Psyonix vice president Jeremy Dunham says work on Rocket League‘s proposed cross-network play between PS4 and Xbox One is now complete, could be up-and-running within “a few hours”, and only requires Sony’s approval to be released.
Speaking to IGN, Dunham explained just how close the groundbreaking feature – which would allow play across Xbox Live and PSN for the first time – could potentially be:
“Right now,” explained Dunham, “we’re literally at the point where all we need is the go-ahead on the Sony side and we can, in less than a business day, turn it on and have it up and working no problem. It’d literally take a few hours to propagate throughout the whole world, so really we’re just waiting on the permission to do so.”
In March, Dunham said that such a solution was “figured out” but not finished, and that Psyonix needed to “find out where we stand politically with everyone”. It seems that Microsoft has since approved the move, leaving Sony to give their final say. Unfortunately, Dunham’s not aware of when the word could come:
“It could be tomorrow, it could be longer than that. We just don’t know – we’re anxiously awaiting that, just like the rest of our fans.”
Dunham was keen to make clear that Sony’s lack of a decision does not seem to be out of philosophical reluctance to allow such a move to happen, rather that it’s a case of making sure everything’s in place on its end before committing:
“Sony’s such a big company that I’m sure it takes a while for them to figure out what it is that the roadblocks are, what sort of issues they might run into with other titles, any number of things that I can’t even begin to speculate on. We definitely ask them for updates often, and we’re still very confident that they’re eventually going to open those doors and welcome us in, but we also are really understanding that it’s going to take a while especially given all the ramifications of everything. It was just as much of a surprise to them as I think the rest of the world when Microsoft said that they would do it.”
Blizzard has previously expressed interest in cross-console play for Overwatch, and Dunham says such announcements – alongside public interest from fans – could help expedite a release:
“I think that the more companies that show the world that they’re interested in that sort of thing, and the more communities that get behind it, the more likely it is that it’ll happen […] We think that the gaming community as a whole is the final voice in this – it’s what they want which will determine where we go eventually.”
With console cross-network play somewhat in limbo, then, does Dunham believe it will come about? His response is typically, and infectiously enthusiastic:
“At the risk of sounding naïve, I do think it will happen. Whether or not it’ll be soon is another question. The sooner the better for us, and for our fans, and fans of other games […] I do think it’s inevitable, I think the industry is going to get there, because I don’t see the downsides from it.”
Joe Skrebels is IGN’s UK News Editor, and he’s making his Xbox and PS4 controllers do little kisses right now to see if that helps. Follow him on Twitter.