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- There is cross-play between PS4 and PS5 versions.
- There also is cross-play between the Xbox series X, Xbox One and Windows PC versions.
- The Switch version has online as well as local-network multiplayer (not split-screen), but has no cross play with any other platform.
HOWEVER: The "Windows PC" version is NOT identical with the Steam version and cross play with Xbox consoles is only available with the version of the game bought on the Microsoft Store. (... and THAT version almost certainly has no cross-play with the Steam version.)
Basically get the PC Windows version if you want to pug it up with more options.
Yeah, this!
The lack of cross-play is 99% on Microsoft, Valve and Sony.
The Devs have to do what the Platform Owner says. If Microsoft doesnt want Steam Users to play with their Platform then they have to abide or risk being unable to sell on said Platform. Just because they have to ability to does not mean they are allowed to.
Well, let me specify:
The platform operators 'prevent' a widespread proliferation not be actually preventing developers from making cross-platform-multiplayer games directly. Instead they indirectly provide incentives for not doing it by making non-cross-platform multiplayer super-easy, robust and cheap to implement.
If a developer wants to have a multiplayer game with matchmaking - even if gameplay itself is peer 2 peer and doesn't require servers, there has to be some kind of server that manages user accounts, lists available games and matches players looking for random matchups.
If you stay within one platforms ecosystem, be that Steam, Playstation Network or the entire xbox-and-windows ecosystem, the platform takes care of that.
It's not like communication between such platforms would be technically impossible, but it's also understandable why a single platform operator does not come forward and throw money at such a development effort.
The alternative of course is, that a game developer / publisher makes his own solution managing company-specific accounts. As you correctly state: That's technically not a problem at all.
However: The server needs to be operated. That's no problem for an MMORPG or some other service game either financed through micro transactions or through subscription fees, but it's a whole other story for buy-once-play-whenever-you-want games and in the past many such games have seen their game- or company-specific server infrastructure go offline only a few years after release, which is bad PR for the company involved, but might be a financial necessity.
If your game however only uses peer-2-peer multiplayer and you offload the entire account- and matchmaking stuff on some gigantic and probably-not-going-to-die-soon platform operator you can pretty much guarantee that matchmaking and multiplayer for your game will be operational for many, many years to come without your company risking any money on managing your own server.
tl:dr: Unless it's a service game cross-platform-multiplayer will probably remain a rarity until the large platform operators come together and work on the multiplayer-interoperability of their platforms, ultimately providing solutions for game developers that are as robust and risk-free as the present solutions for platform-exclusive multiplayer.
Unfortunately I don't see that happening anytime soon. :/
EDIT: I also forgot to mention Nintendo in my list of platform operators. I have so little contact with that company that I occasionally forget that it exists. Sorry. :/
The console owners decide what crossplay happens, regardless of how easy or hard it is to do said crossplay.
If Sony says 'We don't want to crossplay with Microsoft'; that is the end of it. The devs can't step around it.
It's not the devs 'being lazy'. It's them forced to do whatever the holding company demands.
Steam
MicroSoft
PlayStation
NS
None of these players can play with each other?