 If you're a gamer, you're gonna love this video cause I've been doing research. Fascinated. Can NBA 2K 22 be the first 2K with true cross play? The short answer is yes it can be. The long answer is why it might not. Ladies and gentlemen, if you are new to the channel, you have to subscribe. Click the big red button, you'll be notified the next time I drop a video. I was trying to run it up to about 15,000 likes and let's get right into it. A couple of weeks ago, some news dropped that apparently Sony's been blocking efforts from Epic Games years ago to institute cross play. And I thought to myself, huh, you mean to tell me the technology has existed for like four or five plus years now. And for some reason, there's still plenty of games on the Microsoft side and the PlayStation side that still don't have cross play. Why? That initial story I read said, Sony initially blocked cross platform play for both Rocket League and Minecraft, despite Nintendo and Microsoft both enabling players to play across the Xbox and Switch. The issue really blew up when Sony blocked Fortnite cross play in 2018 and players were angry. It now appears that Sony may have been holding out to offset revenue losses. Now, I don't know how much more of this I could show because it was leaked. So I'm gonna read it out, mm-hmm. But there are visuals of this email. Detective Agent here. I don't think there's any doubt about it. This video here is brought to you by Raid Shadow Legends. Raid Shadow Legends has a whole world of completely amazing, beautiful-looking champions. All with their own unique factions and those factions have a lot of lore. You like stories? Why don't you take a look at this one, the Banner Lords? I see Maniah as my favorite Banner Lords champion because she's real, real strong. 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The email goes longer and longer, but there was one more point I want to read out. Number three in the email. We announced cross-play in conjunction with Sony. Epic goes out of its way to make Sony look like the heroes you get to pick when, where, how. So you hear a story like that and you think, wow, Sony, why would you do such a thing, get in the way of gamers playing video games with their friends? And the short version of it, the Verge explained pretty simply, Sony sells more consoles because it knows it has the largest player base and those consumers in the market for a new home console are more likely to pick up Sony's if they know its platform of choice for their friends and if it remains the only way to team up with their friends on games like Fortnite. That y'all could have deducted on your own. But then things began to open up because as I sit here and think, yeah, 2K really could at this point since so many games across Apex and Fortnite have adopted cross-play, what's holding 2K back? And why is Sony the enemy here? But it's actually not that simple because in the past, when Microsoft had more leverage, they were the enemies. Early this year, Valve finally announced with this mysterious comment meant by announcing that they had partnered with Sony to bring their Steam service to the PlayStation 3 and thus enhanced the Portal 2 experience on that console. That means you could purchase a PS3 copy of the game. All you have to do is link your accounts and you can play it on Steam. But you'd be interested to find out that Microsoft actually opposed and blocked this from happening on their consoles. And the way they explain it is so fascinating because they don't wanna say it obviously because they just really wanna make money but this is how they put it. So we'll see where it takes us. I mean, again, our goal ultimately is that folks pay for a game and then whatever platform they sit down in front of, it's there for them. That just seems right. That's the way your music is, right? Which is like, what? I guess? Or they didn't address the problem. But most of the time, people's problems with cross-play is that their best friend is on another platform. That problem doesn't exist in music so that doesn't track one-to-one. Well, you can listen to the same song that I wanna listen to. We can listen to it together for all we really care. He could be on Spotify. I could be on Apple Music. It really doesn't matter. And there's been plenty of other cases. Take a look at this one. Try on global brand ambassador Alex Rodberg said that while this cross-platform mingling can be done, it's extremely unlikely that such a thing would ever reach live servers. Microsoft won't let Sony players play against them. So in the Xbox 360 days when Microsoft was winning, they didn't want cross-play. And now that Sony's winning and has the player base, they don't want cross-play. The unfortunate reality for both of them though, is that it's inevitable. So that's actually what's getting me optimistic about NBA 2K22 cross-play. Now check this out. If you guys remember last year, there were articles saying Epic opens up Fortnite cross-play tools for anyone to use. I need you guys to understand how Pivotal Epic Games has been in the gaming industry for the last two decades. Their Unreal Engine 435 has been the pinnacle of engines. Most developers, especially if they don't have a massive budget and can't just create their own engine, just use the Unreal Engine 5. They build off of the engine that Epic Games uses. So a lot of the games that you play and love, they pay Epic Games to use their engine. And if you just Google it real quick to see, even just the Unreal Engine 4 games, not five, not three, not two, you see blockbusters. The list is deep and the engine has continued to improve. It's very popular in the development community. So when Epic Games develops the technology for cross-play to exist across every platform, they said according to Epic, the matchmaking and cross-play functions can work with Apple, Discord, Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox, Steam and Epic Games platforms. Then rightfully so, Sony should be at least a little bit concerned that this might hurt their bottom line. Indie dev teams can't afford to just come up with cross-play technology, they just can't do it. So unless you're a massive developer, sometimes it's just easier to use what already exists and build off of it. So you might be thinking like, all right, what will it take for Sony to allow cross-play if that's what the problem is? Well, they actually posted this year cross-platform revenue share split and it details exactly how much people are gonna have to pay to offset the costs of PlayStation losing their leverage that is having the larger player base. And that just downright feels like an attack at gamers simply for money. Nothing about this is for gamers as Sony says they are. So if you've been paying attention to the gaming landscape, you might already know but NBA 2K has actually made attempts at cross-play before. I believe it was an NBA 2K19. I actually mentioned this in a video a couple of weeks ago. I was invited to be a part of some sort of celebrity game. It was me, a bunch of YouTubers, Paul George, Kevin Garnet and another NBA player, I forgot who. If you loaded into the park, whether you were on Xbox or PlayStation, you could actually see in the center of the park the game being played. It was being broadcasted on both consoles. Now, if I'm not mistaken, we all had to be on PlayStation to load up, but just the fact that something can happen in sequence with different consoles and different platform was the first biggest step I've seen at 2K taken towards cross-play. But since then, it's actually been pretty quiet. And then if you play other games, you've definitely seen the likelihood that cross-play is integrated into video games now is way higher. A game like Apex Legends launched without cross-play, people begged for it. Now cross-play is in the game. Just last night, I was playing with Duke Dennis and Aim High. I'm on PC, Aim is on PC and Duke is on PS5. But that does mean that Apex Legends pays Sony for their ability to do that. So it was quite possible that as of right now, 2K just wants to maybe gain more leverage. So you could theorize that maybe 2K just doesn't want to pay that revenue sharing fee. For what? I could argue, if I'm just thinking business and I don't care about the gamers at all, that actually doesn't help 2K at all. Whether you buy the game on Xbox or PlayStation, you're spending money on the game. 2K having to pay out of pocket just so you can play with your friend on a different console is not lucrative for them. You could also theorize that unlike a game like Apex Legends, people actually haven't been pressuring 2K to come out with cross-play. Cause EA didn't just decide to come out with it on Apex Legends, people were demanding it. Okay, but this is what I'm talking about. Now take a look at this. This is called Control. The news of Epic Games releasing that technology for all and any devs to use dropped May 13th, 2020. You know what happened? Just a month or two later, Sony invests 250 million into Fortnite Dev Epic Games but not for PS5 exclusives. Sony's investment will allow the two to create unique experiences for consumers and creators. Hello? What does that even mean? What does that mean? That was in July 9th of 2020 and just a couple months ago, a year after that news dropped, more news dropped that Sony invests 200 million more into Fortnite Developer Epic to create the metaverse. Sony says, we're excited to strengthen our collaboration to bring new entertainment experiences to people around the world. I strongly believe that this aligns with our purpose to fill the world with emotion through the power of creativity and technology. It's not just a kawanky dink that the second Epic was getting real liberal with this use of technology that can hurt Sony. Sony negotiated its way into ownership so that it has more control over that technology. But it's not just the open source cross-play technology here. It's also the case that this Epic Games launcher for those who play on PC, you know, has been dominating recently. Just like 10 years ago, if you wanted to play a PC game, there was either its own independent client or it was on Steam, one of the two. But Epic Games not only provides developers a better split, because I believe Steam takes like 30%, Epic takes like 18%. I don't know what the splits are. All I know is Epic Games does way better splits. You don't have to go far to see some blockbusters on their list here, from the Assassin's Creed to the day is gone. So let's get back to talking about Microsoft for a moment because Microsoft's actually a unique situation. Microsoft runs the computer world, right? Unless you have a Mac, you got Microsoft. And most of the time, if you at least care about technology, you got yourself a PC. It's just way cheaper. Like I have parts that make no sense together. I can run just about any game on 250 frames per second is beautiful. So Microsoft is actually incentivized to not just drop their games on their console platform with the Xbox, but to also drop it on PC where they make a ton of money. And then when you look at the Nintendo Switch, the Nintendo Switch is all about collaboration. This games that you play with your friends, you don't play the Nintendo Switch alone. So even they're incentivized to increase even more collaboration. Obviously Nintendo wants to dip into the more, I'm gonna call it hardcore market of the Xbox and the PlayStation. So the only one in this pie right now that doesn't have much incentive is Sony. And they created one for themselves with this revenue sharing program. But the revenue sharing program doesn't create much incentive for developers to wanna use cross play. And until that changes, come on, look at me guys. Is 2K gonna spend money for our own entertainment when it doesn't make them money? No, is the correct answer. The only chance that it happens is if a lot of pressure is applied to 2K. That's the only, I'm theorizing here guys. But let's not be mistaken here, ladies and gentlemen. The company that owns 2K sports called Take 2 Interactive is a goliath in the gaming industry. Obviously there's the games like Red Dead and GTA. GTA has been a best seller for as long as I've been alive personally. GTA has revolutionized the way DLC is created, microtransactions are implemented in video games for better or for worse, GTA is a trendsetter and always in the top five charts. So what I think is also likely as cross play becomes way more popular is that Take 2 tries to negotiate better splits for themselves than the rest of the industry has been able to get so far when it comes to this cross play. It's also important to note that if you've been paying attention to the launch of like the last six or seven NBA 2K games, 2K has been partnered with either Xbox or PlayStation in each one. There's been like itty little itty bitty drops that you would get just for buying the game on PlayStation. They've been launch rewards for getting the game on Xbox and it seems like every couple years they're bouncing back and forth. I guess just kind of getting them to bit against one another. And because NBA 2K continues to grow as one of the most popular sports games on planet earth, both PlayStation and Microsoft are incentivized to fight for who gets better and more rewards. So 2K has already been playing that game. But the reason that it's vitally important for NBA 2K is because collaboration is at the core of basketball. It's a team sport where unless you're playing against AI or micro, when you're playing online you have other teammates. When you sit here and you talk about your experience playing on the rack or playing in the park and playing with Ryan Deezies, if 2K can't hear the concerns of people frustrated playing with Ryan Deezies, knowing that you have a friend is just on a different platform but you can't play with them. I think the actual experience of playing NBA 2K increases dramatically. And I don't think they understand to what extent. And it's made a little bit more difficult by the fact that on PC there's actually no rules. It's like a no man's land and there's a ton of hackers. If 2K ever did cross play, I don't think PC will be involved in that conversation. I think it'll be just Xbox PlayStation and the Switch. But I will say on an optimistic note it might be for the better. There's been issues with Pro-Am basically all year where if you had the Xbox S and your friend had the Xbox X you can't play with each other on Pro-Am. And that hasn't been solved. Isn't that crazy? A couple years ago on Pro-Am there was a problem where if you were on East and your friend was on West y'all couldn't get a game with one another. I'm talking about a Pro-Am game right now where you guys join into the same server. You can't play with each other, you can't match up with each other, nothing. So it's also possible that the problems with one platform, because we know these games don't drop polished might also now translate to the other platform. So that'll be my last theory that 2K is just taking it slow so they don't just jump into things and then royally mess it up. That being said, I do believe cross play would still be beneficial easily. And I also want to say it should be an opt-in thing. If people don't want to play with another platform for whatever reason, they shouldn't have to. That's usually more important in games where it's like mouse and keyboard versus controller. When it comes to 2K, everyone's using controller. So there's no real competitive advantage between Xbox and PlayStation. But at least for the first year, depending on how horribly it goes, it would be nice to have an option to opt into something like that. I've looked all across the internet just to hear something that an NBA 2K dev has said about cross play. There's been nothing conclusive. There's just been a whole lot of just vague comments about how it's something that they're looking into. I don't think their line is probably something they're looking into. It would just be nice to hear if there's any progress that's been made. That's been it for the video, ladies and gentlemen. There's a slew of different theories on whether it will ever drop. I do think now that it's getting more popular, the pressure is going to be applied. And then hopefully we can start seeing cross play on NBA 2K22, man. Y'all new to the channel, be sure to subscribe. Drop a like and then click on this video if y'all bored and you wanna watch more, man. I was talking about a new dev team that 2K has working on current gen and why the existing dev team is only sticking to next gen. Make sure to go click on this video. I'm gonna catch you guys in the next one. I'm out. Peace.