'Ark: Survival Evolved' News: Sony Says No to Cross-Play, According to Dev
"Ark: Survival Evolved" is almost ready for its official release on Tuesday, Aug. 29, for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC (both Windows and Mac). Despite this wide range of platforms available on release, cross-play does not look to be possible — an issue that Studio Wildcard attributes to Sony.
Jeremy Stieglitz, the lead designer for the game, has been busy fielding questions from fans ahead of the game's launch next week. Among the pressing issues raised by "Ark" fans is the possibility of cross-play between the multitude of platforms that the massively multiplayer online game will be releasing for.
Stieglitz responded to a question on whether Xbox and PlayStation 4 players can play together, and the answer will disappoint fans. "We have it working internally, but currently Sony won't allow it," the lead designer answered through Twitter on Saturday, Aug. 19.
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Games like "Ark: Survival Evolved" and "Minecraft" have been contending with Sony's stance on cross-platform play for some time now. It was an issue raised to Jim Ryan, PlayStation executive, at the Electronic Entertainment Expo last June.
Ryan explained that it's not necessarily a hard stance, coming from Sony. "It's certainly not a profound philosophical stance we have against this," he said in an earlier interview with Gamespot.
The issue, he adds, is one of control. Sony allowing the PlayStation Network to connect to, say, the Xbox Live could potentially allow content that the service will not be able to protect players from, he explained.
While older players may have little to no issues with it, children could be at risk, Ryan noted. He notes that Sony remains interested in talking with other companies about cross-play, something Microsoft's Dave McCarthy confirmed at E3, although Sony is "not quite there yet."
The video below shows off a few gameplay scenes from "Ark: Survival Evolved," as well as the perks coming with a pre-order of the game when it launches on Aug. 29.
