Cross-Play For PS5, Next Xbox May Leave Less Room For Smaller Games To Find An Audience, Says Dev

“If all platforms share the same ecosystem, the number of commercially viable multiplayer games might diminish,” says Outward creative lead Guillaume Boucher-Vidal.

[Eonjay]

Okay so the PS4 is pressing 100 million. If your audience is struggling with a huge player count like that, I don't see what adding Xbox's 40 million + will do.
It is foolish to think that crossplay is a magic pill for struggling developers.

[Zeref]

it adds 40 million more potential sales. If you cant see how thats beneficial, then I hope you're not running any businesses.

[Nitrowolf2]

Cross play isn’t gonna make people go out and buy their game, a good game is gonna make people buy their game.

Sure it adds 40 million potential to the pool, but they aren’t buying the game for that sole reason.

The only major plus I see with this is removes overhead cost to run different networks for different consoles

I’m not against crossplay at all, but it isn’t gonna magically make your game thriving if the player count already low it’ll just pool in what u have left. And it may increase dlc purchases such as map packs, but with how the industry is leaning the charge for map model is vanishing in favor of f2p elements

[Eonjay]

I think you miss my point. If it is struggling on PS4 with 2x the bodies, it is probably also already struggling on Xbox. Crossplay wont make a poor game suddenly appealing. The delusion is sky high.

[psuedo]

Po...po........potential...... .PO......PO.........potentially

[StormSnooper]

This developer is saying the opposite. He is saying that crossplayer would mean that smaller indie titles would be less likely to have a market because big budget multiplayer’s would dominate even more than they already do. At least read the article first.

[Cmv38]

Cross play doesn't add to the sales. It adds to the community. Example. Ps4 sells 1 million copies, xbox sells 1 million. 2 million sales, but the community is only 1 million strong. Cross play enabled, same amount of sales, but community is 2 million strong. Im not a direct supporter of cross play, I think it helps games in dying communities, but that's about it. Any potential sell it adds are marginal at best.

[Eonjay]

@StormSnooper

I get that yes, but I still think that devs are looking for excuses. I mean a good game will get coverage and popularity. I think that regardless of how many devices a game can be crossplayed on, it doesn't negate quality of the product itself.

[Shikoku]

It adds no sales tard because the 40million people on xbone either bought it or they didn't crossplay is not some pillar that people base purchases on.

[WilliamSheridan]

I think you guys miss the point of cross play. If the game has 100k players on each system, that could be considered failing. But together it has 200k which keeps the game alive longer. And potentially keeps players from leaving sure to the game being vacant

[Nitrowolf2]

This is a valid benefit, but games with small community usually are like that cause of dedicated fans. It may prolong support longer but don’t expect it to be a major impact.

At the end of the day it still benifit everyone even if it’s small

[Livingthedream]

You really only need like 1k to 10k to keep an active community.

[Eonjay]

Again, if you have 200k or even 100k on one device and you are a small dev, that is quite an achievement in and of itself. I think that devs need to remember that quality trumps all. A piss poor game on one device will not be suddenly popular on many devices and vice versa. Rocket League for example was never going to be in danger of no community even if it was just on PC.

[Shikoku]

No nitrowolf it isn't a valid point the game has 200k players regardless of platform what universe do you people live in?

[EliteComments123]

i dont want crosssplay for all games

[StormSnooper]

Yeah it’s not at all a priority for me. I want good games and competition between console makers forces them to deliver quality. If crossplay leads to less intense competition then I’m not for it. Currently, every sold console causes a avalanche effect because if your friend buys a console, it makes you more likely to get the same console to play with your friend. This means the stakes are high for console sales. Take that away, and you have eased competition.

I generally don’t like cooperation between companies. It’s had catastrophic effect on the telecommunications industry where they cooperate to the point that consumers don’t really have any choice and they have to do/pay what these Mobil/cable tv/Internet companies offer them.

So, IMO, push for crossplay if you like paying for monthly services for your “premium tv bundles”, because that’s where it will lead.

[Cueil]

That made no sense!

[StormSnooper]

@Cueil
What I’m saying is that this crossplay cooperation will move the console makers closer together thus reducing competition. That means less incentive to compete. Currently these companies are forced to cater to us and we enjoy the benefits of the fierce competition between them. The more they cement their place and distribute the wealth among themselves in a less competitive environment, the less we as consumers will be serviced with competitive games and the more we will be nickel and dimed with services, etc. think about cable tv, why is it that they can put content behind “packages”? It’s because the cable/phone companies cooperate with each other.

[King_Noctis]

And why is that? What is the drawback?

[Muzikguy]

A gamingbolt article 😂

[ElementX]

I've said it before, you have to give GamingBolt credit for actually interviewing developers instead of just posting reviews and rehashing industry news.

[MisterLou]

Yeah they take an interview and turn each question into it's own article!

[Muzikguy]

Everyone they interview they call a developer and every question is a full page article with next to no information. Then the content in each article gets rehashed and repeated to create a longer "read". Also most questions or statement made are common sense. I don't give them credit for that. I'd much rather see rehash of actual news

[Petebloodyonion]

I just love the fact that nobody took a second to read the article before posting here about how Crossplay won't save a bad game or Ps has enough a big player base.

The article is about the potential pitfall for smaller dev that might face due to crossplay like having a shared ecosystem AAA game eating the player base of an unknown game due to a simple rule: you can only play 1 game at the time.

[Cmv38]

I don't think cross play affects a game that much. I'm not going to play fortnite more because of friends on a different system if I enjoy apex much more.

[Muzikguy]

The article is from a garbage website so people naturally won't read it. I don't read from there

[galmi]

its n4g

nobody reads the article

[TeamIcoFan]

Crossplay or bust motherfuckers, especially for MMOs.

[SLiSH83]

It helps small devs, who if they build a good game have a larger player base, who will support the game longer, which inturn should make the dev support the game longer.

[slavish0]

So less games dying equal less games getting made🤔... Dumb s**t to hope for games to die out 😂

[Rapidfirepunches]

Who would win in a fight, Outward Dev or Hellpoint Dev?

[Shikoku]

Cross play is not a thing that is need what the hell is wrong with people?

[King_Noctis]

Is not needed by whom? You and a couple of people here? Because alot of devs speak in favor for it.

[Muzikguy]

Do they?

[King_Noctis]

@Muzikguy

You aren’t serious are you?