the topic when I respond to it?

There's no indication whatsoever that Microsoft is responsible and multiple devs have said that Sony is responsible. If anything, it's derailing the topic to try and spin it and say Microsoft might be responsible.

[yomfweeee]

@Rider

The fact that you can get Xbox Achievements playing Minecraft on the Switch is evidence that Microsoft may be asking for things Sony won't approve.

[MuddyWaters]

"What purpose does it serve to treat them like a villain without knowing all the details? That's what everyone has done since day one when the Rocket League guy said something, and that was before MS said they were open to it or even had a single cross play game on their system."

What purpose does it serve giving them any benefit of the doubt? By now we accept Sony is not interested in crossplay. What Shawn is alluding to is trying to fix the account locking on Fortnite.

Here you are rambling about giving Sony time, because there has to be something. You just want validation from someone important to release the pressure. They've had years pal, so enough of the runaround. They are not a villain, they are a bully who are trying to use their huge lead as leverage and it is not about the gamers. It's always about business with them.

"Given that, it's it easy to understand why the defense arguments have become more than they would have otherwise? If no one wants to consider anything else, expect people to keep being apologetic."

We are done with the defense arguments. Now we are finally seeing well known people in the industry actually point fingers. That's good and the only way to get Sony to move on it is to keep adding pressure. What you don't do is continue to give them the benefit. Epic already proved how easy it is to do. Nintendo also came out said that they should allow developers to do the games they want.

It is you and so many others on this site who want to keep making Microsoft the villain. That they are the ones behind all of this, that Xbox Live has to be the issue. No evidence at all to support it, just there has to be something.

Read Shawn's lines. Our community will understand and accept while at the same time supporting our business. This implies they are not going to fully accept crossplay, that they will make an exception to account locking and the PlayStation community will understand because they can still play with pc and mobile which will keep supporting their business practices.

[rainslacker]

I provided the quote from Sony, and the question posed to them. They said they are looking at the possibilities. It wasn't about the ortnite thing in either the question or the response.

If people don't want to accept that that answer then that's on them, but if no benefit of the doubt is going to be given to them after several years of ms getting the benefit of the doubt they were doing something with their first party, then it just shows you have selective interests in this whole debate

So follow your own advice Xbox fan boys have given for years, and wait for e3

[GNCFLYER]

How can we not comment. People are writing stories everytime so there is going to be comments. People are commenting on the stories.

[RauLeCreuset]

"Fanboys make it company vs company and scream nobody cares yet comment about it constantly."

(Ironically ignores who posted the story.)

[segamaniaco]

If you dont like sony's policies, dont launch fallout 76 on ps4, hypocrite todd.
Nothing is holding you to do croosplay between pc and xbox, dont blame sony for that.
And the consumer who is frustrated, just buy a xbox instead and gtfo of here.
Sony is right and their community support their decisions. Dont let ms win $$$ while you lose $$$ because a feature that casual gamers even know that exists
Resist a little more and nobody will talk about it anymore, its just temporary.

[ZwVw]

@BiggerBoss
Lol. Sony never pushed for crossplay between PSN and XBL 7th Gen. They allowed for Steamworks to be implemented on PSN. MS didn't allow Steamworks on XBL because they had their own format with GFW at the time. Big difference.

[Aloren]

PSN was free back then, Live was not. so it made sense to refuse since that was actually a real reason why people would potentially switch platform. Now that they all offer the same service with similar prices, they all have their exclusive lineup (more or less...), I really see no reason why Sony would be against it, since it won't change anything to the market and will allow PS4 gamers to play with everyone else on multiplatform games. How is it hurting them in any way ?

Really, how can any gamer agree with Sony on that one ? Everyone else came to the conclusion that's it beneficial to everyone even without Sony, and yet some still believe it will do "nothing but hurt them". and even if for some reason sony as a business is against it, PS4 gamers, as gamers, should be all for it.

[Aceman18]

They'll do it when it benefits them, and not the other two companies end of story. Until then I ain't losing one bit of sleep over this feature I have plenty of games to play.

[DarXyde]

It's true that there are people who might be reeling at this news. Personally, I don't care. I get the concerns though. I suppose I don't see it the same way because all it means is nothing changes. I can't even truly justify being mad about being unable to change PSN names because we've never had that.

That said, I'm not at all surprised this is coming from Bethesda. They have always had a pretty obvious Microsoft slant, in case no one's noticed. That's not a problem, but I can't say this surprises me in the least either.

[Ceaser9857361]

...

[Ceaser9857361]

Those who are crying about Cross play are the once who spends less time online , may be gaming too nd will never do cross play . Since Sony didn't budge over this Crossplay fiasco . Let's all burn down Sony... I can understand where its hurting some section . Can't wait too see where it goes.. Hopefully Sony does something later..
oh! and Todd and Bethesda was never a Sony fan.. I remember how they messed up Skyrim on the PS3 so that People get it on the 360. So not surprising coming from them..

[sprinterboy]

Small studios would benefit greatly, i remember buying my beloved "super sprint" on ps3 but never found anyone never mind 4 players online to race with :(

[Aceman18]

Hey toddy boy since your such a big man in the industry how bout you not releasing the game on PS4 if you got that type of pull potential giving away 5-10 million in sales.

Let's see if your company has the stones to show Sony who has the real power 😏

Would you sacrifice that amount of sales for some simple little feature?

[salmonade]

I don't want Sony to have anything to do with Xbox... ever. They are going down a path that I don't want to see gaming evolve into. I hope Sony stays away from them, even with cross-platform play... Nintendo is fine though

[slavish0]

Howard said, "but right now that's not possible." Howard pauses for a second, then begins "Sony isn't being as helpful as we want them to be."

[TheCommentator]

Hmm, it doesn't sound like he's suggesting anything nor is it a rumor. He flat-out says it's Sony's fault (not that anyone is surprised at this point)!

[BiggerBoss]

Nobody at this point is denying that it's Sony's fault.

The argument is that Sony is VASTLY in the lead in sales, and it does nothing but hurt them to allow crossplay with Microsoft.

I don't necessarily agree with this practice, but I 100% understand why they're doing it.

[rainslacker]

We always knew Sony didn't have policies that allow it, so nothing new there.

All he's saying is that Sony isn't giving him the time to have them try and make a solution.

I can understand why Sony may not give him the time, because something like this, I'd imagine that they'd want to implement on a system wide level like they do with PC. Just allowing every developer to make their own solution would be burdensome on them, and really cause problems when they have to give individual approval to all these devs, and then Sony could be faced with criticism when they don't allow it for a certain dev for some reason.

Given the hugely negative press that they've gotten over the issue for the past two years, I can also understand why Sony wouldn't really give time or reasons to these devs beyond citing their own policies on the matter, because there have been too many devs who are too quick to cast blame on Sony. This happens regardless of whatever Sony may be doing to examine possibly implementing it as they say they're doing.

Really, at this point, it's just a matter of wait and see if they're examining it in earnest, or just paying lip service to the criticism. And also waiting to see if they actually implement something, or decide not to.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

As much as a dick move as it's considered, I don't expect Sony to give when they have a stranglehold market share-wise, as long as they keep doing what they've been doing and maintain dominance they probably can't be strong-armed into doing it.

[No Way]

BiggerBoss - Please explain that to me. How in the world does it hurt Sony? Where do you come up with this nonsense? If it doesn't affect their ecosystem, allowing cross play, how does it hurt Sony? I'll wait....

[TheCommentator]

@ Bigger Boss

That's YOUR argument. Everyone in the industry wants it except Sony. MS, Nintendo, and 3rd party devs all want it.

@ Rain

"All he's saying is that Sony isn't giving him the time to have them try and make a solution."

Really? Todd Howard said, "Sony is not as helpful as everyone would like them to be."

I don't see time mentioned anywhere in that quote, but let's go by your lame assumptions/excuses for a minute. How much time does Sony need to figure out a solution? This has been a topic for more than a year, yet Sony is still standing around scratching their beards like Barry investigating blood stains in RE1. Also, what's whis this BS?

"Just allowing every developer to make their own solution would be burdensome on them, and really cause problems when they have to give individual approval to all these devs..."

Funny, but it doesn't seem to be a burden for anyone else in the industry. Quit being an ignorant stealth troll and just admit Sony is screwing this up.

[S2Killinit]

I think Microsoft should pay Sony if they want to benefit from Sony's base. Its only fair.

[rainslacker]

I'm sorry if my paraphrasing confused you.

And Sony has an implementation for pc that they worked out. Letting every dev do it their own way is burdensome on Sony, and If ms and Nintendo don't have a solution like Sony, it'll become burdensome on them too, because there is no.way to.qc that kind of implementation

[Silly gameAr]

They have a marketing thing going on with MS at this time, don't they?

It's ok xbox fans. Maybe Sony will cave in, maybe they won't. You guys shouldn't lose aleep over it.

[aconnellan]

Are you suggesting that he’s lying or making it up?

Does Epic have a marketing deal with MS? Does Psyonix? Why is that even part of the discussion?

[MuddyWaters]

"Are you suggesting that he’s lying or making it up?
Does Epic have a marketing deal with MS? Does Psyonix? Why is that even part of the discussion?"

You know how it is. They don't like Sony getting bad press so let's talk about our closest competitor. Boys and toys.

[Team_Litt]

If there's one person that'll defend Sony no matter what, it's you pal. I don't think I've ever seen you disagree with anything Sony.
I think it's possible to be a fan of a company but also criticize them for anti consumer practices/decisions. It won't make you any less of a fan. If anything I think a true fan wants a brand to improve more than they want to defend their every move just to save face.
Maybe that's just me.

[Prince_TFK]

Your name suit you right. So anyone who want crossplay must have marketing deal with the devil MS.

[generic-user-name]

Howard has been in bed with MS since morrowind, just look at how the 76 beta will go live on x1 first for no good reason and the disgrace that was skyrim on PS3. So to see him criticise Sony means little.

Let's see him criticise MS for promising high fidelity VR and then backing out of it. Bethesda are big proponents of VR after all.

[CocoaBrother]

"We would love to do that," Howard said, "but right now that's not possible. Sony isn't being as helpful as we want them to be."

Howard straight up says why instead of typical business PR. I like how upfront he has been lately. Breath of fresh air

[porkChop]

He was upfront about the mods situation too. Sony was entirely against mods at first, which pissed Bethesda off. Sony eventually allowed mods but it was extremely restrictive compared to PC and Xbox One.

[Eonjay]

How does Sony and their lack of console crossplay prevent Xbox PC gameplay? He said no crossplay with anyone.

[porkChop]

I don't have the answer to that. I'm sure they have a reason, but I don't know what it is. It would be nice though. My cousin plays on Xbox, so if they had cross play with PC I could still play with him. We'll see though, hopefully Bethesda at least supports it where they can.

[PhantomS42]

And they are really going to need it since the amount of people who are anticipating this online-only survival game with no NPCs is very small.

[aconnellan]

Yeah the Fallout brand is pretty underground, I don’t think many people have heard of it /s

[PhantomS42]

Wow, way to throw in your own deluded lack of intelligence there. I didn't say a lot of people didn't know about it I'm saying nobody cares about Fallout Online Only. Did you not see the hype for this game for from really high to negative after E3 when they said it was online only, no npcs or real RPG mechanics, survival game, forced PVP, and very encouraging to griefers?