Remember a few months back when Microsoft revealed that the Xbox One was not only able to support cross-platform play between itself and the PlayStation 4, but that they appeared to actively encourage such a thing? Even though nothing has come of the possibility since, Rocket League developer Psyonix has confirmed that, with the blessing of Sony, they could have cross-play up and running “in less than a business day” if they so wished.
Speaking to IGN, the studio’s VP Jeremy Dunham said:
Right now, we’re literally at the point where all we need is the go-ahead on the Sony side and we can, in less than a business day, turn it on and have it up and working no problem. It’d literally take a few hours to propagate throughout the whole world, so really we’re just waiting on the permission to do so.
Sony’s such a big company that I’m sure it takes a while for them to figure out what it is that the roadblocks are, what sort of issues they might run into with other titles, any number of things that I can’t even begin to speculate on.
As of now, Rocket League players on console have the option of being matched with and against PC users, but that’s it. Sony still hasn’t indicated whether it would be open to letting its playerbase mingle with its closest competitor, and Dunham seems to believe that they were just as surprised by Microsoft’s original announcement as everyone else.
It was just as much of a surprise to them as I think the rest of the world when Microsoft said that they would do it.
Fingers crossed, eh?