For the longest time, Sony refused to relent to external pressure concerning the implementation of the highly-requested cross-play feature on the PS4. However, Sony changed its tune several months ago when it finally allowed cross-platform play with Epic Games’ Fortnite.

While the initial reaction to Sony’s decision to start working towards cross-play support on more games was somewhat positive, some developers were still skeptical that the feature would only be available to major games such as Fortnite and Rocket League. In an interview with Game Informer, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Shawn Layden revealed that cross-platform play is open to all developers, and all they have to do is ask.

“We’re open for business on this one. All it takes is for publishers and developer who wish to permission it. As ever, just work with your PlayStation account manager, and they will walk you through the steps that we’ve learned through our partnership with Epic on how this works.”

Immediately after the interview was published, some developers spoke out regarding the issue and disputed Layden’s statement. Chucklefish Games CEO Finn Brice took to ResetEra with a story that his studio made requests for cross-play support both directly to Sony bosses and through its PlayStation account manager. Brice explained that Chucklefish was “told in no uncertain terms that it was not going to happen.”

Last week, Hi-Rez Studios, developer of games such as Paladins and Smite, called out Sony for playing favorites with cross-play given that it explicitly favored some studios over others. In a recent tweet posted by the CEO of Hi-Rez Studios, the executive slammed Sony saying that, “it’s time to stop playing favorites and tear down the crossplay/progression wall for everyone.”

As of writing Sony is still yet to comment on the claims but it's hard not to believe these developers' stories. Many developers have said that turning cross-play support on is very simple, and in a lot of games is already in place, so it's up to Sony to give the go ahead. Whether these outspoken developers will inspire any change, however, is yet to be determined.

Source: Game Informer