Psyonix announced today that Rocket League has entered the PlayStation Cross-Play Beta program and is playable with people across PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and Steam, making it only the second game to do so after Fortnite.
By default, players on any of those platforms will randomly matchmake with one another for online play. The ability to make and join parties from different consoles is still in the works, however. Originally due out last summer, Psyonix says its cross-platform party system will be out with the game’s first update of 2019, the release date of which is currently unknown. Players can still join one another’s games by setting up private matches though. They just won’t be able to join the normal matchmaking queue together.
After years of not allowing it, Sony finally changed its policy on cross-play last September, making Fortnite the first online game to be playable across the three major consoles and PC. When asked at the time whether Rocket League would also be getting cross-play with PS4, Psyonix suggested people reach out directly to PlayStation. It now appears like an agreement was reached.
Sony did not immediately respond to a request by Kotaku for comment on when it will allow other games to take part in the Cross-Play Beta program.
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4 responses to “Rocket League Now Has Cross-Play”
And it works a treat. Was finally able to play a bunch of games against my friend who bought an xbox. so much fun was had.
Now there are a couple of games with cross play, I wonder if other games will jump onboard. I’m thinking of games like Warframe and Destiny where theres an established playerbase that may (or may not) be dropping off as time has impacted on the numbers.
Would be a good boost for a lot of games looking to essentially combine servers, and hence boost numbers, and being older wouldn’t impact on Sony’s general stance of being exclusive. Any benefit they’d get because of that would have been received a long time ago.
I think this will now push developers into an era where cross-play isn’t just a nice extra feature but something that is expected to be included. The desire to get consumers to buy non-exclusive games on your console will mean cross play will become an absoloute necessity.
Hope so. The cost of making these games is so high these days that adding an extra layer of hardware costs after release is a killer. Add in that those unnecessarily increased ongoing costs are a large reason microtransactions were justified and I think its hurting the industry in more ways than just player satisfaction.
We’re about to move into the next generation of consoles though, and I worry that this will start all over again. The PS4 and Xbone are at the end of their cycle, so most people will have bought their console of choice. Being exclusive isnt as important as it was at launch.
So when the PS5/Xbtwo comes out this year or next do they lock it down again, or open up crossplay from day 1? Or will it be somewhere in the middle, with games locked down for the first 90 days or so? I’d accept that by the way, its a happy medium.
Just remember that crossplay has happened in the past (the first online Final Fantasy game had it), and then just disappeared with the next generation of consoles.