Console cross-play just around the corner?

In a recent interview with IGN, Jeremy Dunham, VP of game development studio Psyonix, has confirmed that they have completed development on their cross-console multiplayer features for Rocket League.

The vehicular soccer video game was launched on the PS4 and PC mid 2015, with the Xbox One version unleashed last month, and has taken the world by storm. The platform has even spawned it’s own eSports leagues in Europe and the Americas early this year. With the addition of cross-network play, the competition would be taken to a whole new level, allowing players once segregated from their friends by console preference the chance to battle on a level playing field (kinda literally).

Dunham told IGN that “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…” Microsoft has already said for a while now that they are ready to accomodate cross-console play, so all this appears to be ultimately in the hands of Sony.

If this software is given the go-ahead, it could result in a major wave of cross-console patches and updates to already much beloved games. For example, though Blizzard has mostly crushed the idea of PC-console play due to the perceived advantage that a mouse and keyboard give in reaction speed, hope is still alive for cross-console Overwatch servers. It’s assumed at this point companies are waiting to see the reception of the Rocket League servers before making any bold decisions.

What do you think? Is cross-console play a move in the right direction? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

Sources: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4