Co-op games have become more prominent in the Internet age, and the widespread COVID-19 pandemic has further solidified online cooperative titles as an important means of staying connected. It Takes Two winning Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2021 is one of the best recent case studies. Ghost Ship Games' first-person shooter Deep Rock Galactic is another co-op title that has grown in popularity over the last few years, owing to its developer's steady pipeline of content and expansion to new consoles.
Deep Rock Galactic began as a passion project for six developers in 2016, and by November 2021 it hit three million sales across all platforms. That was before the game launched for PlayStation 4 and 5 on January 4, 2022, at which point it also became a free PS Plus title to capitalize on the service's built-in subscribers. Between this expansion and the recent introduction of seasonal content, no doubt Deep Rock Galactic is more popular than ever. Now Ghost Ship should prioritize letting fans on different platforms go mining together.
Cross-Play in the Games Industry
Cross-play isn't a consistent feature for multi-platform games. There are plenty of titles that support the idea, including multiple AAA shooters like Apex Legends, Fortnite, and Call of Duty; as well as popular cases including Minecraft, Among Us, Dead by Daylight, and Genshin Impact. However, just as many games like Monster Hunter Rise (available on PC and Switch) do not support cross-play despite obvious co-op potential. The upcoming Dying Light 2 will not support cross-play at launch, according to lead designer Tymon Smektala.
With major shifts in the video game landscape like Microsoft acquiring both ZeniMax Media and Activision Blizzard, it's hard to say what the future holds regarding exclusivity. Sony has previously discussed its interest in getting more cross-play games on PlayStation hardware, and there have been cases like Destiny 2 getting cross-play between PlayStation, Xbox, Steam, and Stadia alongside Season of the Lost in August 2021.
Deep Rock Galactic includes some semblance of cross-play, but only within certain spheres. The game is compatible with the Xbox Play Anywhere initiative and is currently available through Xbox Game Pass, meaning the Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows PC editions of Deep Rock Galactic can connect. There is also cross-generation play between PS4 and PS5, benefiting all PS Plus subscribers in January 2022. Yet PlayStation, Steam, and Xbox users cannot gather to share a frosty pint in the Space Rig.
How Deep Rock Galactic Could Handle Cross-Play
One obvious solution to the issue of cross-play in Deep Rock Galactic is implementing an account system tied to the game itself rather than having it be tied to platform. With official Deep Rock Galactic accounts it might be feasible for multi-platform users to join together, and people could get cross-save capabilities to swap platforms entirely if desired. This has been seen with games like Minecraft, which had a Nintendo Switch-exclusive version in 2017 before Bedrock edition launched in 2018 - requiring a Microsoft account to connect with friends.
Ghost Ship is a small team compared to giants like Mojang and Microsoft, and it's questionable how feasible this solution would be even using the support of publisher Coffee Stain. Still, it's an idea worth considering. Many players likely have hundreds of hours poured into the ongoing title on platforms like PC, which makes the idea of starting over on the brand-new PlayStation skews less appealing. Plenty of dwarves across the Internet could be getting into co-op shenanigans, there just needs to be a good cross-play option to try.
Deep Rock Galactic is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
