Over the past year, we’ve been hearing more and more players clambering for cross-platform play for a variety of gaming franchises. With the success of Fortnite, some developers and publishers are beginning to reconsider as well. Among them is EA.
This came out over the course of a recent investor’s call. During the call, Chris Evenden, EA’s Vice President of Investor Relations, stated, “We’re looking at key franchises in terms of how we can deliver cross-platform play in a similar way that Fortnite has, especially some of our titles that have a broad and diverse player base. The ability to bring PC to mobile or mobile to console can bring family and friends together, and we think that’s an important part of our future development profile. Expect more from us on that front in the future.”
While “key franchises” is pretty vague, it seems reasonable to assume Battlefield could be among them, in which case we could see cross-play in Battlefield V.
Of course, for this to work out, hardware manufacturers need to be onboard as well. Microsoft, Valve and Nintendo are all in support of cross-play, but Sony continues to hold out on us. It does seem like something has to give though. Even with its successful exclusive titles, Sony is going to need to offer the key features players are after in order to stay competitive—and cross-play is increasingly among them.
Battlefield V will take place during World War II, and is described by DICE as “the richest and most immersive Battlefield yet.” While we still can’t be sure if it will include cross-play functionality, it shouldn’t be long before we find out. After all, the release date is October 19th, and that is coming up fast. The game will be available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. Be sure and pre-order your copy!