PlayStation Boss Explains Why Cross-Play Took So Long to Enable

PlayStation's cross-play holdout ended on Wednesday with Fortnite players now able to play with others on different platforms, a change that the PlayStation Worldwide Studios boss said took longer than he would have wanted.

Sony shared the news. of cross-play finally being enabled on the PlayStation 4 in a PlayStation Blog post that referred to Fortnite's cross-play feature as an "Extended Fortnite Cross-Play Beta." Cross-play is only available in that game right now, a game often referenced in the debates about cross-play given Sony's account-limiting practices when it came to the battle royale game, practices that are now being changed.

Following that initial announcement, PlayStation boss Shawn Layden answered more cross-play questions in a PlayStation Blogcast (via Eurogamer) and talked about the steps that he says Sony had to take first before enabling cross-play with other platforms.

"We know this is a want, this is a desire, and we want to be able to deliver that in the best way possible," he said in the PlayStation Blogcast. "Now, enabling cross-play isn't just about flipping a switch and 'there you go'. It's a very multi-dimensional kind of attribute or feature."

The "flipping a switch" comparison might bring up another example of cross-play to listeners' minds, one that also happened in Fortnite but wasn't fully planned. Epic Games has more than once activated cross-play in Fortnite to let those on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One play together, an event that showed the technology was in place to enable it even by accident.

Layden said that there were several scenarios that Sony had to explore first though that ranged from looking at cross-play from a business perspective to making sure that players would still be supported by a customer service team prepared to deal with cross-play challenges.

"So we had to look at it from a technical point of view, we have to work with our partners from a business point of view, we have to make sure that if we enable this, do we have the right customer service support, do we have the right messaging out there, do we have all these different things that you have to get in line," he said. "It's rather ordinal - they have to go in a certain order to get them all set up."

With the feature live now in Fortnite, Layden indicated that feedback has been promising so far, though he admitted that the feature took longer to enable than he would've liked.

"That's why, though it's taken us longer certainly than even I would have wanted, but it took as long as it was going to take to get it ready and get it done, which is why we're able to not only to announce it on this past Tuesday, but also enable it at the same time," he said.

PlayStation's cross-play beta for Fortnite is now live.