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Gearbox Software CEO Randy Pitchford gave “Borderlands 3” players a heads up on Thursday that an upcoming update will include cross-platform play. There is a major caveat, though. PlayStation consoles will not be supported.
Pitchford announced the “good news and bad news” on Twitter confirming that a crossplay function “across all platforms” where “Borderlands 3” is available will be added in an upcoming update. The bad news, however, Gearbox was required to remove cross-platform play for PS4 and PS5 in order for the update to get certified for release.
Good news or bad news first? Good News: An update for Borderlands 3 has been prepared for release that includes full crossplay support across all platforms. Bad News: For certification, we have been required by the publisher to remove crossplay support for PlayStation consoles.
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) May 27, 2021
The requirement to remove PS4 and PS5 from the crossplay mix came from 2K Games, the publisher of “Borderlands 3.” Pitchford did not provide specific details why 2K would impose such a condition. But Sony has been known for blocking cross-platform play in the past, even for widely successful titles like “Fortnite.”
During the Epic Games v. Apple trial that transpired earlier this month, documents revealed that it took some very strenuous convincing from Epic’s side to get Sony on board with crossplay in 2018. In a comprehensive report of The Verge, email conversations between Epic and Sony executives showed the former made a myriad of offers to include PS4 players in the “Fortnite” cross-platform play.
A message to Sony from Epic’s VP of business development Joe Kreiner showed the PlayStation maker was offered substantial marketing partnerships at E3 where Epic would “make Sony look like heroes.” Epic also offered Sony a company-wide extension of its Unreal Engine 4 license that, at the time, was expiring in May 2019. Those offers, it appeared, were not enough to convince Sony.
The same report found a 2019 email with a PlayStation document called “cross-platform policy, requirements, and process” that stipulated how much royalties a game publisher will pay Sony for the months where “PSN Revenue Share divided by PS4 Gameplay Share ... is less than 0.85” on games with crossplay on PlayStation. During the trial this month, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney also confirmed Sony is the only company asking for such compensation to allow crossplay.
Gearbox did not elaborate on the removal of PS4 and PS5 support for “Borderlands 3” cross-platform play, and 2K has yet to address the matter. But the information unveiled from the Epic Games v. Apple trial has sparked speculations that 2K may have refused to enter this kind of agreement.
Gearbox has yet to announce when the “Borderlands 3” update containing the cross-platform play will go live. But once it is released, players across Windows PC, macOS, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Google Stadia will be able to play together.
