An upcoming Borderlands 3 patch that would have seen crossplay introduced has been cut from PlayStation consoles, according to Gearbox.
Randy Pitchford, Gearbox’s boss, posted a tweet that revealed the information, although has yet to elaborate on the cause of the block.
Good news or bad news first? Good News: An update for Borderlands 3 has been prepared for release that includes full crossplay support across all platforms. Bad News: For certification, we have been required by the publisher to remove crossplay support for PlayStation consoles.
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) May 27, 2021
According to Pitchford, crossplay on all other consoles will still be available in the update, but “for certification, we have been required by the publisher to remove crossplay support for PlayStation consoles”. This means that neither Sony nor Gearbox made the final decision – as publisher 2K was the force behind the block.
One of the key points to come out of the Epic Games vs Apple trial was the fact that Sony occasionally charges by cross-platform revenue share. This may have influenced the decision, although many other games do still offer crossplay on PlayStation regardless.
In a report by The Verge, it was revealed that Epic Games’ boss Tim Sweeney had agreed to pay Sony additional revenue in “certain circumstances”. He explained that “If somebody were primarily playing on PlayStation, but paying on iPhone then this might trigger compensation”.
Pitchford also recently took to Twitter to clear up some collaboration rumours, saying Gearbox were “working on the big one” alone.
“I am told of rumours that Gearbox is ‘assisting’ or ‘co-developing’ another Borderlands game (or a new spin-off game),” Pitchford said in his tweet which dispelled the suggestions made earlier in the month.
Gearbox has been confirmed for the E3 conference this year, and will likely make any Borderlands announcements during their speaker slot.