the treaty that lets xbox and playstation kids finally scream at each other directly.
means a multiplayer game feature letting people on different consoles, pcs, or phones play together in the same match.
from born from the walled-garden era of gaming, when sony, microsoft, and nintendo kept players siloed to protect their ecosystems; fortnite's 2018 push forced the industry's hand by making cross-play a business necessity, not a favor.
fortnite — 2018 launch pressured sony into allowing cross-play industry-wide
minecraft — bedrock edition unified play across virtually every platform since 2017
call of duty warzone — 2020 battle royale normalized crossplay for major shooters
rocket league — 2018 cross-platform tournaments proved it works competitively