'Fallout 76' Crossplay: Sony Killing Cross Platform Might Actually Be Good

The rolling hills of West Virginia just got a little bit lonelier. Bethesda director Todd Howard says there will be no cross-play in Fallout 76 between PC, PS4, and Xbox One players for one annoying reason: Sony isn’t interested.

“You cannot do cross-play in 76,” Howard tells GameStar.de (via CNET). “We’d really love that but right now we cant.”

When asked why, Howard blunty responded, “Sony is not as helpful as everyone would like.”

This isn’t the first time Sony has hampered cross-platform gameplay. Fans of Fortnite: Battle Royale were elated when the title was released for the Nintendo Switch on June 12, but that excitement turned into dismay when they weren’t able to log-in to their Epic Games accounts created on PS4. Anyone who wanted to swap over to the Switch had to abandon all the skins, items, and achievements they had accrued on their PlayStation account and start over from scratch.

Overwatch is yet another game that has been sequestered by console, but this time there may be a good reason. There is an enormous performance gap between platforms. A mouse and keyboard allows for much more speed and precision than a joypad, giving PC players a big advantage over their console competition in online shooters. Blizzard even condemned hardware manufacturers who produce mouse and keyboard conversion devices for consoles for this very reason.

However, Blizzard still entertained the idea of opening up cross-play between PS4 and Xbox One players, but nothing came of it. Fans have long suspected that Sony is the reason why the console community remains fractured.

That history doesn’t bode well for Fallout fans who were hoping to enjoy the upcoming game with their friends on different platforms. There’s a chance that Sony could change its policy, but don’t bet on it.