Hi-Rez Studios Takes a Shot at Sony for Cross-Platform Play Favorites
Last year it seemed unclear whether Sony was ever going to get in on the cross-play action after sticking their foot in their mouth one to many times on the issue. Towards the end of 2018 it seemed like they were willing to make it work and relented a little, with Fortnite and Rocket League both joining the cross-play ranks. Back in November Hi-Rez Studios announced cross-play was coming to Paladins, Smite, and Realm Royale however it was recently delayed and now they’re expressing their frustration with Sony.
Last month Hi-Rez announced that the cross-play was delayed for Paladins, Realm Royale, and SMITE so that they could polish the finished product however it looks like they’re ready to go and maybe Sony just isn’t. As you can imagine, they’re frustrated that while they are now ready with the ability for players to play together across multiple platforms, Sony hasn’t given them the green light to launch the feature. The President of Hi-Rez Studios, Stewart Chisam, recently took to Twitter to call Sony out for it. You can check it out below.
Hey @Sony @PlayStation. It's time to stop playing favorites and tear down the crossplay/progression wall for everyone. We have @SMITEGame, @PaladinsGame, @RealmRoyale ready to go when you are. https://t.co/KNDetpXPf5
— HiRezStew (@schisam) February 8, 2019
Stewart Chisam also posted the benefits to cross-play, and talked about how the Switch and Xbox saw reduced wait times and a reduction in poor matches since they launched cross-play between Microsoft and Nintendo. You can check out this list below as well.
Xplay improves match quality in multiplayer games. When we added crossplay between Paladins Xbox and Switch:
>> Wait time reduced 30%
>> Level spread between players down 40%
>> 40% reduction in ELO std deviation per match
>> 80% reduction in "Bad" matches (by our internal defn)— HiRezStew (@schisam) February 8, 2019
It’ll be interesting to see how Sony will respond and whether this might speed up the process. Do you agree with Hi-Rez? What do you think about this hot topic issue? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and don’t forget to keep it locked for updates!