Should developers enable cross-play in protest to the manufacturers?

I personally think it's not safe to enable cross-play without the appropriate security testing and any unauthorized attempts to do it could put peoples personal details at risk. It probably wont but I'd rather that potential exploits be tested on an OS level.

What I believe would happen is your name would show up as is on PSN/Switch or PS4 but there will be something on a system level to differentiate which you wont be able to see.

I think you missed the whole point of the question. Remove any qualifiers you may want to put on it. Assume that they triple-checked 'security' and everything works perfectly after the flip is switched. Based on principal alone, should developers allow cross-play on their own volition?

The same argument could be made that any manufacturer would be stupid not to allow something as minute as cross platform play to discourage a publisher from releasing a game say, Call of Dutyor Battlefront on their system. It's a corporate game of chicken that is played all the time.

Object distinction like with names in a database is very basic programming. Every individual 'name' has a corresponding key that is unique from every other 'name'. JimBob87 on PSN might have a key of 130968 but JimBob87 on XBL would have a key of 130315. The database doesn't see JimBob87 when its called, it sees the key.

I find 99% of the people playing online to be insufferable so I'd rather them limit my interaction with them than expand on it.

Absolutely. Microsoft has been in and Sony hasn't and that's too bad. It's a no brainer.

.... I don't think that's what people are talking about man.

In protest? Nah, it would probably lead to legal issues if somebody tried to enable it without permission, keep it on, and Sony still refused to budge. The problem is Sony holds all the cards. They have the market share. No sane, notable publisher is not going to release on PS4 if they have the option. Sony don't have to do shit.

I'm kinda tired of the "well, Microsoft was like that during the 360 era so it's fine if Sony does it now." It was shitty stance to take then and it's still shitty now. Personally, I see it as a win-win for everybody because games will have a longer tail on both platforms, not just the XB1. Microsoft wins "bigger," sure, but Sony still wins if they let it happen.

@artisanbreads: no... I know... I'm just sayin.

The last thing any developer/publisher wants to do is endanger their relationship with a platform holder, so the only reasonable answer here is to not do it. Continue to lobby behind the scenes for cross-play and just hope that something changes their mind.

Also, with regard to this just being "a back-end switch on the developers end", keep in mind that will only be the case in games that utilize their own servers for matchmaking and hosting. A lot of games still utilize the platform specific (Steam, Xbox Live, PSN) matchmaking servers, especially games from smaller developers that can't afford to maintain their own servers.

I didn't miss the point of your question I answered it. You've retrospectively added a bunch of qualifiers.

I support crossplay, but still my answer is no because they'll likely be breaking some sort of contract and that's bad business.

@yesiamaduck: on what basis and what makes you think going cross platform increases or creates that risk that you don’t think exists within the same platform?

What information do you think they are sending out there?

As for if they should develop it anyway in “protest” I have two things to say: first of all there is a process in place to prevent that so it would be tricky to get through cert. Not impossible but tricky and once you were found out Sony would likely prevent your game from going onto their network. Second of all it would be bad for business. You’d be jeapordizing a valuable business relationship over a minor feature.

I wish Sony was more receptive. Plenty of people try to talk them into it and get shut down.

It just requires more testing to prevent any exploits. Their current OS is tested to connect to other consoles and as far as they're aware there are no exploits. This is a different story when a different infrastructure interacts within a closed network, as I say it's unlikely but this sort of stuff needs to be tested regardless.

@kingbonesaw: @deebeep: as a quick aside, the whole reason Sony can't do name changes is apparently because the usernames are the actual key.

As for the cross platform multiplayer discussion: it's nice in principle, but principles don't help in business.

Wow. That seems like something anyone that's worked with databases should've recognized as an issue from the earliest beginnings of PSN.

As someone who got red ringed and screwed by ms during the 360 era and being sol when I got a PS3 and wanted to play with 360 friends, I am totally fine with sonys refusal to cross platform. It's not the most consumer friendly but it really sticks it to Microsoft which is always ok in my book.

If I make leather wallets should I walk up to my main buyer who sells my wallets in his shop to punch him in the nose? Should I do that in full view of other shops owners who might sell my wallets in the future?

That above question are rhetorical because we all know such actions would be foolish, and show a complete lack of business acumen.

It should happen, but they shouldn't do it against manufacturer wishes. If they want to more vocally voice their concerns that it should be allowed, then by all means. I don't actually know how much it would help with regards to playing with friends, though - for a lot of games you still wouldn't be able to party up with your friends on another console (take Rocket League as an example, where you cannot join a team with someone on PC when you're on PS4, or vice versa).

I don't believe that would be a hot idea to do so. The reason why is that the developers and publishers would ruin a business agreement that they might have had with any of the three console companies.

With that being said, Sony is just dumb for not allowing crossplay.

I respect people being "professional" so I really don't see the point in game-developers/publishers getting in Sony's face over this sort of thing. Sony's attitude has been completely absurd, with justifications that are completely transparent and make no sense, but there's no need for devs to start drama with them about it. The consumers themselves should be pushing Sony about it (perhaps with the limited public backing of those companies themselves) instead. Hopefully they wise up eventually.

No, it wouldn't be very smart to "bite the hand that feeds" them

As much as there's some satisfaction in sticking it to big corporations, I imagine that this would be a fantastic way open one up to lawsuits. I'm pretty sure that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act could be interpreted to find the corporations that do this at fault.