Add another developer to the growing list of studios frustrated with Sony's lack of movement on cross-platform play between PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. War Thunder, Gaijin Entertainment's vehicular combat multiplayer game, posted a message on Twitter calling Sony out. Paired with the hashtag #Crossplay4ThePlayers, Gaijin's call to action asks Sony why console cross-play still isn't approved for its game.

In a throwback to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, War Thunder's tweet features a gif displaying three bold messages. "First Crossplay Title, First Free-to-Play Title," "Still No Console Crossplay," "How Come, Sony?" read the messages. The first is claiming War Thunder's credentials as a launch free-to-play game on the PlayStation 4 (alongside Warframe and DC Online) and the first to implement PC/PS4 cross-platform play. The second message implies that War Thunder's PS4/Xbox One cross-play is being held up by Sony. And the third message, obviously, asks the console manufacturer why that is.

War Thunder, perhaps more than any other PS4 game, has a valid complaint regarding its lack of console cross-play. In October 2018, Gaijin turned on cross-play between PS4 and Xbox One. Unfortunately, the feature was quickly turned off and dismissed as an "unforeseen side-effect" of enabling Xbox/PC cross-play. In other words, Gaijin could easily turn on console cross-play with the press of a button. Meaning that what's holding it back is likely just Sony's approval.

In the meantime, Sony's shown that it's open to approving cross-play for specific games. Both Fortnite and Rocket League have PC, PS4, and Xbox One cross-play available. Dauntless, which is coming to consoles soon, is also boasting that it will have cross-platform play enabled. What's unclear is why Sony is approving certain games, but not others. Fortnite, and perhaps Rocket League, make some sense due to their popularity and the resulting demand from players. But on the other hand, Sony's lack of approval for smaller games could mean their player base dies due to lack of cross-play.

Sony's historically been very averse to the idea of supporting cross-play, with Sony's CEO even commenting that PS4 is the "best place to play" and thus dismissing the need for cross-play. If PS4 players truly want their platform to start offering a broad range of support for cross-play, it'll take a lot of pressure. Gaijin clearly understands that, so it's hard to criticize their efforts when it only has the best interests of its player base in mind.

Keep in mind, Gaijin has gone through this before with Microsoft and the Xbox One back before Phil Spencer took over Xbox. Gaijin pressured Microsoft to implement cross-play between Xbox One and PC, lost out in the short term, but won out in the end. A hashtag campaign is as good a way to start pressuring Sony to now support console cross-play.

War Thunder is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.