Tekken 7 cross-play play may be possible at some point in the future, according to director Katsuhiro Harada. The feature was something that was implied during the game’s initial development, but various problems had caused the concept to fall through. Harada, however, is championing the possibility to be added.
There’s nothing technical that’s keeping the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of Tekken 7 from being able to implement cross-play, according to Harada. It’s actually a variety of security protocols and various policies.
Fighting games like Tekken rely on peer-to-peer gameplay, meaning that you connect directly to the person that you’re fighting. In order for Tekken 7 cross-play to be possible, the security protocols between the Xbox One and the Playstation 4 would have to match up, something that’s not very easy to work with.
The issue wouldn’t be so difficult if Tekken 7 was only on one console, because then they could just match the console’s architecture to the PC. However, since it’s on three different platforms that all have to work together, the issue is a lot more complicated.
Harada had previously gone on the record by saying that if there was Tekken 7 cross-play it would only be for the Playstation 4 and Xbox One, as PC players couldn’t be trusted to not cheat. Whether he’s done a 180 on this attitude or not remains to be seen, but PC cross-platform play would still have to work with Xbox One and Playstation 4 ones.
Harada has been speaking to both Playstation and Microsoft in order to try and get them to agree to work with Tekken 7 cross platform play, but so far without success. While cross platform play in Tekken 7 may not be happening soon, one can only hope that someday cross platform play can be put onto every video game.
