Long awaited: After seemingly continuous pestering from fans, it appears that Sony may finally be relaxing its policies regarding cross-platform play. Starting today PlayStation 4 Rocket League players can compete with and against users on Xbox One, Switch, and PC.
After more than a year of pressure, Sony has finally caved and is allowing full cross-platform play for Rocket League. The policy change came after continued nagging from RL fans and follows a similar allowance for cross-play support in Fortnite last September.
"With special thanks to all of our friends and colleagues at PlayStation, we are thrilled to announce that starting RIGHT NOW, Rocket League has entered the PlayStation Cross-Play Beta program," states the Psyonix press release.
Previously the console maker only allowed cross-play between the PlayStation 4 and PC, even though developer Psyonix claimed clear back in 2017 that it could have cross-platform support enabled on the PS4 in under an hour if Sony would allow it. Now, PlayStation 4 users can play and compete with Xbox One and Nintendo Switch Rocket League players as well.
As of today, Psyonix has enabled cross-play on the PS4 by default with only a few limitations. Currently, matchmaking is entirely random. When joining a public game, players are placed on teams randomly across all platforms. Players can create a squad consisting of friends, but only in a private match.
Now all four platforms --- PS4, XB1, Switch, and PC --- can play Rocket League together.
Developers are working on an update that will allow cross-platform party selection. However, they did not announce a timeframe for the update only saying that it is "coming soon."
The studio thanked fans for their continued support and for keeping Sony's feet to the fire regarding allowing cross-play.
"It's because of you, our fans, and our generous partners on all systems and services that have made this possible in the first place," said Psyonix's VP of Publishing Jeremy Dunham. "On behalf of the entire team, thank you for your passion and persistence as we continue to do our best to make Rocket League the best experience we can."
Is this the beginning of Sony embracing cross-platform play? It is still a bit too early to tell. The console leader is still stonewalling cross-play on other obvious titles like Fallout 76, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, and Minecraft. We'll have to wait and see if its policies become even more relaxed as the next generation of consoles marches toward us.