Why is cross-platform gaming taking so long?
The short answer — Servers.
The long answer is a bit more complicated and much more technical.
Some of the biggest obstacles in the way of cross-platform gaming are server load, database speed/load, and differences in configuration between platforms.
Configuration
Firstly, each platform is different... this is obvious, but must be stated. Cross-platform gameplay and data sharing involve cooperation and buy-in from the first parties (Sony, Microsoft, Google, etc.).
In recent years, more and more pressure has been applied by the gaming community on the first-party companies, and game developers are finally seeing support from them on this.
Databases
The typical game setup involves some kind of storage system, usually a relational database which is operated on via MySQL statements. As cloud computing continues to take over, cloud-based storage systems are becoming much more attractive. These systems wrap the database management behind an API, which can handle a much higher load and is significantly faster — this allows for sharing data across multiple platforms.
Server Load
Being able to group users by platform, on one server cluster has a lot of benefits. For starters, it acts as a load balancer by splitting the total user group between several different clusters, thus reducing the number of active users or RPM (requests per minute) on any given server.
For context, let’s consider how many server instances and capital we would need to run a server with 1,000 concurrent users. Let’s take a look at this example.
This shows that having 1,000 concurrent users in this simple application resulted in 45 transactions per second or 2,700 requests per minute. There were a couple of different server solutions explored here which resulted in some varied network responses, but the cost was between $300-$700 per month. Now imagine a much more complex application with way more transactions per second, then multiply the number of users in our example by ~300, and you’ll be in the ballpark of a top-performing AAA game.
The difference in cost here is that the more expensive servers are better at handling the load — better CPU utilization and response times. In short, we need more powerful server clusters that can handle a larger number of users with a fast response time; these instances have better components and are significantly more expensive.
Summary
It’s clear that cross-platform gaming is here, thanks to the advancements of cloud computing. We are already seeing so many great games that have achieved this successfully like Fortnite, Rocket League, Call of Duty: Warzone, and will continue to see many more.
The truth is while the capabilities do currently exist for cross-play, it takes a while to update existing systems to the new tech for games that have existed for 5+ years. Those games likely need to upgrade or refactor some of their legacy systems — this is quite the investment and producers are constantly evaluating the priority of upgrades like this, versus shipping other features or improvements to the game.
