PlayStation Accused Of Blocking Crossplay By Borderlands Studio, Gearbox

Since the release of Borderlands 3 in the autumn of 2019, developers Gearbox Software have had their sights set on full crossplay compatibility. Makes sense for a game - nay, a franchise - where the most fun to be had is frequently found in multiplayer modes.

But according to Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford, one major platform isn't playing nice. As VGC reports, Gearbox have apparently been asked by Sony to remove crossplay support as part of the update certification process for Borderlands 3 on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.

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Pitchford tweeted, yesterday (May 27): "Good news or bad news, first?" After revealing that the next Borderlands 3 update was bringing "full crossplay support" to all platforms, he added the bad news:

"For certification, we have been required by the publisher to remove crossplay support for PlayStation consoles."

The publisher, in this case, presumably being the publisher of Borderlands 3, 2K Games (part of Take-Two Interactive), rather than Sony. It's known that Sony charges publishers extra for implementing crossplay, so it may be that the 'blame' here is more with the Borderlands side than the platform's - if 2K don't want to pay, Sony aren't about to just let them implement crossplay for nothing.

But while there's ambiguity, and a clear lack of transparency, there's doubt - and Pitchford didn't respond to follow-up tweets asking for further details. For what it's worth, VGC says that it did contact 2K Games for clarification, but no update has been added. We'd ask ourselves but it's Friday afternoon and we're already thinking about the pub, NGL.

Topics: Borderlands 3, PlayStation, Borderlands