Todd Howard says Sony in the way of Fallout 76 cross-play

Fallout 76 is taking the beloved and bleak series online. Players will be able to squad up and weather the wasteland together. But these suffered landscapes will not be cross-compatible. Fallout 76 will not include cross-play and Sony is to blame, according to Bethesda’s director and executive producer Todd Howard. During an interview with GameStar, Howard was quizzed about the upcoming online entry and the reasoning behind its exclusion of cross-platform play. Howard simply responded that Sony is “not as helpful as everyone would like.” 

Fallout 76 is taking the beloved and bleak series online. Players will be able to squad up and weather the wasteland together. But these suffered landscapes will not be cross-compatible. Fallout 76 will not include cross-play and Sony is to blame, according to Bethesda’s director and executive producer Todd Howard. During an interview with GameStar, Howard was quizzed about the upcoming online entry and the reasoning behind its exclusion of cross-platform play. Howard simply responded that Sony is “not as helpful as everyone would like.” 

Speaking further on the situation, Howard said that the team would “love” to have cross-play in Fallout 76, but that it isn’t possible currently. Once a dreamlike feature, cross-play allows for people to take their game across platforms. Demands for cross-play have increased over the last year.

It’s unfortunate news, but not exactly surprising. It’s not possible to play online between PlayStation 4 and any other consoles. Especially not the Nintendo Switch, publicized during the recent Fortnite cross-play debacle. Players with the PlayStation 4 version of Fortnite found themselves having to create brand new accounts ones in order to play the game on the go.

This could change in the future. Sony head Shawn Layden said that the company is “looking at a lot of the possibilities” in terms of cross-play and is “confident” that they will eventually reach some sort of solution. It’s not clear what that solution will be at this juncture, but given the general stink the among the community about cross-play, it’ll have to be solved soon before the problem goes nuclear. 

Fallout 76 is targeting a Nov. 14 release on Xbox One, PC, and PlayStation 4.