More and more games and manufacturers use crossplay for newly launched titles. Today we would like to share our opinion as to you why this is the right way to go and why this is an important step in the right direction:
What, where, how to crossplay?
Playing together has become more important than ever, especially after the last few months. For many, however, this is only possible if they are on the same platforms.
Games like Fortnite or Rocket League, on the other hand, have offered crossplay for a long time. So I can play on my PlayStation together with my brother, who only owns a Nintendo Switch.
The trend is to further link the players of different systems. This opens ways for playing together, but of course also for the competition among each other.
Deep Dive: FIFA
Let’s just take a look at EA Sports FIFA:
There has always been one world champion for the XBOX and one for the PlayStation. The two then compete against each other again on both platforms.
If EA Sports would offer crossplay for the FIFA series, both could compete on their preferred platform and still play against each other. No disadvantages for anyone.
Longtime competitor eFootball/PES is taking that step starting this fall. In recent years, however, the number of PES players has continued to shrink. With the start of crossplay, all systems will be combined. Thus, PES players can look forward to numerous new opponents!
Deep Dive: Rocket League
Another recent example is Rocket League, which uses the popular “Free2Play” model in addition to crossplay. Since you don’t have a strong advantage over other players on any platform (for example, keyboard vs controller like Fortnite), it simply makes a lot of sense to offer crossplay. In theory, the world’s best gamer could even play with a Nintendo Switch.
Our Take:
We at RawSkill would also like to see more games using crossplay in the future to offer competition between all systems.
Especially when we offer a new game on a single platform, it could be that only a few players are online at the same time. With FIFA, for example, this problem occurs more often for XBOX players.
For us crossplay means that all players would be connected instead of being on their own platforms. This way, we can directly address the large mass of the game rather than, for example, “only” PlayStation players.
The big question and challenge that remains is, if game publishers can bridge the hurdle of differences in difficulties in regards to the respective console and/or device.
