Fallout 76: Bethesda Would Really Like to Do Cross Platform Play

At E3 2018 Bethesda revealed that Fallout 76 would be heavily focused on multiplayer.  With walls coming down between consoles for multiplayer games, many are wondering whether Fallout 76 will feature cross platform play.

According to Todd Howard of Bethesda Game Studios, they’d really love to do it.  You can probably take a guess as to who is standing in the way.  Sony once again seems to be the only roadblock between you and cross platform play in Fallout 76, as well as a number of other games.

Howard told Gamestar, “We’d really love that but right now we can’t,” when asked about Cross Platform play in Fallout 76.  “Sony is not as helpful as everyone would like,” said the Fallout developer.

During E3 2018 Sony got some bad press when Epic Games released Fortnite: Battle Royale on the Switch.  The problem was amplified by players being unable to even log in to Fortnite on the Switch if they’d used their profile on the PlayStation 4 before.  The situation amplified what we already knew — Sony is being incredibly proactive in making the PlayStation Network a walled garden.

With players of the last few year’s biggest games asking for cross play in the likes of Rocket League, Minecraft, and Fortnite — Sony has not budged on opening the gates to the PlayStation kingdom.  This is despite pressure mounting from the competition.  Microsoft and Nintendo have promoted cross platform play in recent weeks for Minecraft with a “Better Together” marketing campaign that touts the ability for Minecraft players to play together across five different platforms that includes the Xbox, Windows, Mobile, VR, and Switch versions of the game.

So why doesn’t Sony want to let PlayStation players commingle with Switch and Xbox owners?  While they’ve said that the reason is to protect the PlayStation fanbase, apparently the actual reason is money according to Jon Smedley, an ex-SOE employee.

Howard’s comments don’t entirely rule out the possibility of a future that has players playing Fallout 76 across the Xbox, PC, and PlayStation platforms, but it appears that everyone  (developers & players) is just waiting for Sony to give the green light.