Samuel Axon
This week, Sony rolled out Discord voice chat support for its PlayStation 5 console, making it the first time a third-party OS-wide game voice call option is available on Sony’s console.
Previously, PlayStation 5 users could see the game they were currently playing on their Discord profile, but couldn’t communicate with other players without using their phone, tablet, or computer.
This rollout follows a similar rollout on Microsoft’s Xbox console last fall. Discord voice calling has long been available on PC, Mac, iOS, and Android. The only major gaming platform outlier is Nintendo’s Switch.
With support for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation, Discord is poised to become the go-to Voice-over-IP service for cross-platform multiplayer gaming. .
Of course, this is great for Discord as a platform and company. It’s great to see competing services continue. That way Discord doesn’t have a monopoly on this kind of functionality.
That said, even just one service that does this is a huge boon for cross-play advocates, and shows that the multiplayer gaming environment is vastly different from previous console generations.
dream of crossplay
For at least 20 years, online gamers have demanded the ability to play with friends across platforms.
Of course, there have been some outliers over the years. With the Sega Dreamcast, released in 1998, game developers worked with Microsoft to bring the Dreamcast and Windows PC players together. quake 3 arena and Phantasy Star Online.
Shortly thereafter, Final Fantasy XI made headlines in 2002 by offering cross-play between PlayStation 2 and PC players.
Valve president Gabe Newell famously attended Sony’s E3 press conference and announced the following: Portal 2 Coming to PlayStation 3 and featuring cross-play with PC. That’s how I played Portal 2co-op mode. I played on his PS3 with a friend who used to play Steam on his gaming PC.
Over the years, Microsoft has gradually expanded cross-play options between Xbox consoles and Windows PCs with games like: Mine Craft Or the Forza franchise.
But until very recently, cross-play between console platforms was virtually non-existent. No matter which console platform was the sales leader in a given generation, there was a strong incentive to support it. Buying his PS4 instead of Xbox One if Sony allowed his PlayStation 4 players to play with friends on Xbox One Social Part of the snowball effect from console market dominance as his drive dwindled decreased. The same was true of Microsoft’s (at least initially) dominant Xbox 360 and underpowered PS3.
It took a game so huge, so popular, so zeitgeist, to finally break through this that even in a very dominant position over the past few years, Sony acquiesces. There was only one: Epic Games’ fortniteThe game’s popularity is due to Epic chief Tim Sweeney’s controversial outspoken activism and Microsoft’s calculated efforts to undermine Sony’s position with consumer-oriented messages and policies. Together, they bullied Sony into changing his tune.
However, it wasn’t all settled at that point for developers and players.It was later revealed that Epic had to pay Sony to provide crossplay fortnite Offset Sony’s related losses.
fortnite It wasn’t the first and only crossplay title, but it opened the floodgates like never before. Sony hasn’t given every developer easy-to-use tools and APIs to facilitate cross-play, but especially with a growing roster of developers with a say in it, including his Activision. , started working fine. call of duty.
Today, more games than ever before have cross-play, both big and small, and even between PlayStation and Xbox. It’s not the majority of new games yet, but the trend is heading in that direction.
