While there’s no live conversation going on at Sony about cross-network play, Rocket League developer Psyonix will do anything to make it happen – and that includes constantly asking them.
In an interview with Engadget, studio Vice President Jeremy Dunham revealed that, since Rocket League first launched two years ago, at least one person from the team has been in contact with PlayStation “every single day.” Cross-network play with other consoles is a popular topic during these conversations, but Dunham says Sony’s answer is always the same:
There have been slight variations on how it’s been presented to us, but essentially it’s the same answer. It’s ‘not right now’ or ‘it’s something we’ll consider.’ That’s paraphrasing, but there hasn’t been any movement.
Part of Sony’s reasoning for not allowing cross-network play is that they have a responsibility to their install base, and have to be careful what they expose them to. Addressing this, Dunham said, “We have all these protections in place to ensure your experience isn’t terrible. There’s always gonna be trolls that can find a way to do anything, but that’s not platform agnostic — that’s universal.”
Some of those safeguards include the lack of voice chat across platforms, and a filter that blocks Steam users with inappropriate names.
People have suggested that another reason Sony isn’t allowing cross-network play has to do with the fact that they’re far and away the leader this console generation, and don’t have any reason to offer it. Giving his thoughts, Dunham said, “I don’t view it as a competitive loss to allow cross-network play. I view it as a competitive disadvantage not to have it. Especially if you’re the only one [holding out].”
Earlier this year, Psyonix said there was no cut-off date for their support of Rocket League. In the Engadget interview, Dunham suggested that the original Rocket League will be released across console generations:
We’re not trying to build six Rocket Leagues. We’re not looking forward to when Rocket League 2 and 3 and 4 are coming out. Rocket League is the game we’re gonna keep updating. It’s important to us to keep that going, cross-generation, across multiple platforms without sacrificing anything.
Rocket League’s 2nd Anniversary Update arrives on July 5.
