The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One might be the latest and greatest in technology, but old problems still remain. Bethesda is currently working on The Elder Scrolls Online which is playable from four platforms. Unfortunately, two of them are causing headaches.
Bethesda vice president Pete Hines expressed to OXM that working cross-platform on next-gen consoles hasn’t been as smooth as the developer hoped for. He said:
They don’t all play with each other. PC and Mac play together, but Xbox One is its own thing and PS4 is its own thing. The whole cross-platform thing is just a nightmare.
Although Hines regards both consoles as a a hurdle for cross-platform development, he did cite them as “certainly much easier” to develop for. That could mean quicker development times for next-gen games from the studio.
Bethesda has been the only studio to express troubles with cross-platform play, but the consoles are months from release. The question will be how much their incompatibility will affect future online games and whether or not it leads to developers preferring one platform or the other. The PS4’s unified memory and faster processing could give it a significant edge.
