Borderlands 3 is getting cross play on all platforms except for PlayStation

Gearbox has some good news today – Borderlands 3 is finally getting cross-play support. The bad news is that this won't be enabled for PlayStation, as publisher 2K Games requested that the feature be disabled for Sony's console.

Gearbox CEO, Randy Pitchford, made the reveal on Twitter this afternoon, stating: “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.”

Why would 2K Games not want cross play supported on PlayStation? Well the answer to that lies in the Epic Games v Apple trial. During the trial, it was revealed that Sony has a royalty system in place for cross-play titles, ensuring that PlayStation still makes money when accounts are used to purchase in-game content on other platforms. The trial only revealed that this system is in place for Fortnite, but it is possible that Sony is using this system with other game publishers as well.

If that is the root cause, then it would seem that 2K Games is looking to avoid these royalty payments by enabling Cross Play on other systems where this isn't an issue. Unfortunately, Pitchford and 2K Games have not clarified the reasoning behind this decision.

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KitGuru Says: Emails revealed through the Epic v Apple trial show that Sony was indeed very against the idea of allowing cross play on PlayStation and even now, the company still appears to be pushing back on it a bit.

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