Rocket League studio claims to be able to realize cross-play Xbox One and PS4

Rocket League developer Psyonix Studios revealed in an interview with GameSpot that they have a method in the pipeline that will enable cross-play between the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

In the interview, Jeremy Dunham, vice president of Psyonix, said that technically they are already able to get cross-play between the two consoles working. They don’t disclose exactly how they do this, but they believe they have come up with something that will bridge the gap between the two communities. Presumably, the current system, which facilitates matchmaking between PlayStation 4 and PC, will be expanded. By means of a private backend in which at least parts of the matchmaking and multiplayer take place, the platform limitation can be circumvented, instead of the multiplayer being limited to, for example, only the Xbox Live or PlayStation Network servers.

The current problem, according to Dunham, is mainly political. “All we need to do now is find out how all parties stand politically towards each other, then it’s full speed ahead to complete the solution we’ve already started.” Indeed, the relationship between Microsoft and Sony is not at a point where both parties want to commit to making their server services work together.

Dunham says it’s important for Rocket League to support cross-play. It would be healthy for the game to have more players and more competition. “There is a strange effect that sometimes influences players to stop playing when they think there is no one to play with. This causes a snowball effect where other people also stop playing because they think no one is playing,” he explains.

It is also good for the development of the game. Cross-play allows for simultaneous development for all platforms, so there are no differences between the versions. Rocket League already has cross-platform support between the PC and PlayStation 4. Support for cross-play between the PC and Xbox One is coming this spring.

Psyonix’s claim is in response to current coverage of cross-platform multiplayer between the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. This arose after Microsoft announced it was open to it. Sony responded by cautiously indicating that it was interested in the possibility.