Many fans of Warframe are wishing for a cross-play feature. However, the developer sees this feature as a significant risk.
What is cross-play? Many games now offer cross-play. This allows players who play the same game on different platforms to compete against each other. With cross-play, for example, PC players can play on a server together with PS4 players.
Currently, Warframe is playable on four platforms: Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Fans of Warframe also want this cross-play feature. However, so far the developers Digital Extremes do not offer this service.
Now, during a Twitch live stream, developer Steve Sinclair addressed this demand and calls cross-play a very risky undertaking.
That’s why cross-play is so risky
Here’s the problem with cross-play: Warframe is a game that has been on the market for over 5 years. Other games that offer cross-play negotiated their contracts with the platforms later and thus would have it easier, explains Steve Sinclair.
The contracts of Warframe with the platform providers do not allow for the cross-play feature.
This complicates the whole thing: If you play Warframe, you know that it constantly evolves: However, updates for Warframe are released staggered for different platforms.
But if cross-play is enabled now, these changes would have to be released on all platforms simultaneously so that players can continue to play together.
Sinclair gives a concrete example: “Fortuna, the new open-world update of Warframe, is such an example. It was released for PC a month earlier than for consoles – this update hasn’t even been released for the Switch yet. With cross-play, all three versions would have to receive the update at the same time.”
This is what the developer says: Sinclair would find the cross-play feature wonderful from a player’s perspective. “As a developer, however, it is one of the biggest risks you can take,” says the developer.
Nevertheless, the team is working on a similar function, Sinclair said during the Twitch live stream. Cross-play itself is likely not going to happen for now, as it is simply too difficult to implement.
However, it should soon be possible to use something called cross-save. This feature is easier to implement, and the developers are looking into this possibility more closely.
With cross-save, you can play your account on different platforms. This means you could switch platforms when you want to play with friends, and your game progress remains intact. This feature, however, is unlikely to be released in January, Sinclair explained.
Cross-save has been requested often: Cross-save has been desired by many players. This could certainly make the fans of Warframe happy. For example, you could play on the console or PC at home and then on the go with your Nintendo Switch.
So far, you can only transfer your Warframe game progress to another platform once. The new game progress cannot be transferred back.
In the Twitch live stream, Sinclair not only addressed the cross-play topic but also gave further insights into the 2019 roadmap:
