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Shawn Layden Says Sony is “Open for Business” on Cross-platform Gameplay, Dev Denies Claim

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Shawn Layden, the head of Sony’s worldwide studios, has commented on the subject of cross-platform play and Playstation’s reluctance to work with others to make it happen.

Amid pressure from fans for Sony to follow Nintendo and Microsoft and change policy in regards to cross-platform play, Layden states that Sony is “open for business.”

“The whole concept of cross-play, or the movement behind it, whatever you want to call it, really got big in our rear-view mirror super-fast” Layden said, in an interview with Game Informer. “

There’s something back there, and things are closer than they appear, and there it was.

But I think we learned, from the feedback from our fans, that it was important. And it wasn’t just important to a vocal minority. Though, if you look at any of the numbers of the actual cross-play population? That Venn diagram isn’t too big. Even the fans who weren’t personally going to participate in a cross-play activity across different hardware pieces, just felt that it was kind of tone-deaf of PlayStation.”

Fans have seen what Sony has done in regards to Fortnite and Rocket League, and claim the company is being selective when it comes to cross-play capabilities.

“People keep saying, ‘Why doesn’t Sony allow more people to have it?’ We’re open for business on this one” Layden said.

“All it takes is for publishers and developers who wish to permission it. As ever, just work with your PlayStation account manager, and they will walk you through the steps that we’ve learned through our partnership with Epic on how this works.

“I don’t believe right now there is any gating factor on that. I think they’re open to make proposals, because the Fortnite thing worked pretty well.”

Layden’s comments elicited a response from the CEO of Chucklefish, who shared his own experience with Sony and their cross-platform process.

“We made many requests for crossplay (both through our account manager and directly with higher ups) all the way up until release month. We were told in no uncertain terms that it was not going to happen”, the statement read on ResetEra.

“From our side, we can literally toggle a switch and have it working. Of course policy work might be more complicated for Sony.

“Just wanted to provide some balance on the issue and say that it certainly isn’t a question of developers having not contacted their account managers or having dropped the ball. We were told no.”

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Capcom Announces New Content for Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak

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Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak

Capcom has officially announced that Free Title Update 4 will be arriving for Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak on February 7th which will include new foes alongside new Anomaly Research content, Event Quests and a new paid DLC.

Velkhana, the elusive Elder Dragon, has been spotted by the scouts of Elgado Outpost and poses a chilly challenge as it can freeze hunters in an attack, and will join the arrival of Risen Crimson Glow Valstrax when the new update drops.

New Anomaly Research will be available, Afflicted Chaotic Gore Magala joining the A8 Quests, and the Anomaly Investigation cap will be upped to 220.

More is in the works for Free Title Update 5, which is currently slated to arrive in April

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Overwatch 2 Aims to Penalize Players Who Are Friends with Cheaters, Increased Voice Comms Monitoring

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Overwatch 2

Blizzard is leveling up their efforts to thwart cheaters and misconduct within Overwatch 2, as the company aims to penalize players who are friends with cheaters and will amp up their monitoring of voice communications.

The company detailed this in the brand new update for its Defense Matrix Initiative, which is focused on curbing “gameplay sabotage, abusive chat, and cheating” stating their plan to come down on players who team up with cheaters, and more.

Blizzard admitted that cheating in Overwatch 2 is a problem and has “actioned over 50,000 accounts” since the game launched and starting in Season 3 they will be actively identifying players that purposely team up with players who are regularly flagged as cheaters, and will also face potential discipline.

Overwatch 2 will also have improved protection for streamers, as the issue of Stream sniping continues to be a problem, and in Season 3 they will be “introducing new streaming protection features that should be a huge step toward enabling content creators to share Overwatch 2 with their fans safely.”

Blizzard is encouraging players to report any disruptive or problematic behaviour in their matches.

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EA Shuts Down Apex Legends Mobile, Stops Development on Battlefield Mobile Game

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EA and Respawn Entertainment is shutting down their Apex Legends mobile game with the company announced that they will be sunsetting the title this May with EA adding that they have also stopped development on a mobile Battlefield title.

According to Respawn Entertainment, the decision to sunset Apex Legends was not an easy one to make but the company said that “factors” beyond its control have prevented it from “maintaining the high-quality experience and content” players deserve and expect.

Despite the game having a rather strong start, Respawn said that the content pipeline for the game began to “fall short of that bar for quality, quantity, and cadence.”

EA announced that they made the decision to halt the Battlefield mobile title as they wish to create “deeply connected Battlefield ecosystem” which made them arrive at the decision to “pivot from the current direction”

“We remain highly committed to unlocking Battlefield’s enormous potential,” the company said in the statement. “We’re hard at work at evolving Battlefield 2042 and are in pre-production on our future Battlefield experiences at our studios across the globe.”

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