Shawn Layden blames publishers and developers for lack of PlayStation crossplay (Up: Wargroove dev Chucklefish responds in thread - "We were told no")

[Tiy]

Hi all,

CEO Of Chucklefish here, we just launched Wargroove with crossplay between PC, Switch and Xbox so I wanted to chime in.

We made many requests for crossplay (both through our account manager and directly with higher ups) all the way up until release month. We were told in no uncertain terms that it was not going to happen.

From our side, we can *literally* toggle a switch and have it working. Of course policy work might be more complicated for Sony.

Just wanted to provide some balance on the issue and say that it certainly isn't a question of developers having not contacted their account managers or having dropped the ball. We were told no.

 

[Tiy]

I'm sad this means that Wargroove isn't going to be release on the PS4? That's bullshit.


Edit: arrogant Sony never left.

Click to shrink...

We will be releasing it on PS4, we have finite resources and prioritised platforms that could crossplay as it was important to us to get the online nice and healthy rather than divide the player base.

Work is going into the PS4 version now, it won't have PS4 to PC crossplay as that would have forced us to attempt some sort of inelegant system to try and ensure Xbox/Switch players wouldn't see each other despite both being able to play with PC players.

PC lobbies becoming unavailable to Xbox/Switch players if a PS4 player joins maybe? There are no nice solutions.

As far as just flicking a switch goes, just to clarify, this is entirely from a technical perspective. I'm sure that if crossplay opens up it will come with lots of policies to adhere to (and these are a good thing) that could require work on our part. Aside from policy, there are no security or technical concerns I'm aware of hindering us. Because Wargroove runs on our own servers, any security needs to be in place regardless.

It's actually more work for us to restrict crossplay, to isolate platforms, than to just let it function.

 

[Tiy]

To be clear about my intentions here, I don't think anyone is actually attempting to throw indie developers under the bus. Usually these things are a matter of communication with no ill will involved.

I felt the need to come and explain our position because we've tried *very* hard to get crossplay into our game and it was frustrating to hear it suggested that we just needed to start a conversation. Ultimately I was concerned that the takeaway for the end user was that we simply hadn't made an effort.

So whilst the article might have been frustrating, I'm actually fairly positive that it might be a sign of things changing. I also don't think any harm was meant. Ultimately it's Sony's platform and they're entitled to write the policies, as long as our position as a developer is clear, no harm done.

That said, I will continue to point out that crossplay is a no-brainer improvement for every consumer and developer.