Epic Games Director Says Gamers 'Deserve' Cross-Play
With all the recent talk surrounding cross-play between rival consoles, another game developer expressed his support for the idea.
Speaking at The Game Awards 2017 last Thursday, Epic Games worldwide creative director Donald Mustard confirmed that their company is in full support of the cross-play feature, noting that the "players deserve it."
"Gamers want cross-play, and we are committed to doing whatever it takes to make that happen," said the director. Incidentally, Mustard is also the man behind "Fortnite," which momentarily allowed cross-play last September before Sony expressed its opposition to the idea. The feature was taken down by Epic, noting a "configuration issue," Twinfinite reported.
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The issue was eventually corrected and allowed gamers playing the PC version join matches with PlayStation 4 (PS4) players. Cross-play between PS4 and Xbox One players, one the other hand, was still taken down. "Look, Fortnite is even better when you're playing with your real friends, and due to platform restrictions there are some players that aren't able to play with their friends and are left out," Mustard added.
Right after the cross-play feature for "Fortnite" was taken down, Xbox boss Phil Spencer expressed his regret over the matter. "I would have liked to see them leave it on," Spencer responded to a fan inquiry on Twitter. Moreover, Microsoft also confirmed its willingness to incorporate cross-play with different networks such as Nintendo's online service and the PlayStation Network.
"We're enabling developers to support cross-network play as well," said ID@Xbox director Chris Charla. "Of course, it's up to game developers to support this feature, and Xbox Live players will always have the option of choosing to play only with other Xbox Live players," he added.
Sony, on the other hand, has yet to open its doors to cross-play. "We've got to be mindful of our responsibility to our install base," said Jim Ryan, PlayStation global sales and marketing head in an interview with Eurogamer. He said that the company has a contract with some people where they can "look after them and they are within the PlayStation curated universe."
