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Shawn Layden blames publishers and developers for lack of PlayStation crossplay (Up: Wargroove dev Chucklefish responds in thread - "We were told no")
- Thread starter Aokiji
- Start date
It is not out yet. I think the CEO of chucklefish said something about it taking more work to set game up for no crossplay thqn it would have to add crossplay and priorities being the hold up.
Not sure if I buy that becuase he also said it wouldnt only take a switch of a button to enable cross play. Plus we have had games on ps4 that had crossplay enabled by "mistake" and fixed fairly quickly.
They haven't specified, but they've both gone to Twitter to publicly call Sony out on not giving them the go ahead. So either they said no, or they've not been responding.
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It's a good idea though, the casual audience doesn't even know Sony is probably holding out. I don't care how they do it as long as they do it. At the end of the day all these companies make moves the benefit them.
Well, no one can say that Hi-Rez isn't trying. Apparently they are badgering Sony on a weekly basis trying to get crossplay and cross progression for their PS4 games. It's really quite sad. Imagine being the guys at Sony that have to keep responding in the negative to this and not thinking you're literally holding gaming back. #4theplayers etc.
This was posted on the Smite AMA they did today:
"Our CEO, Stew, recently tweeted directly at Sony leadership making it clear it was Sony's decision for SMITE to not have access to crossplay on PS4.
We are asking Sony to please allow this for our players on a weekly basis, but a final decision hasn't been made yet. I personally don't participate in those meetings so I don' know all the details. This is a complicated business decision and we want to respect our business partners and give them the proper time to make good decisions. Perhaps they still are asking for something business related from us in order for them to agree.
That said, all the tech is 100% ready to go for PS4 crossplay. As soon as Sony gives the greenlight we can let PS4 players access those features."
This was posted on the Smite AMA they did today:
"Our CEO, Stew, recently tweeted directly at Sony leadership making it clear it was Sony's decision for SMITE to not have access to crossplay on PS4.
We are asking Sony to please allow this for our players on a weekly basis, but a final decision hasn't been made yet. I personally don't participate in those meetings so I don' know all the details. This is a complicated business decision and we want to respect our business partners and give them the proper time to make good decisions. Perhaps they still are asking for something business related from us in order for them to agree.
That said, all the tech is 100% ready to go for PS4 crossplay. As soon as Sony gives the greenlight we can let PS4 players access those features."
Fuck what Sony says about how crossplay works. They are a conglomerate that makes hardware, and their software is 1st party which doesn't concern crossplay at all.
On the other hand, 3rd party developers, y'know, the people who actually make crossplay a reality...HAVE said it is the flip of a switch. It's been said here about Wargroove from the CEO himself, it's been said by Psyonix, and it's literally been done unofficially with Fortnite. So yes. It is that easy and Sony is just making it sound complicated COZ THEY DONT WANNA DO IT.
We have at least 3. I heard it from Psyonix first, then I think Epic, and now Chucklefish
Don't forget Durante as well and considering he's also fairly authorative on porting work and now runs his own porting studio, that would actually make it four, nevermind the few other industry folks posting in this thread.
His point was that it's a deflection though. Whatever is going on with mS and their policy with playing f2p games, has absolutely nothing to do with crossplay. Talking about it just draws attention away from the topic and is just used as an example for another conglomerate with another unfavorable business practice that affects their consumers in a way they don't appreciate.
Haven't heard of Durante, but the more the merrier. I still haven't finished reading through this thread, up to page 25 now
Oh, so now we are going to say Sony DOES NOT WANT this to happen? Because there is literally nothing along those lines in the statement that Layden made in the OP.
He is a pretty prominent member here and was also well known on the other site before that site went to complete shit.
No clear rules? Wow, that's big because this means ultimately at the moment, devs have no idea how to meet the requirement for crossplay, and reinforce that its not the dev's fault in anyway.
Yeah, I think that might be the clearest confirmation outside of Chucklefish's comments that there isn't any clear way forward.
oh I see, I misunderstood. I didn't know Durante was the username for a member here. He must've posted and I didn't catch it...this thread is really long
not that your antics are news to anyone who remembers your name, but I just thought it was funny how you pushed this narrative and then vanished into the night the moment reality challenged it.
Which I guess makes this the punchline:
Can anyone say 'lawl'?
You're still a consumer, though. We're also all forum goers here, so that point is irrelevant.
You're almost making it sound like you're entitled and haven't gotten enough disclosure over why Chucklefish was rejected. And yes, we should be grateful that Tiy decided to post to shed any light at all in the situation.
Now, as far as you asking for details go, what exactly are you looking for? Do you want him to write out the dialogue that went by in the phone conversation between him and the AM or something? Because as far as I'm concerned in my seat here as a gamer, all the details needed to explain the situation have been shared. Chucklefish expressed interest in having the Ps4 version of their game share crossplay with the other platforms, but Sony won't allow it.
??? That is exactly what Chucklefish did! Wtf with this thread man and even if he quoted out of context, if whatever preceded or followed that like in Layden's statement implied something different, then he would be contradicting himself.
If Sony is under no obligation to share more information then the developers are under no such obligation either.
Yeah, I'm siding with the smaller side because "reasons"
My reasons are:
-I want crossplay. I want to be able to to play Minecraft and Black ops 4 with my friends who have Xbones. That would make my experience playing my Ps4 online more enjoyable.
-Sony in the past said because of their player base who are extremely young, they don't want to crossplay with other networks. This was a Jim Ryan comment. Yet, they allow that exposure with their extremely young children and those who play on PC.
-Sony in the past said their player base should not want crossplay because Ps4 is the "best place to play". Well right now, XBL has something that PsN doesn't, and that is the ability to play with those on Switch. So, how could Ps4 be the best place to play if it's lacking something that the competition has?
-Lastly and most recently this thread. My final reason with siding with the smaller side is because Layden said something that contradicts all the other points I made in this post, AND it contradicts what Chucklefish said.
So yeah. Every single step Sony has taken with crossplay is of a company that does not want to do it in the first place.
Well, Shawn Layden, for one. He never said anything that would indicate he wants consumers to have less of a reason to buy a PS4. On the contrary, he said if a developer wants crossplay, they just have to talk to Sony...
Yesterday, I got to play Rocket League with my son, on a NOT-Split screen for the first time ever - he used the PC, I was on PS4 - it was SOOO nice.
Honestly, if PS5 still has a general air of bullshittery around cross play, I'll go to MS for the first time, Cross play is going to be a standard feature I think though.
(I also am curious about cross play and 'esports / competitive play', and if it is 100% implemented, will this bring out "Factory" teams (using an F1 / Racing term) - I think its a really cool potential outcome).
I was banned for "conspiracies against developers" over this shit so I'm out of discussing any more industry stuff on ERA for the rest of my stay.
He reason the word "blame" is there the way I see it, is because Layden is making it seem like it is the developer's fault for no crosssplay. Interviewer asks, "why isn't there more Ps4 to Xbone and Switch play?" And he basically says "I don't see why not, so if they want it, all they gotta do is reach out."
Yes. If people complaining about this is bothering you, all you have to do is not visit threads that talk about it or not go to YouTube videos or video game news articles that are covering it. It doesn't have to concern you if it bothers you but if you come into the thread to see what people who care about it are saying then you're basically just asking for it.
...then why did they pay attention to Fortnite and Rocket League?
The topic was originally aimed with the intention of putting Sony in a positive light and adding the Wargroove CEO comment in the title changed that. The OP you're quoting seemed upset because he mentioned the title change a few times, leading some people to ask if that was because the topic direction was different (which is the reason for his added edit in your quote).
I doubt it. They're still nailing the biggest things that matter for most people, such as a lot of quality exclusives and good hardware. They also have a lot of prominent association with plenty of multiplatform franchises and top notch marketing
Dude, how do you know what Chucklefish did? It's normal for an account manager to provide reasoning if a request is denied. I'll give you an example. Pocketwatch Games developed Tooth and Tail which supports cross-play between PS4 and the PC. They are using Trello for project management and it's public somehow which you can see here, https://trello.com/c/ZMeZ07cj. Apparently they missed their target date for launching the cross-play feature because one region failed QA. My point is "failed QA" is the reason behind no cross-play for Pocketwatch at the time. It's pretty clear that there should be a reason behind why Chucklefish was told "No", and we have no insights into what Chucklefish did and what Sony said to them beside a resounding "NO".
That's the thing though. It's not clear to anyone including publishers/devs.
See, this should be the future. Competition is good, but in some ways, cross play is a collaboration among competition too. But I don't see how that's a bad thing for the platform conglomerates though.
I still have to have a Ps4. I still have to buy the Ps4 version of the game. I still have to pay for psplus to play online.
I get that crossplay gives those who usually don't buy playstations one less incentive to buy one to play with their friends who do, but there are so many other things that factor into a consumer's decision in purchasing a console, that Sony should just give into the benefits of crossplay rather than just fucking worrying about their petty ass opportunity cost.
Well okay then.
Oh I see. Well the thing with that is, even if Chucklefish's edited in title and highlighted post weren't here, Layden's comment would still be questionable, based off of everything else Sony had done and said about crossplay. It still would have come off as contradictory. Or it did, since it was changed and it still is, just with proof now.
I've been an account manager before, just not in the video game industry. I trust what Chucklefish is saying because Sony already is acting like a company that doesn't want to do crossplay. The Fortnite beta seems like it'll be the biggest crossplay announcement Ps4 will ever have.
Btw, still reading through the thread...I think I made it up to page 27
Agreed, which is why most of the posts were doubtful and calling Shawn out even before it was proven he was straight up lying for PR purposes. The original post still led to people defending them and attacking the credibility of the devs who were vocal about this, though, on here and other sites. Now that the truth came to light, these same people are nowhere to be found and hoping it dies off, and Sony assuredly hoping for the same thing.
Yeah but Resetera is a place where a tweet from Mike Ybarra has more discussion going on than something as important as cross play. We've had numerous threads on cross play buried and dismissed, fact is until some people are told cross play is a good thing from the company they support then they couldn't give a fuck.
Xbox Ybarra gets mad about anthem on twitter: yo fire his ass
PS4 Layden literally lies to you about crossplay in PR: hey man they're the market leader.
PS4 Layden literally lies to you about crossplay in PR: hey man they're the market leader.
User Banned (3 Days) - Inflammatory Generalizaions
If Sony said fk it, and allowed it today, most of yall still wouldn't be satisfied. First it was for Fortnite xplay. You got Fortnite xplay and the replies were: 'watch it only be xplay with switch' or "watch how they blatantly exclude xbox".. and that wasn't the case.
If SL were maliciously lying about something (I'm leaning towards more misconstrued than anything) then that's messed up. But if the core playstation fans are saying they dont give a shit, then they just don't. They (we, as I am a fan) like single player games and RPGs and the thought of some 1000 players multiplayer game makes em wanna puke.
These threads die off quick because they are filled one sided drive bys. There is no discussion to be had. As soon as you oppose any of the comments or try, you get hammered 'corporate apologists' 'fanboy', 'bootlicker' and get reported by mods who'd you think would play it fair, but sadly dont... so, whatever there is /was to talk about, yall won.
Why would people not be satisfied if Sony allowed crossplay with no conditions?
Until then, or them using that poor excuse of "it's a beta", of course there's still plenty of reasons to complain.
State of this shit. Posting like you are involved in some kind of hard hitting war. It's not us v you it's fucking people wanting what is best for us as consumers. If you can't see that and only care about your single players games then good for you but don't try and play that off as ''core fans'' because it's embarrassing.
There are plenty of discussions to be had. This thread has plenty. It's just once devs confirmed Sony was talking shit they scattered as they knew the jig was up. They can speak up all of the "Business" reasons they want.
I'm a consumer not beholden to a corporate company. And crossplay is something that is coming whether you and other 'core' PlayStation fans hate it.
And let's be upfront here third party dominate the 10 best selling games on PS4. Spiderman and GoW are the only showings for SP only games. You think Sony pays for CoD marketing because those people are coming to play SP games? That's a bonus.
Sports and guns and the so-called 'Dudebro' market powers all that.
No I'm in no war at all. But have been through all of this in the first crossply thread. Nothing you are saying is new. You're the one acting like this is some life or death situation.. or some type of civil rights movement about video games. I explained to you why these threads die off, and your last post proves it.
I get that. But first, I'm explaining why the vocal 'core' minority, here on era are not filling these threads to talk about this. You're totally right, and those casual players outnumber the core players, but are not vocal here on era. That is the whole point. Obviously their apprehension comes from wanting put their core base first before dipping g into unknown waters. No excuses on their behalf, just how I see this situation.
"Am I out of touch? No, it's the people that reported me and the mods that warned me that are wrong.
Hell, I bet they're all the same person!".
When you need to hold onto anything after it's been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that you were wrong.
Yeah, it was kind of hilarious to see them quietly crawl back under their rocks once enough devs backed up Chucklefish that their concern trolling and smear attempts weren't going to cut it anymore. Either that, or...
... moving the goalposts from "any indie can get crossplay!" to "nobody cares about crossplay!".
So if someone say's 'No' to you, you don't ask why?
I didn't suggest this person is lying and I'm not calling him out. I believe he was told 'No'. I just want to learn why.
I was just interested in the reason why. Either Sony is playing hardball for no reason or there is a reason.
How is this so hard to understand?
Tiy's posts since hasn't clear anything up but Sony are being coy about how they are courting developers. If Shawn is openly asking developers to speak to account managers it seems the BETA has ended and Sony is open for business!? Why is there still only, what, two or so games in the program? Why has this developer been told 'No'. Why won't Sony 'flip a switch' for other outspoken developers?
If Shawn is outright lying he needs to apologise...but that's hardly going to happen from a high-profile western company executive. If it's bad communication Shawn needs to clarify the companies position to publishers and developers. If it's because 'BETA', he needs to make it known.
You're right...but threads like this will become messy. We should not request or expect more information from Chucklefish or Sony so as onlookers we will never know the facts.
That's fine.