Bungie wanted to allow players to transfer their Destiny 2 characters across platforms, but Sony would not allow it, according to Kotaku’s Jason Schreier.
Bungie wanted to allow players to transfer their Destiny 2 characters across platforms, but Sony would not allow it, according to Kotaku’s Jason Schreier.
For context, Bungie has a timed-exclusivity deal with Sony, meaning that certain weapons, strikes, maps, and other Destiny 2 content will launch on the PS4 months before they become available on the Xbox One and PC. The terms of Bungie’s deal with Sony may extend past just this timed exclusivity, Schreier suggests:
“I heard that Bungie wanted to do character transfers … but Sony wouldn’t allow it,” Schreier said around the 58:15 marker of Kotaku’s Splitscreen podcast. “Sony is just like, “We want people to associate Destiny with PS4, even if that means screwing over other players.'”
In the wake of Bungie’s split from publisher Activision, the company may want to remove some of these barriers that prohibit players from having features and items they want. Unfortunately, that might not be so easy for the developer.
On April 11, Bungie released a patch that prevented players on “unintended platforms” (read: anything except the PS4) from using the PS4-exclusive Wavesplitter weapon that some players were able to obtain from a bug. Players will be able to keep the weapon, but it will be locked in their inventories until the timed exclusivity period ends in September 2019. Even if Bungie wants to respond to players’ wishes, the studio may be contractually obligated to fulfill requirements that their split from Activision could not void. Continued PS4 exclusivity and the inability to implement cross-platform character transfers maybe some of those obligations.
On Sony’s side, this is far from the company’s first run-in with issues regarding functionalities across platforms. The PS4 most recently trailed behind the Xbox One and PC in cross-platform play for both Fortnite and Rocket League. Even in September 2017, when the “Better Together” update for Minecraft allowed all Windows 10, iOS, Android, Xbox One and VR players to play online together, Sony platforms remained excluded. While Sony is taking steps to be more player-friendly in this regard, the PS4 still lags behind other platforms in its cross-platform policies.
Published: Apr 14, 2019 09:03 pm