When you think about gaming as a whole, you would think that certain concepts or ideas would be “obvious” and that every developer or publisher that could or should go along with these concepts would lunge at the opportunity to please gamers. As we all know, that doesn’t always happen, and it’s annoying. One such example is the idea of cross-play, or being able to play a game with people from other platforms, regardless of whether it’s a PC or a console. Yet, it’s been hard to make happen. However, the Epic Games Store, as ironic as it sounds, made sure that its latest big-name title would cross-play over with Steam.
That title is Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, which has already made waves for breaking player count records upon launch. Part of that was thanks to the store helping ensure players could have fun and kill enemies with fellow marines from Steam. They even sent a statement to Eurogamerstating:
“Cross-play across all PC storefronts is a requirement of the Epic Games Store for all multiplayer games, ensuring that players and friends can play together wherever they purchase their games. Developers are free to choose any solutions that meet this requirement, including Epic Online Services, which may require a secondary installation to enable the Social Overlay (friends lists, cross-platform invites, etc) on PC.”
The reason that this is good is so basic it hurts, as gamers WANT to play with others from other systems but aren’t always granted that opportunity due to greed from various developers or publishers. For example, you might recall that Sony and PlayStation were incredibly hesitant to do cross-play with certain beloved multiplatform titles despite people within its fanbase asking for it. Meanwhile, Nintendo and Xbox were making commercials together at one point to highlight the cross-play powers that they once had.
Not everyone can afford every platform on the market, and some don’t want to get every platform because there aren’t that many games that interest them. Or, going back to Sony, the platform costs far too much despite not offering much more than the “basic” versions of the console. So, when cross-play comes into the mix, it allows players to enjoy gaming with one another with no strings attached.
The Epic Game Store’s decision to do this is a big move, as it’s been accused, rightfully, of being rather stingy in its efforts to keep players coming to its store instead of places like Steam.
