It’s been confirmed that Nintendo is open to allowing crossplay on all third-party games. The statements, which were made by Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima and senior executive officer Susumu Tanaka, highlight the fact that the company is interested in making crossplay an option for gamers.
Nintendo has been praised lately for its continued steps toward adding further support of cross-platform play, which would allow different console users to interact within the same game servers. The game studio is already one of the most progressive when it comes to crossplay, and it’s already won many points by allowing Nintendo Switch users to interact with Xbox One players on games such as Minecraft. The debate over whether crossplay should be supported throughout the gaming industry is one that’s been ongoing for quite some time, and doesn't look likely to end anytime soon.
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That said, it’s been confirmed by Nintendo (via GameRant) that the company is as open as ever to allowing crossplay across all third-party games. During their 78th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, the former Nintendo president and the current senior executive officer were asked about their plans for working with multi-platform titles. For his part, former president Kimishima - who was in office from September 2015 to June 2018 - noted that he couldn’t specifically comment on non-Nintendo titles, but that didn't stop senior executive Tanaka from going into a bit more detail about Nintendo's attitude toward cross-platform play.
Cross play basically comes about from conversations between publishers and platform holders. We are inclined to do what we can to help publishers incorporate crossplay when that is what they want. The other parties involved also have a say in whether we are able to reach this outcome or not, so we will continue to discuss it with them.
The above news is sure to excite Nintendo Switch fans, as it seems likely that more third-party games will be incorporating crossplay in the future. At the moment, the Switch has already made it possible to crossplay on certain titles such as the aforementioned Minecraft and Fortnite. This latest console has proven to be an immense success with both old and new Nintendo fans alike. It's worth pointing out though that while the Switch has already sold nearly 15 million units, those numbers are still dwarfed by the sales figures of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Nintendo's openness to crossplay is sure to be well-received by players all across the globe, as it’s something that’s been asked for for so long. Additionally though, this embracing of crossplay will likely prove to be a good business move for the company. With Sony having recently received backlash for not supporting crossplay on the PS4, this will only bring more public good will to Nintendo. It’s now likely that further third-party games will begin to allow crossplay soon, but, as Tanaka said, there are multiple parties involved, so progress might still take a while.