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Borderlands 3 gets cross-play in its next update, but not on PlayStation

According to Randy Pitchford, the cross-play update on Borderlands 3 was designed for all consoles, but certification is causing issues for inclusion on PlayStation.

TJ Denzer

May 27, 2021 7:11 AM

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As the gaming world opens up further and further to cross-play, the various philosophies of companies in relation to it have become crystal clear. Particularly, PlayStation seems to have far more red tape and concerns about cross-play than any other group. That has once again been made clear in a recent update from Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford regarding an upcoming update for Borderlands 3 meant to bring cross-play to the game.

Pitchford revealed the upcoming update and situation regarding Borderlands 3 cross-play on his personal Twitter on May 27, 2021. According to him, there’s a big update right around the corner for Borderlands 3 that would have made cross-play available across all platforms the game can be played on. That’s great and all, except for one glaring detail. Because certification has been an issue for the cross-play feature on PlayStation consoles, Gearbox was apparently forced to remove the feature from PS4 and PS5 in the coming update. These consoles won’t be able to cross-play with the others when the feature initially drops in the upcoming Borderlands 3 update.

Good news or bad news first? Good News: An update for Borderlands 3 has been prepared for release that includes full crossplay support across all platforms. Bad News: For certification, we have been required by the publisher to remove crossplay support for PlayStation consoles.

— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) May 27, 2021

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard about Sony and PlayStation being hard or particularly tricky to work with in regards to cross-play. One revealed detail of documents in relation to the Apple vs. Epic Games court case was that PlayStation actually asks for money specifically to have games feature cross-play on PS4 and PS5, apparently to cover the cost that it would “lose” due to players playing games on other systems. It’s a shame to see this keeping PlayStation players from player with others outright, but at the very least, it seems cross-play is pretty much ready for Borderlands 3, already a great game as is.

Here’s hoping that with a further update, we’ll see full cross-play come to Borderlands 3 and open up the fun to PlayStation players. It may be some time coming though.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.