Ark: Survival Evolved developers Studio Wildcard have been working on cross-play between PlayStation 4 and Xbox One behind studio doors. Without much effort, the company has successfully gotten cross-play working between the two consoles and would be ready to allow users to play together, if Sony would allow it.
Writing on Twitter, Lead Programmer of Ark Jeremy Stieglitz wrote, “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.”
When asked by a fan if this meant this meant there was the possibility of cross-play between PS4 and Xbox One, Stieglitz replied, “We have it working internally, but currently Sony won’t allow it” followed by a very disappointed looking sad face.
Following the refusal of Minecraft and Rocket League cross-console play, Ark: Survival Evolved is the third turndown from Sony regarding this situation. With PlayStation not playing ball with Microsoft and Nintendo, despite the company advertising cross-platform play between PS4 and PC as a feature in exclusives such as Street Fighter V, it’s definitely disappointing to owners of the system wishing to play with friends on rival platforms. Although, with Sony showing market domination this generation with over 50 million consoles sold, it’s not hard to see why Sony would want to keep their competition at length.
Maybe one day in the future, Sony will eventually allow more developer freedom and accept the wishes everyone, regardless of console choice, to play together in the future. As for now, Ark: Survival Evolved players will have to keep themselves limited to their respective platforms in its early access for or its full version, releasing August 29th.
- This article was updated on March 8th, 2018
More on Attack of the Fanboy :
Attack of the Fanboy / GAME NEWS / Ark: Survival Evolved could have PS4/Xbox One cross-play, if Sony allows it
