PlayStation 4 Cross-Play Is Now Out Of Beta

Could we see more PlayStation 4 games support cross-play? The answer appears to be yes, according to a Wired article that — believe it or not — wasn't about cross-play at all.

Wired wrote a story yesterday about Sony's new PlayStation Now push, which saw the company cut the cost its streaming service in half. However, buried in that same story was a line related to cross-play that, as far as we're aware, Sony itself signed off on. The outlet claimed that "the PS4's cross-play efforts have officially moved out of the beta stage," which is certainly news to us and probably everyone else, as Sony never made an announcement about the cross-play beta ending. But if that is true and cross-play is now open to all comers, we could see more games take advantage in the very near future.

And the news does make some sense if the beta actually ended a few weeks back. We reported in mid-September on Hi-Rez (the studio that perhaps complained the loudest about cross-play) finally getting the go-ahead to implement the feature in Smite, Paladins, and Realm Royale. So if that studio was only let in because cross-play opened up to everyone, we're simply getting the news late, and there could be some additional studios joining the club when they're able.

This is honestly great news, as cross-play is incredibly beneficial to developers, publishers, and players. Games that use cross-play get the benefit of wider player pools, which can help them remain viable for a longer period of time. And players who are able to matchmake faster thanks to cross-play will likely play a game more often. The team at PlayStation didn't start off exactly right in the cross-play department; there was a lot of mixed messaging and a lot of slow-walking. We're glad to see the PS4 fully support the feature, though. Hopefully the PlayStation 5 (or whatever it's called) does the same.