Sony won't allow cross-platform play for Ark: Survival Evolved Platform holder still reluctant to allow PS4 players to engage online with Xbox One owners

James Batchelor UK Editor Monday 21st August 2017 Share this article Share

Companies in this article Sony PlayStation Studio Wildcard

Another developer has revealed that cross-platform plans for their game have been stifled by Sony.

Wilcard co-founder and Ark Survival Evolved co-creative director Jeremy Stieglitz discussed the dinosaur-filled survival game's multiplayer on Twitter, spotted by Eurogamer, revealing that while some versions of the game will be able to interact with each other, the PS4 edition will not be one of them.

"For Ark, if the session host is running an Xbox One X, anyone connected to that host will not have tether regardless of clients' consoles," Stieglitz wrote.

When asked if this meant cross-play would be possible between Xbox One and PS4, the developer replied: "We have it working internally, but currently Sony won't allow it."

The news follows similar revelations from the studios behind Minecraft and Rocket League. Both titles will allow Xbox One, PC and even Nintendo Switch owners to play together, but Sony has blocked PlayStation 4 from being included in this.

Speaking to Eurogamer after E3, specifically with regards to cross-platform play for Minecraft, Sony's global marketing boss Jim Ryan said: "We have a contract with the people who go online with us, that we look after them and they are within the PlayStation curated universe. Exposing what in many cases are children to external influences we have no ability to manage or look after, it's something we have to think about very carefully."

Shortly afters, Xbox chief Phil Spencer dismissed this argument, adding: "The fact that somebody would make an assertion that somehow we're not keeping Minecraft players safe I found - not only from a Microsoft perspective, but from a game industry perspective - I don't know why that has to become the dialogue," he said. "That doesn't seem healthy for anyone.

"We would never put Minecraft in a place where we felt like we weren't keeping our players safe."

Spencer maintains "the door is open" for cross-platform play between Xbox One and PlayStation 4 but it appears Sony is still unsure about stepping through it. GamesIndustry.biz has reached out to Sony for comment.