Borderlands 3 Adding Cross-Play Support, Except for PlayStation
Borderlands 3 is an extremely fun game, with players going out and about shooting, looting, and all that the previous games in the series have to offer. However, an update coming to Borderlands 3 will enable cross-play with Xbox, PC, and Stadia players, all that’s missing is PlayStation. According to Randy Pitchford, that choice to leave out PlayStation was entirely intentional.
Good News, Bad News
Randy posted a tweet onto his Twitter page, revealing that their exemption of Sony’s console was intentional. “Good news or bad news first? Good news: An update for Borderlands 3 has been prepared for release that includes full cross-play support across all platforms. Bad news: For certification, we have been required by the publisher to remove cross-play support for PlayStation consoles.”
Good news or bad news first? Good News: An update for Borderlands 3 has been prepared for release that includes full crossplay support across all platforms. Bad News: For certification, we have been required by the publisher to remove crossplay support for PlayStation consoles.
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) May 27, 2021
Randy cites that the decision was given to Gearbox by the publisher; in this case, that would put 2K as the culprit of this decision. Although, Sony has been notoriously known for being apprehensive to the prospect of online cross-play between their consoles and competitors. Sony has stated that they want their ecosystem to be purely based on only PlayStation players, without the intervention from other companies such as Microsoft and Steam. Sony eventually did cave on their stance for cross-play, seeing that games like Fortnite, Fall Guys, and Call of Duty allowed the ability to play against players from different consoles. The only caveat to this change of heart came from a fee that developers needed to pay to Sony to “recoup the losses of letting players engage in cross-play activities.”
While Sony did mention that they were focusing on engaging in more cross-play activities, their unwillingness to go forth with this idea did not stop with Fortnite and Call of Duty. Previously for Sony, Microsoft brought cross-play to Minecraft, allowing players to play the game together through its bedrock version, found on Xbox, Windows 10, Mobile devices, and Switch. In this case, Sony was also excluded from the game, only deciding to join in on the fun later, bringing Minecraft cross-play to the PS4 in December 2019.
While it hasn’t outright been said that the decision not to allow cross-play support for PS4/PS5 versions of Borderlands 3 was due to Sony’s intervention, many fans have already made it known that they them for the decision. However, any player of Borderlands 3 that is not playing on a PlayStation will be able to enjoy the world of the game with their friends regardless of what console they own, just as long as it’s not a PlayStation.
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