Sony/Microsoft/NintendoPaladins developer Hi-Rez has waded into the ongoing and ever hot discussion about crossplay between rival consoles, calling on Sony to join in on the fun.
Hi-Rez CEO Stew Chisam took to Twitter to outline just some of the many benefits of crossplay based on his own experiences with Paladins, which supports crossplay between Xbox One and Switch.
Xplay improves match quality in multiplayer games. When we added crossplay between Paladins Xbox and Switch:
>> Wait time reduced 30%
>> Level spread between players down 40%
>> 40% reduction in ELO std deviation per match
>> 80% reduction in "Bad" matches (by our internal defn)— HiRezStew (@schisam) February 8, 2019
Chisam has said that overall match quality is actually improved thanks to the joys of crossplay. Match wait time is down 30 percent, thanks to their being a larger player base to choose from, a factor which also helps level spread, which is down 40 percent.
I think we can all agree there’s not much worse than joining a ranked match and getting completely done in by a player who is much, much higher ranked than you. If crossplay can fix that, I’m all for it. I mean, I was before to be fair.
Chisam went on to tell PlayStation it’s time to “stop playing favourites” and properly embrace crossplay and cross-progression for everyone. He added that Smite, Paladins, and Realm Royale Smite are all ready to go for crossplay on Hi-Rez’s end. They’re just waiting for Sony to give them the go ahead.
Hey @Sony @PlayStation. It's time to stop playing favorites and tear down the crossplay/progression wall for everyone. We have @SMITEGame, @PaladinsGame, @RealmRoyale ready to go when you are. https://t.co/KNDetpXPf5
— HiRezStew (@schisam) February 8, 2019
Sony recently allowed crossplay for Fortnite and Rocket League, but Microsoft has been leaps and bounds ahead of the competition when it comes to this, having supported crossplay on a number of titles for some time now.
A recent report even revealed that Microsoft is working to bring Xbox Live friends lists and trophies to Nintendo Switch and mobile devices, which would be a huge move.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.