Following Sony's Statement That They Are "Open" to More Cross-Play, Several Devs Are Calling Them Out

Sony Chairman Shawn Layden recently sat down with the folks over at Game Informer to talk about cross-play and how the team was "open for business" to work with developers to make this a reality on even more games. Though it sounded amazing to those that were hoping to play with their friends on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, it seems some developers are calling shenanigans on the chairman's original statement.

For those that missed our previous coverage, Layden mentioned "People keep saying, 'Why doesn't Sony allow more people to have it?' We're open for business on this one. All it takes is for publishers and developers who wish to permission it. As ever, just work with your PlayStation account manager, and they will walk you through the steps that we've learned through our partnership with Epic on how this works. I don't believe right now there is any gating factor on that. I think they're open to make proposals, because the Fortnite thing worked pretty well."

Some developers are saying that Sony was anything but "open" when approached about cross-play and they might not be as "woke" as they are leading many to believe. One of the developers speaking out is Smite and Paladin's Hi-Rez Studios, saying "it's time to stop playing favorites and tear down the crossplay/progression wall for everyone."

Chucklefish Games CEO Finn Brice also took a shot at Sony regarding their newly released Wargroove game saying, "We made many requests for crossplay (both through our account manager and directly with higher ups) all the way up until release month. We were told in no uncertain terms that it was not going to happen.

From our side, we can *literally* toggle a switch and have it working. Of course policy work might be more complicated for Sony. Just wanted to provide some balance on the issue and say that it certainly isn't a question of developers having not contacted their account managers or having dropped the ball. We were told no."

Since a bit part of that statement from Layden seems to hint that the push and shove comes from both ends, the "literally toggle a switch" statement does shed a different light on his recent comments.

To see even more commentary from various developers, you can check out the full Resetera thread right here.

What do you think about what the chairman had to say about Cross-Play progression? Think he was being less than honest? Join in on the conversation in the comment section below, or hit me up over on Twitter @DirtyEffinHippy!